Psychological Well-being Practitioner

[MrsZiggywinkle]

I just stumbled across this at my local NHS Trust. They offer an apprenticeship where I seem to tick all the boxes.

Does anyone do this and can tell me what it’s like? I’ve had a look online and opinion is divided with some people sayings its relentless with lots of targets like working in a call centre which is NOT what I want!

It's not an easy job, on a busy shift such as a night shift it can feel a bit relentless, but during a weekfay its a lot quieter. It's not target driven though, you answer as many calls as come through, you don't start a call until you have completed all the paperwork for the previous one. You may get pulled up if you're deemed to be taking an exceptionally long time with paperwork or too long on breaks. In that sense it is a call center. Is it NHS24?

It's not an easy job but not really like working in a call centre. It's all booked appointments usually either assessments or treatment sessions so 30/45 mins each. The main issue is obviously both working with people who can sometimes be very upset and distressed and often being the front door of mental health services where there sometimes just isn't alservice to offer people which meets there needs which is really hard. There are targets in terms of needing to see a certain amount of people a day/week and broader targets around improvement in people's mental health.
It can be quite competitive to get onto the training so you'll need relevant experience.

This doesn't sound like NHS24 where you deal with calls that come in often from very distressed or very drunk people, there are no booked appointments or treatment sessions, its triage, signposting or referring on to OOH. I guess it depends where you're working?

I think we are probably talking about totally different jobs. It's not NHS 24 I'm talking about but NHS talking therapies mental health services but maybe 2 places have jobs with the same title!

I thought it was a talking therapies thing. My understanding from friends who did it is that it’s very manualised and frowned upon to use a more personalised approach. It is target driven in that you’re expected to do a certain number of appts each day.

I’ve never met any PWPs who do night shifts

Yes, it’s a job in talking therapies rather than NHS 24.

Have looked at a few forums and there is lot of talk about burnout and dealing with high numbers of service users. I don’t think it’s for me but thanks for your replies!