Contact informationTelephone: 01603 421169Email: recovery.college@nsft.nhs.ukWebsite: www.nsft.nhs.uk

Recovery College OfficeNorfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation TrustHellesdon Hospital Drayton High RoadNorwich Norfolk NR6 5BE

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Email: PALS@nsft.nhs.uk or call PALS Freephone 0800 279 7257

At Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust we are fully committed to fulfilling our duties under the Equality Act (2010).

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Where do the courses take place?Courses will run in a variety of locations across Norfolk and Suffolk. This is usually determined by the location of the future peer support worker posts. Up to 12 training places are available on each course.

Potential job opportunitiesAcceptance onto the training course and going on to successfully complete the training does not guarantee you a peer support worker post within NSFT. Successful completion of the course means students will be eligible to apply for jobs that will be advertised as they become available. We are unlikely to offer a training course unless there are sufficient job opportunities pending. These posts will usually be offered on a 12 month fixed term contract initially and are band 3 positions. We can offer flexible working hours, either part-time or full-time, as appropriate. Peer

SupportWorker

Training Course

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) are starting to employ peer support workers into various clinical teams across many localities. As a result we have developed a free training programme for individuals who are interested in developing the necessary skills and understanding to undertake this role.

What is a peer support worker?Peer support workers are recruited because of their lived experience and their desire, motivation and enthusiasm to support and encourage others on their individual recovery journey.

A peer support worker is someone who explicitly draws upon and shares their own experiences of emotional distress / trauma and / or using mental health services in order to inspire, model, and inform others in similar situations and support them in finding their own path to recovery.

Who is eligible for the training course?It is a personal journey of discovery that involves making sense of and finding meaning in what has happened, becoming an expert in your own self-care, building a sense of self and purpose and discovering your own resourcefulness (ImROC Shepherd et al, 2008).

• You must have personal experience of living with a mental health condition, or care for a person with mental health difficulties • You need to be in a position to be able to use your own experiences positively to support others on their recovery journey • You need to have the ability to motivate and encourage others • You need to be able to commit to the training course • You need to have a positive attitude and value diversity • You need to have recent evidence of acquiring new skills through training or education, or be able to demonstrate the ability and aptitude to undertake the training

Course commitmentThe peer support training consists of 17 days training over a 13 week period, incorporating a mixture of classroom based training and observed clinical placement. You will be required to attend nine classroom based days and eight observational clinical placement days. The placements are over four weeks and will consist of two days each week. In addition to the formal learning days, it is expected that students will be required to undertake between 7-10 hours of independent study per week.

Classroom days are from 9am to 5pm. This may vary on the clinical placement days dependent on the placement. Generally you will be expected to follow the usual working pattern for that team, which may involve some shift work.

Core components and assessmentsThe Peer Support Worker Training Course consists of seven core modules:

• Introduction to recovery • Role of the peer support worker • Understanding self • Effective communication skills • Appropriate use of self • Working effectively in teams

Eight-day clinical placement Students are required to pass each module and to evidence their learning throughout the whole course.

There are a variety of formal assessments that are required to be completed during the course. These include written assignments, a presentation, environment assessment and placement assessment. In addition to these, there are informal assessments as part of the classroom based learning. Students are also required to complete a portfolio of work to evidence learning as well as completing a reflective journal. Both of these form part of the overall assessment.