Volunteering with West London NHS Trust

Telephone Caller Volunteer  - make a difference in a day

Date: Multiple shift options in January 2025

Location: Trust Head Quarters

Address: West London NHS Trust, 1 Armstrong Way, Southall UB2 4SD

Timings: Day time during the weekday, please see specific times when selecting a shift

Volunteers: up to 2 volunteers per shift

Who will see the difference? Our incredible carers of patients admitted to our Acute Inpatient Mental Health Services. 

Our Acute Mental Health service is offering a re-run of a Carers group intervention which commences at the end of September, which is a 6-week group that is for carers of service users admitted to Acute Mental Health inpatient services.

This is a group which aims to provide carers with a platform to share their experience and unique insights that being a carer brings to facilitate the opportunity for carers to engage in peer support. Additionally, carers will benefit from support with what they are entitled to and signposting to relevant community services who can provide support and advice, providing carers with the opportunity to offer feedback regarding their experience of having a loved-one cared for with the Trust, and education for cares on how to support their loved-ones, on topics such as Mental Health Act or medication.

We are looking for volunteers wanting to make a difference in a day or more with some micro volunteering by helping to assist with telephoning carers to advise them of the upcoming carers group – with details of the group and distribution of posters, leaflets etc.

The volunteering activity:

We will require support with:

• Calling carers to promote our group sessions following a script.
• Logging which carers are due to attend.
• Updating other relevant information about carer details.
• Good spoken English and reading skills required for the activity. 

Key consideration:

• This role is desk based.
• Having a confident telephone voice is required for this role.
• Car park facilities are available on site; you can register your car at reception on the day.
• We are looking for local volunteers in particular, unfortunately we are not able to cover any travel expenses for this opportunity due to budget restrictions.
•  Good spoken English and reading skills required for the role. 

Signing up to a shift/s

To sign up please complete our quick registration form and sign up to the activity via your volunteering profile (opportunities tab) to confirm your attendance.

Contacting us

For any enquires regarding the volunteering project please contact: Michelle Grant – Michelle.Grant@westlondon.nhs.uk

To speak to Volunteer Services about general information about volunteering with West London NHS Trust please contact volunteers.hub@westlondon.nhs.uk  

Career Talk Volunteer - make a difference in a day by inspiring the future of your peers during a half term and/or weekend!

Date: 

Workshops with children and young people take place during the half term or weekends. The dates for these workshops will be confirmed in the new year  as workshop dates are decided closer to the time. We have provisional dates where the workshops will fall into. These dates are:

Monday 17th-Friday 21st of February 2025
Monday 7 April - Monday 21 April 2025
Monday 26 May - Friday 30 May 2025

Volunteers can be made aware of ad hoc sessions from now until August 2025

Location: Within community centres; Ealing, Greenford and Northolt (West London)

Address: Current places we are delivering workshops include: 

- Viking community centre, UB5 6HW
- The circle café, South Ealing, W5 4QA
- 13th (Southall) Sikh Scouts Allenby Rd, UB1 2HL

Timings: Most likely 10am-1pm

Volunteers: up to 3 volunteers

Who will see the difference? Children and young people with mental health support needs attending our workshops and young volunteers participating and growing their confidence through presenting and talking about their career journey. 

Our Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Link Worker pathway team are conducting a pilot project from June 2024-August 2025. The aim of this project is to raise awareness on mental health and CAMHS, and aiming to understand the barriers to seeking mental health support. We work with children, young people and their families within the community to empower them to discuss mental health and seek support if needed. Through our focus groups so far, we have learnt that young people feel inspired by stories of others from similar backgrounds. The children and young people we currently work with are interested in hearing what other young people have gone on to do post-secondary school, college or sixth form as this can inspire and encourage them to aim high. We have found a need in young people wanting to hear about career development and how people from their background have overcome hurdles in their lives. Therefore, we encourage applications from the Somali, South Asian, Arab communities.

