Urgent Mental Health Helpline Call Handler

Job summary

As a Call Handler within the Urgent Mental Health Helpline, you will be a vital first point of contact for individuals in crisis, their families, carers, and healthcare professionals. Operating 24/7, 365 days a year, our service provides immediate telephone support and serves as the primary urgent referral pathway for members of the public not currently under Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust care.

Working alongside a supportive multi-disciplinary clinical team, you will handle incoming calls with empathy and efficiency, using a structured screening tool to gather initial details and facilitate safe decision-making. While you are not expected to make clinical assessments, your clear communication and accurate record-keeping will ensure service users receive the right support when they need it most.

Main duties of the job

• Call Handling & Support: Answer incoming calls in a courteous, professional, and non-judgemental manner, offering empathetic support to callers while clearly managing expectations.

• Risk Screening & Triage: Guide callers through prescribed risk-screening scripts to enable safe decision-making, liaising directly with on-duty clinicians to support positive patient outcomes.

• Referral & Data Management: Log incoming professional referrals, capture essential demographics, and accurately update electronic patient records in accordance with Trust policies and data standards.

• 24/7 Rota Participation: Work collaboratively as part of a shift pattern to maintain round-the-clock service coverage, including unsocial hours, weekends, and public holidays.

• Inclusive Communication: Communicate sensitively and effectively with diverse service users, carers, and colleagues, ensuring cultural awareness is integrated into all interactions.

• Professional Development: Utilise Trust IT systems effectively and engage in ongoing training opportunities to continuously build your knowledge, skills, and expertise.

About us

We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.

Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.

Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's working well together.

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification.

Person specification

Expearience

Essential

• Professional/lived experience of working with individuals with mental health difficulties

Desirable

• Previous experience of working in NHS or similar complex organisation.
• Experience of working in a telephony based service

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• To have a theoretical and conceptual understanding of mental health conditions and using this to inform practice appropriate to the setting.
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills.
• Able to switch from tasks i.e. taking phone calls to processing emails, audio typing at unpredictable times
• Good organisational and time management skills.
• Computer skills
• Able to switch from tasks i.e. taking phone calls to processing emails, audio typing at unpredictable times.

Training, Qualifications and Registration

Essential

• 5 GCSE passes or equivalent, to include Maths and English or equivalent level