YM104 - Parents Helpline Volunteer. Adviser

Transcription

1 YM104 - Parents Helpline Volunteer Adviser

2 Thank you for your interest in volunteering as YoungMinds Parents Helpline Volunteer Adviser This is your application pack, it will tell you about our activities and how you can join YoungMinds Parents Helpline Volunteering Programme. After reading the pack, if you are interested in joining YoungMinds Parents Helpline Programme, please complete the application form and return it to us. This is an ongoing recruitment campaign. You will find the following enclosed within this pack: 1. Introduction to YoungMinds and the Parents Helpline Service 3. Volunteering with YoungMinds: The Principles Training and support Expenses Career and other benefits Insurance 3. The recruitment process: Selection Training and induction Training Plan Parents Helpline Volunteer Role Description and Person Specification Completing your application Submitting your completed application References and CRB disclosure

3 Introduction to YoungMinds What s the problem? How we help 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5-16 suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder - that is around 3 in every class. YoungMinds is the only UK charity dedicated to improving the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people and empowering their families and carers. What we do Young people with mental health problems are at the heart of everything we do. Their voices are central in our lobbying and influencing work. Our VIK (Very Important Kids) influence politicians, policy makers and professionals to improve services and they campaign on behalf of the mental health needs of all children and young people. We have a twenty year track record of highly successful campaigning and in raising awareness to improve young people s mental health and wellbeing. All our work is evidence based and our policy, research and campaigning influence local, regional and national services. We produce an essential range of accessible publications about children and young people s mental health and wellbeing in an easy to read format. These are used by professionals who work with young people across the UK We provide training, research, evaluation and specialist support services to statutory and voluntary sector agencies across the UK. We deliver awareness raising programmes in schools and training for teachers about children and young people s emotional development and mental health. Published bi-monthly, YoungMinds Magazine provides mental health and children s professionals with the latest news, features, research, practice and opinions affecting children and young people s mental health and wellbeing. Our popular and highly rated parents helpline provides a free and confidential service to thousands of parents and carers each year who are worried about the emotional problems or behaviour of a child or young person. The telephone service is supported by a specialist call back service, and online support through our parents forum.

4 Introduction to the Parents Helpline Service The Helpline YoungMinds Parents Helpline is a free and confidential national helpline for anyone worried about the emotional problems or behaviour of a child or young person up to the age of 25. We provide information and professional advice. The helpline is a lifeline to thousands of parents and carers every year, and parents can call us or we can be contacted . What do people contact the helpline about? Parents and carers call and us about any concerns they have about their child s emotions or behaviour. Many parents who contact us are very anxious and worried because they don t know how to handle their children s behaviour or whether to get help. Other parents needs advice on behaviour management to get them through a bad patch, for example while they are on a waiting list to get help. Parents contact us about a range of problems. These include depression, aggressive and antisocial behaviour, eating and sleeping difficulties, self-injury, friendship problems, bullying, family problems, autism and Asperger s, ADHD, anxiety and obsessions, suicidal thoughts or attempts, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. What does the helpline provide? When parents and carers contact the helpline they get through to one of our trained helpline advisors. The Helpline Advisor will explore the parents or carers concerns and find out what s worrying them and what support they have had so far with the problem. Our Helpline Advisors can advise on practical steps parents and carers can take to get help, and local or national services relevant to the problem. They can also send out a pack with information about the problems parents and carers are enquiring about. Parents and carers who need further advice will be offered a call-back from a YoungMinds Professional Advisor. The Professional Advisors are all qualified in the field of children and young people s mental health and can give advice on behavioural issues, making the best use of services, and how to get the support the y needs. Call-backs last up to 50 minutes and are free and confidential. They give parents a change to think through the situation with an expert, and to work out the best way to resolve the problem.

5 Volunteering with YoungMinds Parents Helpline: The Principles As a volunteer you will be expected to: 1. Make sure you have the necessary skills to carry out the activity before committing yourself. 2. Make sure that you can commit to a minimum of 1/2 a day per week for nine months, volunteering from 9:20am to 5:30pm on a Monday and/or Tuesday. However, as we are keen to accept parents, carers and those with disabilities on to our volunteer programme, we are able to be flexible with volunteers hours in response to child care or other needs. 3. Make sure that you are able to travel to and from YoungMinds office based in London Bridge, Central London. 4. Discuss and agree any additional support needed to enable you to fulfil your role with the Parents Helpline employees. 5. Observe the relevant requirements of YoungMinds policies including: Parents Helpline Guidance Document Safeguarding Children and Young People and the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Data Protection and Confidentiality Code of Conduct Health & Safety Equality and Diversity In return you can expect... Training and support All Helpline Volunteers are kept up to date with developments at YoungMinds, via newsletters and communications from the Helpline employees. You ll also attend regular reviews and daily debriefing with your supervisor where you can discuss your work and the calls you take. Whenever you ve taken a particularly challenging call or , a member of the helpline team will also be available to talk with you soon afterwards to find out how you re feeling about it.

