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Senior Mental Health Practitioner Acute Crisis Pathway

Employer
Livewell Southwest CIC
Location
Plymouth
Salary
£35,392 to £42,618 a year pa, pro-rata
Closing date
18 Oct 2024
37.5 hours per week. We are seeking to recruit a B6 Senior Mental Health Practitioner working mostly overnight with the acute care pathway within Livewell Southwest.

You will be joining established teams, working across 3 services to help ensure people experiencing a mental health crisis receive an assessment of their needs in a timely way.

Working within A2ED, First Response Service and Liaison Psychiatry.

A2ED offer professional assessments to people who urgently require face to face contact with a Mental Health worker who might otherwise have had to attend the Derriford Emergency department. The aim of A2ED is to reduce waiting times to benefit both patients, their families and emergency services.

First Response Service is a 24/7 crisis and assessment service providing ageless advice, support and signposting for people experiencing mental health difficulties within Plymouth. The service is mostly via telephone contact however, some face-to-face crisis assessments may be required if indicated.

Liaison Psychiatry is an urgent and emergency mental health service based within Derriford Hospital. A specialist service providing Mental Health Care in a physical health setting, supporting clinicians within the hospital, enabling wards and emergency department to assess and manage mental health problems in patients being cared within the hospital.

We anticipate 80% of shifts to be outside of normal working hours.

Main duties of the job

You will act as shift lead on a rota basis, coordinating the service delivery, prioritising workload and providing clinical advice to junior staff.

You will also be able to offer consultation to other services and contribute to a multi agency forum, you will also contribute to the training and supervision of others.

You will participate in, and chair, Risk Management and Professionals meetings as required.

You will have access to support and supervision from an experienced multi- disciplinary team.

You will contribute to the development of training programmes for the staff team and the local induction programme to include mentoring students.

You will lead on investigations for complaints, complex cases and internal reviews with management support where required.

Please see the attached job descriptions for each service for further information.

This role may not be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route, please refer to the Direct Gov website for more information with regards to eligibility.

About us

Livewell Southwest is an independent, award-winning social enterprise providing integrated health & social care services for people across Plymouth, South Hams & West Devon, as well as some specialist services for people living in parts of Devon & Cornwall. With teams in community hospitals, GP practices, sports centres, health & wellbeing hubs.

As an organisation with a strong social conscience, we always value being kind, respectful, inclusive, ambitious, responsible and collaborative. Transforming services to make them sustainable, ensuring that we value, support & empower each other.

We are committed to involving the people we care for, families & carers in everything that we do, working towards co-production where we can. Helping us to deliver the right care for people, in the right place & at the right time. By putting people at the centre of what we do, we ensure to support people to lead, healthy independent lives & be the very best at helping people to live well.

Valuing our employees making an investment in their development a priority. We offer:

Protected CPD time for registered staff

Various development pathways and ongoing regular training packages for all staff

Leadership & mentoring programmes

Access & funding for training including Care Certificate, Assistant Practitioners Course & Scholarship Into Nurse Training

A Robust Preceptorship

A bespoke induction programme

Existing members of the NHS Pension Scheme can continue their membership when they join the organisation.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Context of Role

Mental Health Practitioners provide brief clinical risk and mental health assessment, formulation, decision-making and short-term contingency planning for people presenting in mental health crisis.

Working within the community, Livewell and hospital sites - Mental Health Practitioners provide face-to-face assessments working closely with other mental health services and agencies such as the police, ambulance and local authority.

Using a range of brief solution-focused interventions, Mental Health Practitioners empower patients, carers and their families in decision making and divert to a range of health and social care resources for support.

The post involves working across our acute care pathway which will include Psychiatric Liaison, Alternative to Emergency Department (A2ED) and our 24/7 First Response Crisis Service.

The role will involve working within primary care settings, community settings and other health service sites as required. This could include the Joint Response Unit vehicle working alongside our Police colleagues. The working environment includes exposure to high levels of distress in others who maybe experiencing a mental health crisis.

The role involves working alongside multi-agency colleagues (i.e. Police, Paramedics) during the evenings providing acute assessment and care and support to people experiencing mental health crisis in the community. You may be expected to work alone.

Assertiveness, experience with patient advocacy, understanding of physical health conditions

The nature of the working environment requires regular and frequent travel from base to and between the above-mentioned settings.

The role will require working collaboratively with key partner organisations, service users, carers, clinicians and other practitioners within a multi-disciplinary team in delivering services.

There is a requirement for substantial periods of concentration and sitting.

It is anticipated the role will work 80% of out of normal working hours

As a Livewell service you will be expected to be flexible in your role to work across other sites and services where there is service demand or a lack of staffing capacity to meet those demands.

You will be provided with Line Management and supervision within the role and expected to be responsible for your continued professional development.

Person Specification

Specific Skills

Essential

  • Assessing, formulating and working with people presenting in heightened state of distress.
  • Communicating (oral and written) complex/highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the organisation.
  • Clinical risk assessment and contingency planning.
  • Able to meet the service needs for mobility across the geographical area covered.
  • Able to demonstrate commitment to high quality care and service provision.
  • Understanding about how a persons physical health can affect their mental state.
  • Specialist knowledge of mental disorders and their impact on physical health.
  • Understanding of National guidelines and initiatives related to provision of mental health services in an acute general hospital.
  • Understanding of services and their role in the provision of mental health care in the community.
  • General understanding of Continuing Healthcare and the assessment process for this.
  • Sound working knowledge of Mental Health Act (1983), Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (2005).
  • Protection of Vulnerable Adults Policies and Procedures.


Desirable

  • Brief psychological interventions/strategies for managing crisis.
  • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy skills.
  • Problem solving skills.
  • Solution focussed therapy skills.
  • Physical healthcare skills.
  • Motivational interviewing skills.
  • DBT skills.
  • Cognitive assessment skills.


Experience

Essential

  • Mental health care/treatment relevant to service
  • Working with people presenting in mental health crisis
  • Multi-agency working/working across service interfaces
  • Working within a multicultural framework.
  • Suitable Candidates will show a clear willingness to develop skills in the areas of both functional mental health problems and older peoples/complex care mental health needs


Desirable

  • Teaching, training and/or supervision of clinical staff
  • Previous experience of working in a community mental health setting.
  • Evidence of developing and contributing to service development.
  • Experience of change in health care.


Qualifications

Essential

  • Degree in Healthcare in relevant area supplemented by a post-graduate qualification or specialist training with relevant experience.
  • Professional Qualification (e.g. RMN, Social Worker, Occupational Therapist)
  • Professional Registration (e.g. NMC, HCPC, Social Work England)
  • Evidence of continuing professional development
  • Mentorship qualification or equivalent experience.


Desirable

  • Clinical supervision qualification.
  • Medical / non-medical prescribing
  • Teaching (clinical practice) qualification/certificate or equivalent experience
  • Leadership qualifications.


Knowledge

Essential

  • Evidenced based clinical interventions relevant to the service
  • Relevant specialist clinical courses/training
  • Models of care and treatment relevant to working with people in mental health crisis
  • Evidence of continuing professional development
  • Sound knowledge of relevant legislative frameworks (i.e. Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, Care Act, Human Rights Act)


Desirable

  • SystmOne
  • Eclipse
  • Experience of working in both acute mental health and in complex care and dementia care


Employer details

Employer name

Livewell Southwest

Address

Crownhill Court

Tailyour Road

Plymouth

South West

PL6 5DH

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

B9832-2024-NM-9025-4

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