Mersey Care's Spring House (Personality Disorder Hub) are looking to take on a motivated and enthusiastic individual to join its Day and Safe Service.

The post is ideal for somebody with a particular interest in personality disorder, working psychologically, and learning how to support people using therapeutic principles across a variety of environments.

Candidates should be able to work non-defensively through emotionally challenging situations and openly reflect on their work and and working relationships within the team's group reflective practice spaces.

**We will also consider applicants with limited experience to fulfil a band 5 post**

Main duties of the job

Spring House is a combined specialist Day and Crisis Service for service users with Personality Disorder. It operates seven days a week, from 8:30am to 10pm. The service operates social therapy groups within a therapeutic community model, thus has a strong ethos of service user involvement.

People are additionally supported through crises by the Safe Service, through face to face or phone sessions, as well as brief therapy interventions.

The successful candidate will be expected to support people through group facilitation, crisis work in the Safe Service and when ready would take on brief Psychodynamic Interpersonal Therapy (PIT) cases. Spring House additionally gatekeeps 3 short-stay beds at Stepping Stones, so the successful candidate would facilitate assessments for those admissions. PIT supervision and reflective practice will be provided and the service highly values staff training.

The post-holder will be supported by the two service leads, along with their qualified and support worker colleagues. The Day and Safe Service is one of two developments at Spring House for service users with complex PD presentations, the others being the PD Case Management Team.

About us

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Job description

Job responsibilities

To engage with service users using the PD Hub in a positive and non-defensive manner,especially during crises when calmness and hope need to be maintained.

To work as part of the PD Day and Safe Service, running social therapy groups as part of theDay Service provision and providing both telephone support and direct crisis contacts as partof the PD Day and Safe Service with service users when they visit the PD Hub.

Additionally, the post holder will be trained to offer brief psychological interventions aimedat supporting service users actively through their crisis.

To screen referrals, offer assessments (including determining suitability), and undertake inductions and offer psychological formulations of service users referred to the PD Hub for support.

When required, to provide outreach beyond the PD Hub to visit service users at other sites(e.g. inpatients units, joint reviews, CPA meetings) or at home to support assessment,formulation and on-going care and treatment.

To coordinate the care of service users carrying out assessment planning, implementation andevaluation of their care under the guidelines of the care programme approach and under thesupervision of the line manager.

To ensure that the service users care plan is developed to meet the assessed need of theindividual and to support unqualified staff in delivering care as laid down in the care plan.

To liaise with family members, carers and significant others when completing theassessment and developing a care plan.

To develop a risk management plan for service users, taking note of the contributions fromother members of the team. Ensure that all significant people are aware of the riskmanagement plan and are actioning it appropriately.

To direct unqualified staff in order to ensure delivery of a high standard of care to serviceusers.

To participate in setting standards for care based on sound evidence based and researchfindings.

To participate in the systematic monitoring and evaluation of service users that you haveresponsibility for with guidance from a supervisor.

To communicate with other members of the multi-disciplinary team to ensure thecommunication of any relevant information which has an impact on the service users care.

To use verbal and non-verbal communication skills gained through training or experience toimpart sensitive information.

To check understanding of information where there are often barriers to effectivecommunications due to distress, psychiatric symptoms or where English is not the firstlanguage.

To use skills gained through training and experience to give and receive information to otherindividuals with regards to a service users care in the reviews and multi-disciplinarymeetings. These individuals may be external to the Trust

To have knowledge of the Mental Health Act / Mental Capacity Act and other relevant legislation and act within the realms of professional responsibility in regard to such matters.

To provide and co-ordinate the provision of a range of therapeutic activities for service usersand monitor their effectiveness.

To ensure that all relevant information with regards to a service users care and treatment is documented accurately and legibly into the health record.

To supervise and monitor the entries made by unqualified staff.Under the guidance of a supervisor provide reports both in written and verbal formats asrequested.

To contribute to teaching sessions in order to pass on knowledge and skills.

To use skills gained through training and experience to de-escalate situations where serviceusers become physically or verbally aggressive

To ensure that unqualified staff members get appropriate support following violent or otheruntoward incidents

To ensure that all incidents or near misses are documented as per Trust policy and that anyfollow up action is taken.

To actively participate in service user reviews ensuring that service user needs are met andthat the team has all the relevant information on which to base their clinical decisions.

To develop care plans that enable service users to reach and maintain their optimum level ofhealth and independence to help them to remain in the community in their chosen setting.

To react pro-actively in cases of service user crisis and put in place immediate plans toresolve the situation with supervision and guidance as appropriate.

To assist in the assessment and supervision of nursing and other students.

To assess and monitor the physical and mental health of service users, seeking advice andsupport from medical staff as appropriate.

To actively participate in team meetings in order to positively influence team working andthe development of research based practice.

Liaison with the psychotherapy service to discuss / activate internal referrals for those service users who are ready for psychotherapy.

Help / responsibility for administrative procedures e.g. liaisons or interface with adminwith regard to RIO and referrals.

Person Specification

QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Appropriate professional qualification by RMN AHP Social Worker

Desirable

• Degree
• Evidence of post registration study

KNOWLEDGE/EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Proven relative experience to a Band 5 PD practitioner
• Experience of working with a range of people with mental health problems
• A demonstrated understanding of Equality and Human Rights

Desirable

• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team

VALUES

Essential

• Continuous Improvement
• Accountability
• Respectfulness
• Enthusiasm
• Support
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Strong customer service belief
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Interest and desire to support service users with PD, and helping them develop their own resourses and skills

SKILLS

Essential

• Able to communicate effectively
• Possess good listening and negotiation skills
• Ability to work as a member of a team
• Be able to demonstrate a sound knowledge base regarding:
• Effective Care Co-ordination
• Care Planning and evaluation
• Quality and clinical audit
• Health & Safety/Risk Management Mental Health Act
• Demonstrate a good knowledge of the Code of Conduct and the nurse's responsibility to identify gaps in their knowledge base.
• Demonstrate knowledge in the concepts of mentorship, preceptorship and supervision

Desirable

• Appreciate the process of standard setting and audit

Employer details

Employer name

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Personality Disorder Hub

12 Haigh Road

Liverpool

L22 3XP

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

350-MHC6823358