6 Expenses In return for your time and commitment, we will reimburse the following out-of-pocket expenses: Reasonable home to work travel costs up to a maximum of 10 per day, plus other necessary travel costs related to your voluntary work. When volunteering a full day you can claim a lunch allowance up to a maximum of 5.00 per day. Career and other benefits Being a Helpline Volunteer is a great experience to put on your CV, and we ll provide you with a reference for prospective employers. You ll hear about and be welcome to apply to paid vacancies at YoungMinds. You can also get involved in other aspects of YoungMinds work and events. A PARENTS STORY I ed YoungMinds about my 14 year old son Jamie, his behaviour was really bad at home and at school and he was about to be excluded. The person who responded to my said how sorry they were to hear the problems I was having. They provided me with links to information on the website and suggested local services to contact. I was also offered a call back with an expert. I had nearly an hour on the phone with the expert; we talked about Jamie s behaviour and how to deal with it. Thanks YoungMinds for being there for us when we needed help. Insurance All volunteers are covered by YoungMinds insurance policy. To ensure that you have adequate insurance cover, it is important that you follow the guidelines of your role at all times.

7 The Recruitment Process Here at YoungMinds we are committed to providing the best possible recruitment service, including working to remove barriers to Equal Opportunity at each stage of the recruitment process. Our commitment to you is that: We will treat you in a polite, helpful and friendly manner at all times. Information that you provide will be treated as confidential and will be seen only by those involved in the recruitment process. We will remove all personal information from your application to ensure that the short listing panel are not aware of whose application they are assessing. We will ask you to complete an equal opportunities questionnaire this information is only used for monitoring purposes. We will endeavour to make any reasonable adjustments to the selection process (application form, interview or training) to enable individuals to participate equally If you are selected to progress to the next stage you will be advised as soon as possible. We will aim to give you at least one week s notice prior to interview. A decision will be made as soon as possible after interviews and you will be informed, normally within 1 week. We will however need to obtain 2 references before offering a placement on the Volunteer Programme. We will not contact your referees unless you give your permission. Unsuccessful interviewees will be offered feedback. Selection Step 1: Fill in an application form before the closing date. Once you ve submitted your application form, we will assess whether or not you have demonstrated that you meet the criteria for the Parents Helpline - Volunteer Adviser listed on the person specification. Step 2: If you are shortlisted at the application stage, you will be invited to attend an interview where we will assess whether you re suitable to volunteer on the helpline. You will be sent an interview invitation via and all you need to do at the interview is demonstrate that you can meet the criteria on the person specification. Please Note: Closing date for applications is 31st August 2014 (Midnight). Interviews will be held on 5th September 2014 at YoungMinds Office. Step 3: You will join the training course that will begin Monday 8 th September, for 2 weeks, on Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays pm

8 Training and Induction Please note: If you are selected you will need to all training days (see below for date details). The training will be a mixture of classroom based, role play and Helpline observation and practice. We will train you to ask the right sorts of questions, provide support and use all the information resources you will access to find parents and carers help for their young person. You will get to practice responding to s before you go live. For your first few shifts on the helpline, you will be closely supported by a member of staff, who will also review your progress at the end of each shift. Once you have successfully completed the training programme and practical training you will be volunteering on the Helpline, helping parents, carers and professionals. Training Plan All training days must be attended in order to progress successfully Date Monday 8th September Tuesday 9th September Wednesday 10th September Monday 15th September Tuesday 16th September Wednesday 17th September Introduction to YoungMinds and the work of the Helpline Mental Health and the Family Helpline skills Database skills and Training Difficult calls, safeguarding and confidentiality Information packs, signposting and information packs. Helpline observation and debriefing Helpline observation and debriefing Helpline observation and debriefing Helpline observation and debriefing Helpline observation and debriefing Helpline observation and debriefing

9 Training (Continued) During the training afternoon sessions will enable trainees to complete the requirements for helpline observation, to see other volunteers taking calls and responding to s observing the processes around the helpline work. Volunteers must stay to observe the helpline at least 4 of the 6 sessions. Finally, trainees will be required to complete up to 2 full days of practical training on the helpline. This requires trainees to be observed whilst answering and responding to s. These days are listed on the preceding page. If you have any questions in the meantime please contact Claire Usiskin, Parents Helpline Training and Quality Officer, on claire.usiskin@youngminds.org.uk.

