Finding a placement

As you may be aware, students are required to bring an observation presentation to the work discussion seminar groups, which are an essential part of the programme. For this reason, it is helpful to find a placement before starting the course. At interview you will discuss whether your work setting is suitable to bring to the group. For those of you who have been advised to find yourself a volunteer observation / placement, we provide below some guidelines. Please note that some placement suggestions are particularly relevant to a UK context, however we hope that they will provide an indication of suitable opportunities which might be available elsewhere. If you have any questions at this stage, please contact us at digitalacademy@tavi-port.ac.uk.

It is the responsibility of students to find their own placements and we recommend that you get this underway as soon as possible because it can take several months to arrange. However, if you are still without a placement once the course commences you can arrange a personal tutorial to discuss further.

You are looking for between 2-8 hours per week in a location that will allow you to observe interactions between patients/clients/users and staff.

You are not expected to do counselling or psychotherapy (unless this is already part of your professional / employment role), but a befriending role in a mental health service or supportive role in a school setting would also be appropriate.

Where to find a placement

1. In our experience personal networks can be the most effective route to finding a placement. If you know anybody working in mental health or associated fields we recommend you utilise this contact. These can be NHS, public or private sector.
2. Contact local NHS Mental Health Trusts. If you search on the internet you usually find a telephone number for the Trust and then you need to call the Volunteer Placement Coordinator. They might also be listed on their web pages.
3. MIND this is a charity which provides many forms of support for people with mental health difficulties. They can be found on the internet at www.mind.org.uk
4. Volunteer pages e.g. Wednesday issue of The Guardian, Society pages or Metro Volunteering column. Also your local papers might have adverts for volunteer organisations in the area.
5. Other agencies e.g. Saneline, ChildLine/NSPCC, Parentline etc all recruit
   volunteers and give some training. You will need to check their privacy policy. (NB The Samaritans do not allow their callers to be discussed so is not a suitable placement for the purposes of this course)
6. Local council volunteer services – look on your local council website.
7. Schools: Some schools have units where more intensive work occurs with children who have specialist educational and/or emotional needs.
8. With Covid-19 issues, we recognise some placements may need to be online via skype or Zoom or over the telephone until conditions improve. We do not feel texting support services are suitable for our course.
9. Many organisations in the UK require a DBS check prior to any contact with the users of their service. Your placement organisation should inform you how to make the arrangements for this. It takes several weeks for the clearance to come through so be prepared for a wait.