What are the Characteristics of A Mental Health Support Worker?

Characteristics

Mental health support workers impact the lives of people affected by mental condition. The prevalence of the disease reflects this impact on their lives and communities. Thus, support workers help their clients overcome mental health challenges. They help them learn and guide them to change negative thought patterns and behaviours.

If your calling is to help others, you must understand the qualities that make a good mental health support worker. 

Strong Therapeutic Rapport

Interpersonal skills and the ability to form a strong bond with the client are among the essential qualities of a good mental support worker.

Patients feel respected and safe through the therapeutic rapport. The process requires clients to share what they are fearful of, their deepest thoughts and concerns. To be open, clients must feel secure in the client-support worker relationship.

Shared understanding is another skill for solid therapeutic rapport. When clients feel that their support workers understand what they are going through, there is a positive impact. The conditions for a joint therapeutic effort have already been set, and creating an effective therapy plan is achievable.

Good Listening Skills

The ability to listen intently may seem more deep-rooted than learned. All good mental health support workers are constantly improving their active listening skills.

Active listening includes:

Clear Verbal Communication

Support workers need to explain their assessment of the client’s issues clearly. Then, the mental health support worker must develop their suggestions for the treatment plan.

“Think before you speak” is key to becoming a better communicator. It is vital to speak concisely, choose words carefully and use an appropriate intonation.

Understanding a concept is often helpful for the client if presented with an analogy or example.

Empathy

Empathy is another quality that a good support worker must have. You need to empathise with a person and understand their challenges and feelings as your own. That is a vital skill for a mental health support worker.

Putting yourself in other people’s shoes and understanding is the crucial moment. Thus, clients are more likely to trust their support worker and act positively toward their treatment suggestions.

Problem solver

When clients deal with specific challenges, they often turn to psychological counsellors. The counsellor must expect thinking that’s out of the box so they can help with stress. Whether related to job loss or lack of self-confidence, he may work to help clients brainstorm plans. These plans relate to making them feel more confident than they are. 

Some patients are dissatisfied with their lives and have no idea what is causing this feeling. They suffer from depressive symptoms and general anxiety. Thus, through detailed and careful conversations, the support worker can help the client identify the negative opinions and behaviours. Also, to teach him to work them out.

Open mind

Clients can go through different difficult paths and phases in their lives. Mental health support workers must be able to distinguish personal views from professional views. That’s valuable when it comes to being a proper mental health professional.

What’s vital is openness to diverse perspectives, a healthy respect for personal differences and cultural sensitivity.

Self-Awareness

The general ability to help people also has its challenges. Therefore, building a healthy therapeutic relationship with every client is impossible. Otherwise, it depends on the different approaches and experiences each client needs.

Some patients may need special training, more like that of a psychiatrist. Another vital factor is recognising when a counsellor is not the best fit for a client. It means that the client needs treatment at a higher level. So, in this case, it is necessary, as a respected counsellor, to refer the client to other specialists.

Self-care

Being a health professional means caring about the health and well-being of others.

When life gets more stressful, self-care is often the first thing to be sacrificed. To properly take care of yourself, you need to create a plan that will push you to make better decisions that will help you stay focused and healthy.

Let this be a gentle reminder that you cannot help and care for your patients if you don’t take care of yourself.

What is self-care?

Being a health professional means caring about the health and well-being of others.

When life gets more stressful, self-care is often the first thing to be sacrificed. To properly take care of yourself, you need to create a plan. This plan will push you to make better decisions that will help you stay focused and healthy.

Let this be a gentle reminder that you cannot help and care for your patients if you don’t take care of yourself.

Some patients may need special training, more like that of a psychiatrist. Another vital factor is recognising when a mental health support worker is not the best fit for a client. It means that the client needs treatment at a higher level. So, in this case, it is necessary, as a respected support worker, to refer the client to other specialists.

Create a self-care plan

Start by examining your habits, which drive you to take the first step in designing a self-care plan. We share the positive approaches to support your plan:

  1. Identify your daily self-care needs
    What do you need in your life? What do you value in your everyday life? Remember that self-care goes beyond your primary physical needs. Then think about your mental, emotional, social, financial, and professional well-being.