10 Parents Helpline - Volunteer Adviser Role Description Minimum commitment: Based: Supervisor: 1 day per week for minimum of 9 months Suite 11 Baden Place, Crosby Row, SE1 1YW Parents Helpline Volunteer Coordinator Overall purpose of the Parents Helpline Volunteer role Following successful completion of YoungMinds Parents Helpline Volunteer Training Programme, to support the provision of a high quality service to parents and other enquiries to the parents service. Description of tasks for the Helpline volunteer In line with established guidelines to support the delivery of the Parents Service including:. Receive and respond to enquiries assessing ers needs and providing information about relevant local and national support, offering a callback from a Professional Advisor where necessary, arranging a convenient time for this to take place, passing the details to an appropriate advisor and supporting helpline colleagues to ensure call back referrals are delivered within the 7 day service level agreement. Record details of all s enquiries using the Parents Service Database. Participate in debriefing sessions and volunteer training days, and prepare for and attending review meetings with supervisor. Attend a minimum of 1 team meeting/away day each year as required. Assist with any other administrative duties in the department and wider organisation as required.

11 General To arrive in time to commence work at start of shift. To work with the Policies and Procedures of the Parents Helpline Service and Young- Minds Staff Handbook, including in particularly the Data Protection Act, Confidentiality and Child Protection Policies when working with young people, service users and case materials. To work within YoungMinds Mission, Vision and Values and to be aware of and apply the principles of YoungMinds Equal Opportunities policy in daily activities wherever possible. Form effective working relationships with all staff members, volunteers, professional advisors and relevant outside organisations. Parents Helpline Volunteer Person Specification Required skills and expectations 1. Good interpersonal skills. 2. Excellent written communication skills and attention to detail. 3. Good IT skills and the ability to learn and use database systems. 4. Good time management and organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise own workload and work to set deadlines and targets with support. 5. The ability to cope with a sometimes emotionally demanding workload. 6. The ability to deal confidently with the general public and professional workers at all levels. 7. Awareness of the emotional difficulties families can face and the impact on children and young people, and the types of resources available to them. 8. Ability to make information about mental health available in forms that are accessible to and engaging for parents and ers. 9. Ability to work independently and also as part of a team. 10. Sympathy with the mission and aims of YoungMinds. 11. To be available to volunteer Mondays and/or Tuesdays for a minimum of 9 months. Desirable skills and expectations 1. Experience of working in the voluntary sector (paid or voluntary work). 2. Understanding of the principles of online/ support work and experience of working on a mental health helpline or of helpline work in general. 3. Experience of using a database system to record sensitive information.

12 Completing your application You can download an application form from the Parents Helpline Volunteering role job page on our website at: You may submit either a typed or hand written application. If you hand write your application please ensure that your handwriting is clearly legible. No CV s will be accepted. In your application you will need to demonstrate that you have the skills to meet the requirements of the volunteer role. Please read the volunteer role description and person specification carefully and address your supporting statement to the stated criteria. YoungMinds asks that you complete the Equal Opportunities section as this helps us to monitor our recruitment process. Please ensure that your personal information is completed, including a contact phone number. This is detached from your application form and is not used for selection. Submitting your completed application form By By post: Please your completed application form to: recruitment@youngminds.org.uk Please send your completed application form to: YoungMinds, Suite 11 Baden Place, Crosby Row, SE1 1YW References and DBS Disclosure References: We will need to obtain 2 references before offering you a placement on the Volunteer Programme. We will not contact your referees unless you give your permission. DBS Disclosure: All applicants are required to disclose details of any unspent convictions in accordance with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act Any disclosure of an unspent conviction will not automatically disqualify your application unless the nature of the offence renders you unsuitable for the role. All such disclosures will be considered on an individual basis. All volunteers will be required to undertake an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. For further information on DBS checks, please refer to