Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner – First Response: Sponsorship Available

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board

Job Summary

This posts are key roles within the 24/7 Mental Health First Response service and will be the first point of contact for people who may require urgent mental health support.

Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioners provide effective mental health support to people calling the service who may be experiencing a mental health crisis. This may include triage and risk assessments, and brief psychosocial interventions.

Working via telephone and video calls, Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioners will provide effective emotional support for people through the use of compassionate conversations and, when appropriate, encourage and guide effective self-management of emotional distress.

Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioners will be able to recognise when a person requires more support than is possible to be delivered over the phone, such as a crisis mental health assessment or ongoing support and be confident to make the necessary arrangements to facilitate this with an appropriate registrant, clinician, service or organisation.

Due to the nature of this role there will be no option of remote working.

Main duties of the job

  • Provide initial risk and mental health and wellbeing triage assessment, formulation for people who may be presenting with mental health and wellbeing concerns.
  • Undertake triage assessments, based on latest empirical evidence and compliant with local policies and procedures.
  • Working via telephone, Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioners will use their knowledge, experience and training to provide a validating response to people in mental health crisis or experiencing emotional distress.
  • Manage their own workload and prioritise task within a busy and pressured environment.
  • Work well under pressure and use time management and organisational skills to ensure own wellbeing needs are met.
  • Understand the processes required for an introduction or warm handover to other local services.
  • Ensure that any concerns relating to workload are communicated to their line manager.
  • Be able to work dynamically and adapt to change.

Welsh Skills Desirable: This post is advertised as Welsh Desirable. This doesn’t mean essential; whilst the candidate doesn’t need to have skills in Welsh, we’ll consider it an advantage when short-listing and selecting candidates. This isn’t ‘fluency’, just Speaking & Listening skills at Level 3 (equivalent to CEFR B2) or above. Level 3 means basic conversations with patients about their everyday health. For more information, see ‘Welsh Language Guidance’ in the documents right at the bottom.

Person Specification

Qualifications and/or Knowledge

Essential

  • Degree Level Qualification
  • Evidence of Continuing Development
  • Understanding of common mental health problems

Desirable

  • Knowledge of NHS procedures and guidelines
  • Understanding of the need to use evidence-based psychosocial interventions.
  • Knowledge of different mental health models and research/evident based treatment.

Experience

Essential

  • Experience of providing mental health or wellbeing support to people.
  • Experience of working autonomously and using own initiative.
  • Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team, and/or collaboratively with other organisations/agencies.

Desirable

  • Experience of providing mental health and wellbeing support to people in mental health crisis or experiencing emotional distress.
  • Experience of providing telephone assessment/support.
  • Experience of working in NHS Primary Care Services/mental health settings/care homes/in-patient services.

Aptitude and Abilities

Essential

  • Able to adapt skills to working remotely (i.e. via telephone/video calls).
  • To work well within a team and foster good working relationships.
  • Strong and adaptable communication skills to suit varying environments and situations (written and verbal).

Desirable

  • Ability to work effectively with interpreters.
  • Competent in assessment of risk.
  • Ability to work independently within the boundaries of clinical supervision.
  • Welsh language speaking/listening skills at Level 3 or above

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Closing Date: 11 May 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.