  1. Examine. Replace.
    Reflect – In this phase, reflecting on your usual coping methods is essential. You should see what works for you and what doesn’t.
    Examine – Ask yourself questions like: Are there any obstacles to keeping your self-care? Do you need help from someone? Are there small steps you need to take to manage these?
    Replace – Start working towards lessening and then eliminating negative coping approaches. Imagine you are in a situation where you start using a negative approach. Choose one action you feel is most destructive and place a positive approach to replace it.

  1. Create your Self-care plan

Your self-care plan can be as simple and detailed as you need it to be. So, write down any personal needs and methods you have already formed.

Review it daily and aim to refine it as circumstances change.

Logo Faded 2
Key Responsibilities of a Mental Health Support Worker
Logo Faded 2

Key Responsibilities of a Mental Health Support Worker

Mental health support workers work closely alongside individuals living with mental condition in order to help them cope more easily with day-to-day life as well as providing them with vital support in order to help them achieve their goals. It is often important for a mental health support worker to take on a variety of roles when working with a patient, at times acting as a carer whilst other times offering emotional support and being there as a friend should it be required. Mental health workers are usually part of a nursing team and typically work under the supervision of a Registered Nurse.

Typical duties of a mental health social worker include the provision of therapy, assistance, and/or basic care to patients that have developmental disabilities or some form of mental condition. For example, a mental health support worker may help the individual to prepare healthy cooked meals or support them with essential daily activities such as preparing meals and taking medications. They may also help them with more complex tasks such as filling out job applications or helping them to pay their bills.

Logo Faded 2

What Skills Does a Mental Health Support Worker Require?

Being a mental health support worker is not for everyone although it can be a particularly rewarding profession if you’re the type of individual that is keen to make a difference and takes great pride in witnessing first-hand the impact your work is having on someone’s life. Typically, a mental health support worker requires certain traits such as being able to remain patient when dealing with trying circumstances or emotional behaviour. They must also be accepting of other people’s lifestyles and understanding of how that person’s mental health issues may impact their day-to-day life. Most importantly a mental health support worker must be able to remain calm in stressful situations and be flexible enough to deal with a range of different behaviour that may present certain challenges.

Logo Faded 2

How Can a Mental Health Support Worker Help?

Evidence suggests that Mental Health Support workers can have a massive impact on the lives of someone suffering with mental condition. Not only can the extra support they provide greatly reduce the risk of chronic diseases related to stress, anxiety, and substance abuse brough on by mental health conditions but perhaps most importantly, mental health services can help save lives and improve the outlook of someone who would otherwise feel hopeless and alone.

Someone living with a mental health condition may struggle in their ability to communicate effectively with the people around them leaving them feeling isolated and lonely. A Mental health Support Worker can help that person feel less alone by encouraging and supporting the development of personal skills through hobbies and interests. They can also arrange activities to help encourage the individual to leave the comfort of their house and take part in pursuits such as sport, bowling or going to the cinema.

How Can a Mental Health Support Worker Help

Not only do mental health support workers help support the patient themselves, but they also provide vital help and emotional support for the families of that individual. Living with or looking after a person with mental health issues can be an exhausting experience and may leave the carer drained or struggling to cope with their own life due to the stress. A mental health support worker can help alleviate some of that pressure and perhaps offer that person helpful advice on how to communicate with the patient more easily or deal more with potentially challenging behaviour brought on by the patient’s mental condition.

Logo Faded 2

How Does Someone Get Assigned a Mental Health Support Worker?

If you yourself or a loved one has been severely impacted by mental condition causing you to struggle to cope with everyday life, then you need to contact your local authority (LA) or whoever is in charge of providing public services. Your LA is responsible for ensuring that individuals with eligible needs get the care and support they need. This is often determined by carrying out a needs assessment that will decide whether or not the person is entitled to some form of social care or support worker. A professional assigned by your LA will carry out the assessment. This individual might be a social worker, occupational therapist, or rehabilitation officer.

A needs assessment will take into account your current living situation and whether or not your wellbeing is being affected by your mental condition. It will typically address whether or not that person is able to fulfil basic functions such as being able to use public transport, prepare meals, pay the necessary bills, is appropriately clothed (i.e. wears suitable clothing in winter, has clothes that aren’t torn or dirty) and is able to maintain an acceptable level of hygiene. If you aren’t meeting all of these criteria, then you may be assigned some form of assistance or a full-time support worker. The LA will decide if you need to pay anything towards your care or if you are required to pay for it yourself. If the latter is the case, then it is up to you if you would like the additional support or not, however your LA may also be able to recommend private services that may be able to help you.