Mental Health Support Worker - Durham, United Kingdom - Moving On Durham

Moving On Durham
Moving On Durham
Verified Company
Durham, United Kingdom

3 weeks ago

Tom O´Connor

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Tom O´Connor

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Description

Mental Health Support Worker
Moving On Durham

Job summary


Do you want to help give a 'safe home and a fresh start' to improve the lives of vulnerable young people facing mental health difficulties? If so, we would love to hear from you as we have an exciting career opportunity available in our Support Team.

About us

Moving On Durham are the leading independent provider of supported accommodation for young people aged 17-25 across County Durham.

This post is an opportunity reflecting our ambition and the need for us to provide specialist mental health services in addition to the quality support and mentoring our Young People receive today.

Our aim is to break the cycle of youth homelessness in County Durham. We work with young people individually, using strength based methods to address their challenges.

We enable young people's transition from a place of chaotic housing need to a position of security, knowledge and confidence.

We are not a housing association. We don't own property or place unnecessary focus on the acquisition and management of housing stock.

This allows us to relentlessly focus on the needs of our young people, placing their development at the front and centre of our business model.

Our support team is made up of specialist youth workers, supported by a professional housing team.

This blend of people allows us to put the development of life-skills first, with specialist input from housing professionals to help young people sustain their tenancies.

Some of our young people are experiencing mental health challenges outside of the experience of our support team. This specialist post will support that acute need.

Moving On was first established as a project called Durham Night Stop in the late 1980's.

The project was a partnership between Durham Churches Group and Durham City Youth Project who were concerned about the poor provision of homeless support and supported lodgings in the City.

It operated as a project of the Durham City Youth Project, before becoming formally constituted as Moving on Durham in 1996.

Our vision is that young people are able to live independently and sustainably in the community.

We aim to achieve the vision through the delivery of all our charitable programmes and in particular, through the achievement of our core outcomes:


  • Young people develop good tenancy management skills
  • Young people develop an understanding of their place/role in society
  • Young people improve their physical and mental health


We achieve impact through the delivery of our main programmes which include homelessness prevention, property services, housing support and support for young people to move to sustainable independent living in the community.

Main duties of the job


This is a great time to join Moving On, where our team is leading on the transformation of vulnerable and homeless young peoples access to sustainable living, delivering support and well-being services in their own homes.


You will be a dedicated Mental Health professional who will work with our existing cohort of young people in supported accommodation.

The addition of this specialist capacity will accelerate the rate of successful 'move on's' into independent living and increase our ability to bring new young people into our service from the waiting list.

Mental Health support is in addition to our traditional support model help with independent living.

Support would be bespoke to the individual client limited to:


  • Engagement with NHS services and other statutory services and assistance with attendance.
  • Target Setting, Confidence Building and socialisation opportunities.
  • Counselling, Support and Practical assistance.


We estimate that over a full calendar year the Mental Health Support Worker will be able to work with 2 cohorts of 25 young people for a period of 6 months, thereby creating space for an additional 50 young people to access our supported accommodation.


Over the past 5 years a typical stay for a young person in supported accommodation with Moving On Durham has been 9 months.

During the pandemic, largely due to isolation and mental health this has risen to just over an average 14 month stay.

This increased capacity will help us to more effectively improve our young people's independent living and coping strategies and over time decrease our average length of stay once more.


We are very proud of our success record with our young people, our tenancy sustainment rate currently stands at well over 90% and of the over 400 young people we have provided supported accommodation to over the past 3 years only 6 have reappeared on our referral list giving a success rate of over 98%.

We will never force any young person to leave our support until they are ready to live independently regardless of the pressure of the waiting list to do so.

The post holder will be part of a Support Team delivering evidence based interventions to young people who are experiencing mild to moderate mental he
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