Health Advocate and Advisor (Chinese Students)

About Us  

The King’s community is dedicated to the service of society. King’s Strategic Vision 2029 sets out our vision for the future, shaped around five priority areas: educate to inspire and improve; research to inform and innovate; serve to shape and transform; a civic university at the heart of London; and an international community that services the world. Our ambitious Education Strategy sets out the actions that we must take to transform how we teach, how and where our students learn and how we support them during their time with us. 

The Counselling & Mental Health Support (CMHS) Service at King’s is a multi-disciplinary team comprising psychodynamic counsellors, group analysts, counselling psychologists, mental health advisors, clinical assessors and a consultant psychiatrist. 

The CMHS team work closely with King’s Health Centre GP Surgery, aiming to help us think holistically, considering both the physical and mental health needs of students.   

We are part of the Students & Education Directorate, a collection of wide-ranging professional services in place to support King’s students and their education. As a directorate we manage the student lifecycle from application to graduation and beyond, to ensure a coherent and seamless student experience and effective administrative processes, working closely with King’s faculties to do so. 

About the Role

The role is for a Chinese speaking advisor who can help students whose first language is Mandarin or Cantonese navigate physical and mental health provision. These students may benefit from support to help their awareness of the different services available or to understand health advice given, so that they can make informed choices about their care. King’s has a diverse population, and our Chinese students are an important part of our community. At the same time, differences between health service provision in the UK and in China can sometimes create difficulties in understanding how best to access the right level of care at the right time.  

This role is offered for 1 year in the first instance and is part of a joint project between King’s College London and Central and North West London (CNWL) NHS Trust’s ‘University Connect Scheme’.  

You will be working closely with colleagues in CMHS and King’s Health Centre to help advise students who would benefit from advocacy or support in Chinese. This may involve discussion of health concerns, helping to understand prescription or medication instructions, and supporting awareness of and access to services or resources to support wellbeing available from both the NHS and at King’s. Management support and supervision will be provided by CMHS, King’s Health Centre and CNWL.       

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to work in a dynamic environment where we embrace new initiatives and ways to improve the provision of mental health support for our students. This is an opportunity to grow your skills in working with a diverse client population and, potentially to contribute to the expansion of this initiative for the future. 

We encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

This post will be offered on a fixed term contract for 1 year. 

 This is a full-time post, and we welcome applications from candidates seeking a flexible work pattern within our necessary service operating hours (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm). A job share for this role may be considered.

Key responsibilities

• Working with patients to discuss health problems and concerns and providing information or helping student’s understanding about medication, conditions, and care instructions.
• Assisting with identifying available and appropriate resources to support health and wellbeing within the King’s Community or externally 
• Providing assistance with accessing those services and/or resources as needed
• Collecting utilisation data and feedback from students on their experience of these resources to help inform provision
• To participate in regular clinical case discussion and collective decision making with colleagues from CMHS, CNWL and King’s Health Centre. 
• Within the bounds of confidentiality, to liaise as appropriate with academic and non-academic staff regarding individual students and to liaise as appropriate with external professionals and institutions for example, psychiatric or other mental health services, specialist services e.g. Eating Disorder Clinics.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Please clearly address how you meet the
essential criteria in your application, and where possible how you meet the
desirable criteria as well.

Essential criteria 

Relevant work experience and/or education: We think a wide range of different work and educational experiences could support you to be successful in this role. Relevant work experience might include work in Student (Further or Higher Education) Welfare or Counselling Services, within the NHS or with Third Sector Providers.

Relevant educational experience will include an undergraduate degree in psychology, counselling, nursing, social care, health or a related field.

You will be fluent in Chinese (Cantonese and/or Mandarin)

You will have experience of working with physical and/or mental health services in the UK and have an understanding of levels of care available.

Experience of managing a caseload of clients presenting with a range of wellbeing and welfare concerns.

Experience of working with NHS, Higher Education and/or voluntary sector bodies to ensure effective case management.

Experience of balancing the need to share information appropriately to ensure the effective management of risk with the need for confidentiality and data protection legislation compliance.

Excellent IT and administration skills, including administrative self-sufficiency (e.g. diary management, letter writing, etc.)

You will possess specialist knowledge of issues relating to student mental and/or physical health, including the assessment and management of risk, crisis management and external referral of cases where appropriate.

Desirable criteria

Completion or working towards a post-graduate qualification in social care, nursing, health or psychology/counselling.

Experience of working in a HE institution.

Experience of working with Chinese speakers in an advocacy or helping role.

Experience of supporting others to access services to improve their physical and/or mental wellbeing.

Understanding of the physical and mental health issues and support needs of Chinese students and/or young adults. 

Knowledge of legislation relating to GDPR and confidentiality within health provision.

Please submit a personal statement when applying for this vacancy, clearly setting out how you meet the essential criteria, as this is how we shortlist applications. Learn more about how we recruit, including tips on writing your application and supporting statement on our website:  

https://jobs.kcl.ac.uk/gb/en/applying

Interviews will be held using Microsoft Teams and will consist of competency-based questions linked closely to the essential and desirable criteria mentioned here. 

Although we have made improvements over the last number of years, our team is still under-represented in terms of staff from global majority ethnicities, LGBTQ+ identities, and from people with disabilities. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, experiences and abilities. 

Interviews are scheduled to take place on Thursday 8th or Friday 9th December.