We’re hiring! The National Elf Service needs 2 part-time Elf Coordinators to join our team and support us in the commissioning and editing of Mental Elf blogs.
This opportunity will suit a PhD student working in a mental health setting, but may also be of interest to people with lived experience, practitioners or trainees working in mental health. We especially welcome applications from individuals with knowledge of psychiatric research.
Salary: £260 per day, minimum 2 days per month (flexible)
Start date: ASAP
Employment status: Freelancer
Location: Remote-working
Application deadline: 5pm on 24th May 2024
Interviews: Date TBC (w/b 10th June 2024)
Introduction to the Mental Elf and the National Elf Service
The Mental Elf is an influential international blogging platform that helps people keep up to date with the latest relevant and reliable mental health research. The independent and inclusive Elf brand is trusted and respected by researchers, clinicians, people with lived experience and policymakers. We have website visitors and social media followers from over 180 countries.
The Mental Elf features >3,000 free blogs written by >700 experts (researchers, clinicians, people with lived experience). Each blog highlights a new piece of mental health research relevant to mental health practice with important implications.
Thousands of people read Mental Elf blogs every day, and our social media campaigns always generate tens of millions of impressions. We have a huge, diverse and loyal social media audience. Our objective has always been to facilitate democratic conversations about mental health research with a diverse audience, using our trusted brand to attract and engage with all the important stakeholders.
The Mental Elf also provides paid digital services to a wide variety of clients (universities, the NHS, charities, professional membership organisations etc). These services include our #BeyondTheRoom live reporting service, and a variety of podcast, webinar and video production work.
Our existing team of four part-time Mental Elf Coordinators all have:
- A good understanding of the processes and practice of evidence-based health care
- A high level of knowledge about mental health research
- Specialist subject knowledge within the mental health sciences
- Strong science communication and public engagement skills
- Enthusiasm for facilitating democratic discussions about health research with a diverse range of people.
Role and responsibilities
There are two new part-time vacancies in this team, so we are looking for two individuals who share the above knowledge and ethos to join us. You will:
a. Take a lead on 6 mental health topics. Currently available topics include:
- Arts and culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Complex emotional needs (inc. personality disorders)
- Dementia
- Economics
- Physical activity
- Psychedelics
- Psychosis
- Secondary care (inc. inpatient care, crisis care)
- Workplace mental health
b. Commission and edit Mental Elf blogs:
- Find suitable research papers
- Assign papers to bloggers
- Edit blogs
- Manage deadlines
- Produce 4 blogs ready for publication each month
c. Recruit and manage a network of expert bloggers (clinicians, researchers, people with lived experience)
d. Work with the rest of the team of Elves.
Essential requirements
The successful candidate must have:
- Excellent science writing and editing skills (including excellent written English)
- Critical appraisal skills in health research
- Knowledge of quantitative research methods
- Familiarity with psychiatric research
- Strong communication skills
- Experience of working in a team to produce content or research
- Self-directed and able to manage your own workload.
Desirable requirements
We are particularly interested in hearing from people who also have:
- Previous experience of mental health blogging
- Strong social media skills
- Familiarity with project management tools to support remote working
- Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in mental health or related subject
- Public engagement skills (ability to communicate research in a clear and accessible way to the general public)
- Experience with the WordPress content management system.
Inclusive recruitment policy
The National Elf Service team knows that diversity fosters creativity and innovation. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in our team. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people, LGBTQI+ people, neurodiverse people, and people with lived experience of mental health difficulties.
We also welcome applications from international candidates.
