Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner - Fixed Term Contract - MHARS

Location: Midlothian (Dalkeith) and Homebased Working

Salary: £24,374 - £25,687 per annum (£12.50 - £13.17 p/h equivalent)

Full Time – Fixed Term until 30th June 2025

If you are looking for a rewarding career and to work within an epic team that will help you grow and thrive, then you have come to the right place. Working within our MHARS / Distress Brief Intervention service you can start your day knowing what you do really does make a difference!

You will be working as part of a multi-disciplinary team alongside Community Mental Health Team, providing a crisis line; an open access, single point of telephone access for self-referral and agency referrals. You will respond to calls in a manner guided by the service principles being inclusive, sensitive and respectful.

From the moment you answer the telephone, you will listen and ensure that you understand the issues that have led to crisis for that person, providing an immediate response to those whose life may be in immediate danger. Understanding each person’s unique situation resulting in fast, tailored support and finding ways to successfully resolve the crisis situation and assist planning for the future.

Once the initial period of crisis has been addressed you will support connections to additional, statutory or community support and/or deliver a Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) response to those in distress. This will involve community-based problem-solving support, wellness and distress management planning, supporting connections and signposting for a period of up to 14 days. You will be flexible and responsive, offering the medium of support that the supported person feels most comfortable with.

You will assist people who use the service to establish and maintain a meaningful and fulfilling life in the community. Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioners play a central role in the planning and provision of quality, recovery focused support to people who use the service.

As a mental health charity, we really value the wellbeing of our staff. That’s why we want you to know that you’ll be joining a friendly team, who will give you a supportive environment to help you thrive in your role, including all the training you need to feel confident and equipped.

We can offer you a tonne of employee benefits, and we can promise you’ll be inspired by some pretty amazing humans every single day. We will support you on your own career path; developing new skills, accessing formal and informal learning experiences and providing opportunities to put your continual progress into practice.

For more information, including full job description and application/interview guidance, please download our recruitment pack.

We cannot consider CV’s – all applications should go through the application process on our website. Only applications completed through our website will be considered. If you are unable to complete an online application, please contact us at recruitment@penumbra.org.uk and we can arrange for a paper copy to be sent out to you.

Please note that unfortunately we cannot offer visa sponsorship. We can only accept applications from applicants who currently have the legal right to work in the UK, or applicants who have already have an application in progress to obtain the legal right to work in the UK.

Updates and responses to applications will come from our recruitment system. These emails may go into your spam inbox so please check frequently for any updates on your application. To avoid this happening please add “Penumbra Careers” – recruitment@penumbra.org.uk to your contact list. You can also check the status of your application by logging into the careers portal. If you have not had any update on your application, please contact us at recruitment@penumbra.org.uk.

Penumbra is committed to supporting candidates with disabilities, neurodiverse candidates, and candidates with mental health conditions throughout the recruitment process. We will make any reasonable adjustments required to ensure a fair and inclusive process for all. If you think you require reasonable adjustments, please don’t hesitate to contact us at recruitment@penumbra.org.uk.