Hospital Visitor Volunteer (Mental Health)

• Participating in weekly community meetings on wards, or site visits. Site visits could be on a ward or in a communal area within a facility
• Promoting our Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA) and VoiceAbility
• Helping clients to access information about our referral line and/or to complete referrals to Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHA)
• Keep detailed notes and records of interactions with clients and visits
• Signposting clients to other non-advocacy services and service providers
• Building working relationships with clients and site staff

Skills

• Must be aged 18 years or older
• Being a driver would be advantageous
• Good communication skills – written, verbal and non-verbal
• Empathy and patience when meeting with our clients
• An interest in, Deprivation of Liberty safeguards (DOLs) and other relevant legislation
• A basic level of IT literacy, training will be provided on specialist software use
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to manage own time and prioritise workload
• Ability to volunteer independently and as part of a team
• A commitment to the aims, vision and values of VoiceAbility

Training

• You will have a named member of staff supervising you and answering any practice-based questions and a Volunteer Coordinator to help you with any other support needs
• You will be given Volunteer Induction, Safeguarding and Role Specific training as well as the opportunity to access a selection of our eLearning modules
• You will be given the opportunity to shadow with one of our staff members within a residential setting
• VoiceAbility have strong guidelines, policies, and use best practices To support our volunteers, we have created a volunteer intranet, this gives ongoing access to documents you may wish to refer to as you begin your volunteering journey