The volunteering activity:

We will require support with;

• Hearing your career development story
• Putting in a MS meeting beforehand so that we can go through anything you want to talk about/discuss with us
• Creating the volunteers' section of the PowerPoint presentation for your career development story presentation
• Answering any questions that the young people may have
• Understanding ways in which we can support you after the workshop 

Key considerations:

We would like to recruit volunteers with lived experience of mental health. The volunteers can share as much or as little as they feel comfortable with during the workshops. We encourage them to share their stories as it can support with others seeing the progress they have made and using their stories as inspiration. We encourage a supportive debrief at the end and support with any distress that may be triggered through presenting about your experience. 

We would particularly encourage applications from volunteers:

•    With a BAME background, Black African/Caribbean/Black British, South Asian, Arab, Other
•    With lived experience of mental health and have sought support e.g. counselling, therapy, CAMHS etc, doesn't necessarily have to be an acute or intense mental health struggle.
•    Willing to talk about their career development after secondary school/sixth form/college 
•    Ideally approximately 16-25 years’ old for relatability to the young people as peers (ideal but not necessary) 

This is a one off volunteering role where you can make a difference in as little as half a day or multiple half day shifts.

Exact dates and locations of shifts to be decided in the New Year. 

Next steps:

Please complete our application form outlining your skills and qualities for the activity and sign up to the activity via your volunteering profile (opportunities tab) to confirm your attendance.

Contacting us

For any enquires regarding the volunteering project please contact: Layla Kido at layla.kido@westlondon.nhs.net

To speak to Volunteer Services about general information about volunteering with West London NHS Trust please contact volunteers.hub@westlondon.nhs.uk  

Multilingual Support Volunteer - make a difference in a day during a half term and/or weekend

Date: 

Workshops will take place during the half term or weekends. The dates for these workshops will be confirmed in the new year  as workshop dates are decided closer to the time. We have provisional dates where the workshops will fall into. These dates are:

Monday 17th-Friday 21st of February 2025
Monday 7 April - Monday 21 April 2025
Monday 26 May - Friday 30 May 2025

Volunteers can be made aware of ad hoc sessions from now until August 2025

Location: Within community centres; Ealing, Greenford and Northolt (West London)

Address: TBC

Timings: Most likely 10am-1pm

Volunteers: up to 6 volunteers

Who will see the difference? Family members of children and young people receiving mental health support 

We have a new pilot project aiming to support the referral of young people into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) with a focus on early intervention, particularly within BAME communities. Our goal is to raise awareness of mental health among young people while identifying barriers to accessing mental health support. We collaborate with children, young people, and their families in the community to empower them to discuss mental health openly and seek support when needed. As link workers, we engage with BAME communities, including Punjabi, Somali, and Arab populations, by delivering workshops and focus groups within the community. We work closely with parents, offering workshops to help them support both themselves and their children. Through these sessions, we’ve identified that some attendees need language support. To ensure that everyone benefits from our workshops, we provide assistance to parents for whom English is not the first language, enabling them to fully engage with the content in their first language. By offering this support, you will help make a meaningful difference for those who might otherwise feel excluded.  

The volunteering activity:

We will require support with;

•    Putting in a MS meeting beforehand so that we can go through anything you want to talk about/discuss with us 
•    Answering any questions that the participants may have 
•    Sitting with individuals who need support in the session
•    Finding ways in which we can support you after the workshop  

Key considerations:

Ability to translate from spoken English to one or more of the following languages noted below (reading and writing in another language is not essential).  We aim to create a welcoming environment where both parents and volunteers feel comfortable and supported. It's important to us that parents can express themselves in their native language and feel safe and heard. If you share this vision and would like to be part of this effort, please reach out.

These are the languages we need support with to translate:

This is a one off volunteering role where you can make a difference in as little as half a day or multiple half day shifts.

Exact dates and locations of shifts to be decided in the New Year. 

Next steps:

Please complete our application form outlining your skills and qualities for the activity and sign up to the activity via your volunteering profile (opportunities tab) to confirm your attendance.

Contacting us

For any enquires regarding the volunteering project please contact: Hodo Hassan at Hodo.Hassan@westlondon.nhs.uk 

To speak to Volunteer Services about general information about volunteering with West London NHS Trust please contact volunteers.hub@westlondon.nhs.uk