Livewell Southwest is monitoring the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation closely and we remain well prepared. However a decision has been made to suspend all work experience at Livewell Southwest with immediate effect to protect patients, staff, visitors, and work placement students. If you are due to attend a placement please do not attend. We will be reviewing this decision over the coming weeks and months.
Please rest assured that we will seek to reschedule placements for students at a later date and when it is appropriate for activity to be reintroduced. We will update this web page when this becomes possible.
Please do not contact our clinical teams with work experience enquiries in the meantime, in order to reduce pressure on our staff.
This decision has not been made lightly, and we are grateful for your understanding.
As a leading employer in Plymouth, Livewell Southwest has the opportunity to help shape and support the future workforce and allow some of our colleagues the chance to develop their supervisory and teaching skills. Getting involved in work experience shows that Livewell Southwest is committed to helping the community even further and fits with our moral, social and ethical responsibilities.
Work experience is one of the most important factors shaping young people’s perceptions of the world of work. It helps them to learn about a particular occupation, gain valuable personal skills such as independence and team work, and to understand the expectations of employers.
If you are seeking placement as part of your health studies, please visit the student placement page.
How this will work depends on areas of experience
Livewell Southwest has a range of Mental Health and Community Services – it is not always possible to shadow / accompany our staff due to the nature / vulnerability of our service users, with this in mind we have created classroom-based programmes during the month of July. These are primarily for year 12 students.
Psychotherapy – this programme introduces students to the different services we provide and includes the following:
- Autism
- Children & Adolescents
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
- Forensic Psychology
- Infant Mental Health
- Intellectual Disability
- Neuropsychology
- Older Adults
- Perinatal Psychology
- Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
- Stroke
- Weight Management
- Working in community settings
- Working in inpatient settings
- Youth Offending
Health and Social Care – this programme introduces students to the different services we provide and has included the following previously:
- Basic Life Support
- Care Act
- Children Speech and Language Therapy
- Compassionate Care
- Hoarding
- Introduction to Livewell Southwest
- Leg wounds and care
- Occupational Therapy
- Pharmacy
- Physiotherapy
- Podiatry
- Service Users Voice Feedback
- Simulations – try out the bariatric suit
- Understanding Social Care
- Venepuncture / Phlebotomy
- Why Mental Health is Important
Individuals on work experience placements will be supervised at all times.
We are currently updating our placement guidance in preparation for July.
Ambassadors
Livewell Southwest has a group of over 30 Ambassadors who attend career’s events and make visits to schools to discuss their careers. They consist of professionals from the following areas:
- Mental Health Nurses
- Matrons
- Occupational Therapists
- Administration Staff
- Many more
If you are too young for a specific Work Experience Placement (within Mental Health, for example), but wish to learn more about that career, please contact [email protected] to see whether an Ambassador would be able to come in to your school to deliver a talk on their career path.
Work experience testimonials
“It was an amazing experience and enjoyed every moment and am very appreciative to Neil and the whole team thank you for having me and I hope to work with you all again.”
“Thank you all for this amazing opportunity, I really enjoyed the experience i have gained as well as the knowledge i have been given. Shadowing workers in OT and Physio allowed me to see how you work as well as consider widening my possibilities for future education and work.”
“Maisie, my daughter who enjoyed your programme so much last year is hoping to go on to study Psychology at degree level in Brum. Thanks so much again – your programme was part of her inspiration.”
“I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you for arranging and facilitating the work experience over the last few days for Kaya. I am aware you took time out of your busy days, and I cannot stress the impact in terms of seeing a workplace and the actual application of what he has only read about. He particularly seems to have been struck by the way each of you have arrived at your current posts which has been a life lesson in itself that where he wants to be will only happen with dedication and time. As a result of it he has a much clearer idea of the pathway/ subjects he would like to take, and he is considering other pathways now instead of just the University route.”
Contact
Please note that we are currently updating our work experience programme.
For further information or advice, please email [email protected].
If you have a specific department / area of work which you are particularly interested in, please email [email protected] with your request.