Job responsibilities
System-wide responsibilities
The post holder will;
- Work with professionals within the Primary and Community Mental Health Team to ensure clinically appropriate prescribing of medication to patients with mental illness to enable patients to access medication and review in the most appropriate care setting.
- Use local intelligence, feedback, national priorities and local data sources to identify prescribing areas to review and work with key stakeholders to develop audit tools to promote best practice around medicines optimisation in MH.
- Promote the importance and increase the uptake of monitoring / annual health checks in patients with SMI, LD other MH conditions
- Identify gaps / opportunities and work to find solutions to further optimise the use of medication in mental health, such as training needs, clinical review templates, best practice guidelines, SOPs
- Work with key stakeholders to develop and deliver education and training around prescribing in MH, targeting, but not limited to; community pharmacy, Primary Care Sheffield, GP practice staff, patients.
- Have an understanding of non-pharmacological support (psychological and social) on offer to support mental health and wellbeing, and promote when these can be used to support patients so that prescribing is optimised and patients are empowered with a range of tools to get /keep well.
- Work to support the transition of patients as they move across different care settings so that their medicines needs are met and monitored safely in the most appropriate care setting.
Practice based responsibilities
Work with designated Primary Care Networks to
- Help improve medicines optimisation and medicines management (within primary care networks) for patients who have mental health related conditions.
- Be aware of local and national guidelines and formularies and implement these into practice.
- Provide patient-facing, clinically focused medicines optimisation reviews that will help patients get the best out of their medicines and assist in improving service and cost efficiencies. This may in turn help reduce GP related / secondary care appointments related to mental health conditions.
- Participate in multidisciplinary team meetings and medication reviews.
- Communicate to and receive complex medicines information from prescribers, patients and carers including those with language difficulties or learning disabilities, around prescribing in MH.
- Help reduce polypharmacy, inappropriate prescribing and help to improve monitoring of prescribing MH medication in accordance with NICE and local guidelines.
- Manage systems and processes around shared care arrangements to support safe prescribing in Mental Health
- To be a role model and resource for other health care professionals, e.g. practice pharmacists and technicians around medicines optimisation in MH.
- Develop collaborative partnerships across organisational boundaries.
- Provide specialist advice and information on the safe, cost-effective and evidenced based use of medicines in mental health and other therapeutic areas for staff.
- Deliver education and training packages around prescribing in MH to other disciplines, including patients, as identified / needed.
- To participate in the training and supervision of pharmacy undergraduates, as requested.
- Plan and organise own timetable and workload including medication reviews, training sessions, audit schedules and project work.
Information resources
- Utilise a range of IT systems including SystmOne, Emis Web and Rio
- Provide reactive and pro-active medicines information to doctors, nurses and other health care professional staff.
Research and development
- Undertake surveys/audits of the Clinical Pharmacy service and medicines use and participate in medicine related audits in primacy care.
- Produce reports and action plans for audits undertaken.
Managerial Responsibilities
- Able to take action based on own interpretation of broad professional policies/procedures where necessary.
- Able to handle clinical queries and prioritise tasks according to level of urgency.
- Able to make decisions and taking urgent actions in isolation from pharmacy work colleagues as needed.
General Duties
The post holder will:
- Develop a culture that promotes equality and values diversity. The post holder must be aware of and committed to the Equality and Diversity policies of SHSC, comply with all the requirements of these policies and also actively promote Equality and Diversity issues relevant to the post.
- Ensure the principles of openness, transparency and candour are observed and upheld in all working practices.
- The post holder will have, or acquire through training provided by the organisation, the appropriate level of safeguarding and knowledge, skills and practice required for the post and be aware of and comply with the organisations safeguarding protection policies and procedures.
- Ensure that any infection prevention and control issues are reported to the line manager/Infection Prevention and Control
- Work flexibly and travel to GP practices /provider settings at various locations across the city.
- Work as an Independent prescriber or work towards this qualification.
- Participation in continuous professional development
- Participation in clinical supervision
