Meet Lily: Our Business Administrator

Have you ever wondered what a typical day looks like for our TALKWORKS admin team? Our administrators work tirelessly behind the scenes and play a key role in the functioning of our service, enabling our patients to gain access to the support that they need. We sat down with Lily, the TALKWORKS Business Administrator in our Central Team, who shared more about her role with us and what she enjoys most about working at TALKWORKS.

Why did you decide to join TALKWORKS?

Having started my career as a spokesperson for a suicide awareness campaign, I have always been drawn to working to support those experiencing depression and anxiety. As a well-rooted service in the community, I was keen to join the TALKWORKS team and help people make the first step to improving their mental and physical wellbeing.

My background is in journalism and digital marketing, which has transferred well into my role here at TALKWORKS by enabling me to continue doing many of the things I love such as being organised, helping people and being able to problem solve and adapt to different systems. As a first-time mum back in 2021, I was looking for a new venture that would allow me to get stuck into a varied workload that was both interesting and rewarding. Working for TALKWORKS has definitely ticked all of those boxes for me so far.

How long have you worked for the service?

I’ve worked at TALKWORKS for nearly 3 years. I started in 2021 as a Business Support Administrator for the South and West team where I worked alongside a lovely team of administrators to work as the first point of contact into TALKWORKS. We worked together to answer phone calls, process referrals and respond to queries and requests via email.

I then started working in the TALKWORKS Central Team in 2022 to manage the wellbeing workshops and patient group administration. More recently, I have progressed into the role as Business Administrator for the Central Team. Within this role, I am responsible for providing administration support for the team, which includes organising the Leadership and Senior Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner meetings and taking the minutes, alongside the workshop administration.

Which element of your current role do you enjoy most?

As the service has expanded, so has the demand for our workshops. Previously, clinicians used to manage the admin tasks that go along with running workshops and groups.  Part of my role has been to create a streamlined administration process to alleviate clinician’s workload and allow them more time to support patients. I have enjoyed developing this process with my colleagues and watching the accessibility of our workshops grow. TALKWORKS now offers bespoke workshops for businesses and with the new admin process in place; we have been able to run workshops for over 80 local businesses and organisations, free of charge, since June 2022.

TALKWORKS has 12 teams across Devon. In those teams, we have nearly 20 Business Support Administrators, 9 Business Administrators and a Business Support Co-Ordinator. From processing referrals to keeping letters and resources up-to-date, our daily work behind-the-scenes ensures that patients are provided with a smooth introduction to the service. I am really proud to be a part of such a wonderful team of administrators.

How varied is your role? What do you get up to on a day-to-day basis?

My role is very varied, which is one of the things I enjoy the most about it. A day in the life of my role will entail responding to patient enquiries, attending meetings and minute taking, and ensuring our direct access workshops and patient groups run as smoothly as possible.

Regular communication is key within my role, be it with the clinicians, patients or fellow administrators. Each day as a priority, I work through any enquires that have been sent to the TALKWORKS inbox, which attracts queries from patients across the service. I’m then on hand to support the Central Team with diary management and meeting organisation. A key responsibility of mine is keeping spreadsheets up-to-date – I enjoy this part, as I like to keep things organised (especially if there is colour coding involved!).

Ahead of the workshops and groups taking place, I am responsible for creating and distributing the meeting links to patients and responding to enquires. As the point of contact for workshops, I also regularly pop into meetings and chat about the new workshop offerings and how we can book them as administrators.

What do you like doing in your spare time?

In my spare time, I’m usually out on a walk with my bouncy Labrador and 3 year old toddler in tow. That certainly keeps me busy, but of course, I like reward myself with a coffee and cake at the nearest café to calm the chaos!

Are you passionate about patient care and promoting the importance of mental and physical wellbeing? Would you be interested in joining us here at TALKWORKS? Visit the Devon Partnership NHS Trust Jobs website to see all of our current vacancies.

If you would like to access support from our service, you can contact us by calling 0300 555 3344 (our phone lines are open Monday to Friday from 9:00am – 4:45pm) or you can self-refer by completing the online form on our website.