Health & Wellbeing Coach

Job description

Job responsibilities

Background

Public Health evidence indicates that a combination of factors determines the trajectory of people’s health. Locally, this includes deprivation, inequality, the experience of early adversity (violence, poverty, familial disruption) and the related stress that these experiences generate. London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) has the highest rate of self-reported mental health problems in London, and analysis carried out by LBTH Public Health suggests that many individuals often experience multiple long-term conditions, including poor mental and physical wellbeing, which impact on the capacity and motivation for self-care and self-management. In order to address health inequalities and impact positively on self-management, psychologically informed approaches to addressing the holistic concerns of the whole person, which acknowledge the legacy and impact of adversity and the contribution of the social determinants of health, and which facilitate empowerment and support the individual to feel confident in managing their own health, are recommended.

The Role

You will encourage people to become physically active by taking a psychologically informed approach that considers the whole person in addressing existing mental health/wellbeing/emotional issues. This approach encourages proactive prevention of new, and better management of existing, illnesses through empowerment, education and supportive coaching. You will also encourage people to become part of a Community, to be less isolated and to feel better in themselves.

1. Provide one-to-one health coaching skills such as motivational interviewing and Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely (SMART) objective setting to support people with lower levels of patient participation to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their health and wellbeing, whilst increasing their ability to access and utilise community support offers.

2. Provide one to one support to individuals, their families and carers to ensure that they are active participants in their own healthcare; empowering them to take more control in managing their own health and wellbeing, to live independently, and improve their health outcomes.

3. Provide a psycho-education approach that supports people to understand where their mental and emotional wellbeing may be affecting their ability to participate in their own healthcare, and supports individuals to understand the connection between their mental and physical health and wellbeing and how this is may be linked to their lived experience in the social and material world – i.e. the social determinants of health.

4. Coach and motivate patients through multiple sessions to identify their needs, supporting people to establish and attain goals set by the person based on what is important to them, building on small successes.

5. Work with the Social Prescribing service to connect residents to community-based activities which support their health and wellbeing and equally benefit from the empowering activity of getting involved in local community-led decision making.

6. Provide support to local community groups to promote the provision and work with other health, social care and voluntary sector providers to support the patients’ health and well-being holistically.

7. Provide relevant feedback to local clinical services where appropriate to support local service change or improvement through MDT channels, Network governance structures and Public Health colleagues.

8. Utilise existing IT and Local Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT), with an aim to identify those that would benefit from health coaching.

9. Utilise existing MDT channels to assess and ensure the right input and care for patients where unmet clinical need is identified.

10. Attend some of the South East Locality Health and Wellbeing Committee meetings (all workstreams) to ensure the service is meeting the needs of the local population by staying up to date with current public health insight and supporting the improvement of the local health and wellbeing offer in response to need in partnership with the rest of the local system (health, social care, housing, education and voluntary community sector).

11. Support a network of community volunteers who are either taking part in initiatives or want to develop or have developed their own initiatives.

Key working relationships

• Patients
• Network Director
• Clinicians in the Network
• Network Clinical Leads
• Community Members
• Community Groups
• Social Prescribers
• Mental Health Services

• Public Health

Key result areas

· Better mental health functioning

· Better self-management of health

· Improved physical health

· Improved community cohesion

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Enrolled in, qualified or willing to undertake training from a health coaching provider accredited by the personalised care institute

Desirable

• Qualified/certificate in Psychological/mental health First Aid
• Counselling or coaching skills based qualification
• Qualified/certificate in Psychological/mental health First Aid
• RSPH Level 2 award in Improving the Public Health
• RSPH Level 2 award in Supporting Behaviour Change

Experience

Essential

• *Experience working in a one- to-one capacity with clients and facilitating group support sessions
• *Planning and organising events and activities
• *Experience of health promotion/health behaviour change work with individuals and community groups

Desirable

• *Experience of working with vulnerable communities within Tower Hamlets
• *Experience of delivering psycho-education to individuals and groups
• *Experience of working in a team
• *Experience of working in a MDT setting
• *Experience of service development

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Essential

• *Knowledge of the contribution of adversity and poor mental wellbeing to overall health and the impact on self-management for individuals with existing long-term conditions
• *Knowledge of the social determinants of health and how these combine to impact an individuals health
• *Articulate, good verbal and non-verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• *Able to work with others and pass on skills and knowledge to others
• *Competent IT skills
• *Ability to work under pressure
• *Able to manage risk and identify unmet clinical need to ensure patients are referred and receive the right care
• *Ability to work collaboratively as part of a wider team
• *Committed to personal and professional development
• *Committed to team development
• *A willingness to work outside regular working hours where necessary

Desirable

• *Knowledge of the health, socioeconomic and environmental profile in Tower Hamlets and the types of issues that are prevalent in the population that affect health
• *Knowledge of the local landscape of health, social care and community wellbeing offers
• *Ability to take high level population health data and use this to ensure the service is promoted to the patients who would most benefit
• *Ability of use and knowledge of community language/s spoken within Tower Hamlets

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Poplar & Limehouse Health & Wellbeing Network PCN

Address

21 Newby Place

London

E14 0EY

Employer's website

http://www.poplarandlimehousehealthnetwork.com (Opens in a new tab)