HealthJobsUK

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication and working relationships

·       Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required to develop and maintain good working relationships with a wide variety of people, both professional and lay, including:

o   Primary Care

o   Other Trust staff/Allied Health Professionals

o   Torbay Council

o   Other private and public organisations

o   Media

o   Self-help groups

o   Patients, Relatives and Carers

·       Communicate effectively with others of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and levels of understanding, identifying barriers to communication and accessing appropriate support and making reasonable adjustments, occasional barriers to communication may include working with clients with learning disability, those for whom English is not their first language, or those who choose not to engage.

·       Use MECC and Motivational Interviewing techniques to engage with service users, supporting people to identify and implement healthy behaviours; create new thinking, and motivations to act differently, through the relationship and conversation between the health coach and the service users for the purpose of:

o   Helping individuals to recognise the benefits of behaviour change in their lives, and to prioritise their health and wellbeing

o   Helping service users gain insight into their health and behaviours and enable them to translate these into new goals and actions

o   Using active listening and reflection skills as opposed to instructing or advising people what they should be doing

o   Creating positive emotions to build motivation and confidence

o   Providing timely and personalised support, education, and information to support decision-making and behaviour change where there may be communication difficulties

o   Provide health promotion advice to patients and their carers to enable improved long-term health outcomes for service users

Analytical and judgement

·       Assess the needs of clients by using the learning needs assessment.  Identify the most appropriate service option for the client and support them to access services as required.  Assessments and contact with the client will be through a variety of methods, including (but not limited to) 1-2-1, group, online, and telephone support

Planning and organisation

·       Plan and coordinate the services provided to clients on the caseload and identify the most appropriate service options for the client and any reasonable adjustments needed.  This could be through providing group or individual support or it could be through directing the client to other services such as weight management groups, stop smoking services, drug and alcohol services and mental health services

·       Regularly follow up those who do not attend for planned support

·       Using excellent organisational skills to plan the delivery of training and events

Responsibility for patients and client care

·       All clients will have a record created on the client management system and the postholder will manage a caseload of clients who are needing to access one to one telephone support for type 2 diabetes education

·       Enable individuals to change their behaviour to improve their health

o   Help individuals identify how their lifestyle might affect their health and wellbeing and support them to make informed choices about their lifestyle

o   Help individuals, who are motivated, to develop a personal action plan

o   Support individuals in achieving their planned actions

o   Support individuals in maintaining their behaviour change

o   Help individuals to access and use local services

·       The post holder will ensure that their clients are receiving the appropriate care to meet their needs (this would include signposting and referring on to additional services as required)

·       Clients are monitored throughout their journey through the service to the point of discharge

·       At all times treat patients, visitors and colleagues with dignity and respect, exercising discretion and maintaining confidentiality

·       Ensure that no action or omission on your part is detrimental to the condition, safety, well-being, and interest of service users

Policy and service responsibility

·       The post holder will keep up to date with any policies, documents or guidance that have implications for a change to the service; either within their own practice or that of others within the healthy lifestyles service 

·       Adhere to any relevant Trust policies e.g. health and safety, equal opportunities, confidentiality

·       To contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of the service, including the completion of the minimum data set requirement. This will include following up those who do not attend for planned support

·       Ensure all service users fill in patient feedback, which the team will use as part of evaluating/developing the service

Responsibility for finance, equipment, and other resources

·       The post holder will observe personal duty of care in relation to equipment and resources in the course of work

Responsibility for supervision, leadership, and management

·       No line management responsibility

·       Lead facilitator for group education sessions of up to 30 people providing advice and behaviour change support.

·       Deputise for the health improvement practitioner in relation to managing group education delivery, e.g. cancellations, staffing changes and incident reporting.

Information technology and administrative duties

·       Ensure that all data is protected in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Caldicott guidelines

·       Maintain a client caseload on the client management system and be able to interrogate the client data to monitor own workload, keeping accurate and clear records of all client contact 

·       Support onboarding processes for referrals

·       Deliver type 2 diabetes education training over Microsoft Teams and support clients in accessing digital resources

·       Following courses to support in updating the client management system and notifying primary care of the outcome of referrals

Responsibility for research and development

·       Keep up to date with new and relevant research relating to behaviour change and regularly review the support and advice offered to people who want to make lifestyles changes.

·       Keep up to date with NICE guidance around type 2 diabetes management and any relevant supportive training or research such as Diabetes UK training modules for health care professionals

Responsibility and accountability

·       Work on own initiative to manage caseload alongside programme delivery.

·       Using the philosophy of Making Every Contact Count (MECC), strengths based and person-centred care, provide coordination, support, and delivery of the type 2 diabetes education programmes, and contribute to the assessment process as required.

·       Due to the nature of the work, issues may arise that are inappropriate for the health coach to deal with. The adviser will be expected to recognise this and signpost to other support mechanisms as appropriate. Peer support will be provided amongst the team to manage complex clients (such as safeguarding supervision and peer support networks)