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Rob’s admin role requires real humanity coupled with a super-brain for stats

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Published on: August 30, 2022

Rob Walwyn, administrator at Compass Phoenix explains why he loves his job.

He says: “My role is predominantly a front end worker at the Compass Phoenix service.

So, I’m the first point of contact for service users and professionals wanting to refer people into the service.

“I enjoy interacting with with the young people calling up and enjoy the feeling of satisfaction from helping to make a difference to their lives.

“That’s a very important aspect for me.

“But the Phoenix team that work in the North Yorkshire area are a fantastic team to work with as well and they make it worth coming in every day.

As well as being able to interact effectively with all th different people who call or email in, he explained that his role required him to be “very well organised.”

He said: “A lot of the work is is quite close work with spreadsheets and with systems. We’re making sure that we record everything that’s going on very accurately.

“The accuracy side of things is absolutely paramount. I think being an administrator is probably not for everybody but it does suit my temperament and and i do enjoy it.

He went on: “Most of the calls we get are actually from parents of young people and they they they can be quite distressed when they call up for obvious reasons – their young people are struggling and the parents really are desperate to help them but we do get young people calling in as well who are sometimes quite upset.

“The first job is really to get them talking about their situation, make sure that they feel comfortable and have a conversation with them.

“We also talk to professionals – doctors, teaching staff, other mental health service workers they also refer young people they’re working with into our service if they think that we can help out.

And he added: “To me, the telephone calls take priority. They take place here and now – they need dealing with at that moment in time and they really give the biggest satisfaction.”