Student Mental Health & Welfare Support Practitioner

Oxford Brookes University has a vacancy for a Student Mental Health and Welfare Support Practitioner. The team works on a hybrid model with both on campus and remote working required.

You will be part of a small team of Student Mental Health and Welfare Support Practitioners within the Student Mental Health and Welfare Support Service.

What will I be doing?  

• Providing a first and regular point of contact for vulnerable students, those at risk or in crisis, or with substantial and enduring mental health conditions, those who may be reluctant to access professional services, or students who are unsure of which support services to access.
• Providing streamlined assessments, identifying clear referral pathways (internal and external), and offering support and guidance to students who are having difficulties functioning or continuing their studies for non-academic reasons or who are eligible for reasonable adjustments to help them successfully engage with University life and avoid crises.
• Providing specialist advice, guidance and support to students (both prospective and current students ) who have disclosed mental health as a disability or who have mental health difficulties more generally, which may or may not be in addition to a disability.
• Providing advice and support to colleagues within Student Support Services and other University staff when dealing with critical student events.
• Respond to serious concerns about students, undertaking risk assessments of their situations, face-to-face (in-person or online video) or by telephone with students who are at risk of harm to themselves or others, engage in safety planning, conduct brief solution-focused interventions and signpost to appropriate internal and external agencies.
• Offer a practical, problem-solving, flexible approach to helping students successfully engage with their academic studies and appropriate support services. This may include meetings with students who must present themselves following disciplinary or other offences.

What skills do I need? 

• Qualification at degree level or equivalent in a relevant area (e.g. social work, mental health nursing, counselling or a similar related field).
• Experience in providing streamlined assessments, face to face (in person or via an online video platform or by telephone) to determine the nature and duration of help required by the individual, including identifying clear referral pathways (internal and external).
• Experience in assessing and managing risk of harm to self and others in a front-line provision.
• Experience working on a 1-to-1 basis with students/adults in distress, affected by mental health difficulties or with other complex and multi-dimensional needs.
• Experience in working as part of a multidisciplinary team in an organisational setting.
• Experience in providing culturally sensitive interventions in a multicultural environment.

About the location

Based at our Headington campus, you’ll experience the vibrant campus atmosphere and benefit in our modern office environment. This role will be hybrid and we expect the successful applicant to be onsite 4 days per week (until 5pm) with 1 day working from home.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

At Oxford Brookes, inclusivity is one of our five guiding principles: we take positive steps to create an environment in which we celebrate, value and provide equal opportunity to all. We are committed to recruiting from the widest possible pool and welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates who embrace our values, regardless of their background.

As a Disability Confident Employer we guarantee to interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential selection criteria.

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