Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Job responsibilities

Professional /Clinical Responsibilities:

In conjunction with other team members screen all referrals received by the team. Undertake holistic and comprehensive bio-psychosocial assessments incorporating assessment of mental state of patients referred to the service.

Utilise a range of highly specialised clinical skills appropriate to the needs of individual patients and the clinical setting in which they are seen

Conduct risk assessments on all patients presenting to the service in line with CPA policy. The post holder will have highly developed risk assessment skills to manage complex presentations and challenging behaviours.

Advise ward nursing, medical and other professional staff on the management of patients and contribute to care planning to meet identified needs.

Evaluate effectiveness of care interventions with all disciplines of staff, adjusting care plans where necessary.

Provide a consultation-liaison service to clinicians and clinical teams within the general hospital. This will include giving specialist advice on care, treatment and patients management issues.

Work in collaboration with colleagues in the promotion of care delivery and strategic objectives and taking responsibility/lead for specific areas of working e.g. liaison with police, drugs and alcohol, Safeguarding.

Refer and signpost people to appropriate mental health services as required both within and outside of the organisations area.

Work collaboratively with social care teams, discharge planning teams, onward care teams, community liaison teams and community mental health teams in devising appropriate discharge plans.

Deliver care that is evidenced based and reflecting current best practice.

Be accountable for own practice in accordance with NMC Code of Professional practice or HCPC relevant codes of practice.

Demonstrate sound understanding of the ethical and legal issues in caring for all older adults attending the hospital. This will include Mental Health Act (1983), Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding (2005) issues as required.

Raise awareness of mental health needs of older people in acute general hospital setting through discussion and collaborative working with staff of all levels and disciplines. Raise awareness of the mental health needs of the general population within the acute general hospital.

Provide support and advice for carers and families of people with mental health needs within the general hospital setting whenever possible. The Liaison Service is committed to the implementation of the Triangle of Care as fully as possible.

Work collaboratively with colleagues in the development of the Liaison Psychiatry Service.

Communication:

Communicate effectively and sensitively with patients, families and carers.

Work positively and sensitively with challenging and hostile behaviours to enable therapeutic and productive outcome.

Have highly developed interpersonal skills, self-awareness and empathy to engage with others and provide an effective outcome.

Demonstrate the ability to negotiate and problem solve in complex situations where agreement is required or communicate clear decision making and rationale when agreement cannot be reached.

Provide comprehensive information based on assessment to inform the care, treatment, or discharge planning process of patients within the acute general hospital.

Demonstrate the ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within the Liaison Psychiatry Team and across other statutory and non-statutory organisations.

Maintain confidentiality of the patients as per policy whilst sharing information when appropriate to do so

Keep accurate and contemporaneous electronic/written patient records and comply with professional and Trust record keeping policies including CPA.

Comply with Local and National policies in relation to confidentiality and information sharing protocols.

Liaise with existing care coordinators regarding the status and progress of patients who are subject to CPA in the acute general hospital setting.

Demonstrate the ability to adapt communication to take account of others needs.

Maintain high standards of integrity when communicating with patients and others.

Demonstrate ability to use IT systems effectively including email, clinical systems used by the team.

Represent the team by attendance at meetings as delegated by Team Manager.

Act as a role model in providing a service for people with mental health problems for all staff within the acute general hospital.

Analytical and Judgmental skills:

Demonstrate the ability to analyse, often large amounts of complex information from a range of other specialists and assimilate these and their relevance to a persons mental health needs, formulate a clinical opinion including assessment of risk and advise on appropriate care plan.

Possess a good working knowledge of mental health legislation including Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty safeguards and use this in relation to advising and planning care, independently or with other professionals.

Assess the patients risk/psychiatric/psychological and emotional fitness for discharge from the hospital setting

Formulate a care pathway following assessment, with an appropriate onward referral to other NHS professionals, statutory and non-statutory services if necessary.

Planning and Organisational skills:

Demonstrate the ability to manage conflicting demands on time and the ability to prioritise clinical work effectively.

Demonstrate the ability to organise the work schedule and appropriate screening of referrals to the team each day in conjunction with colleagues, including medical staff. Where necessary there will be a focus on presentations to the ED. The post holder will need to be able to ensure that the needs of other referrals are not delayed due to ED work.

Coordinate the appropriate follow up of patients seen by the service.

Deliver formal and informal training sessions on behalf of the team to other professionals with the acute general hospital setting.

Management:

Take responsibility for agreed clinical, managerial and strategic projects associated with the provision of the Liaison Psychiatry service. This will include planning, implementing, reviewing and revising these projects as necessary.

In the absence of a Band 7, take responsibility for the coordination of all activities within the clinical area or equivalent sphere.

In the absence of a Band 7, take responsibility for the management of the Team and patient care provided, to the agreed local and professional standards.

Undertake line management supervision and appraisal of other staff within the team where appropriate.

As a band 6 practitioner, you will be viewed as a senior member of the team. Therefore, you will be expected to be a positive role member to others. You will need to demonstrate flexibility in your practice, support others and delegate where required.

You will regularly be shift lead and will likely also take the lead in the team on certain aspects of team function.

Education:

Participate in the mentoring and education of a range of students on placement with the Team.

Participate in the planning, development and delivery of educational programmes and training sessions for a range of clinical staff within the working and learning environments.

Provide clinical supervision to colleagues and students as required

You will need to participate in CPD regularly and keep your mandatory training up to date. The post holder will proactively ensure they are receiving clinical supervision.

Physical skills:

Be able to demonstrate IT skills, including keyboard use.

Show the ability to concentrate for sustained periods of time in often noisy environments with frequent interruption.

Be required to have ability to travel to other clinical sites for attendance at meetings.

Be involved with patients who at times present with physical and verbal aggression due to ill health, distress and/or non-concordance with care. Post-holder will need to be aware of how to respond appropriately and safely, with consideration to the safety of themselves and others.

Have the ability to work effectively in a busy and chaotic working environment of the ED.

Have an awareness of the Physical challenges presented by disturbed patients who attend the Ed by their own free will or via the Police.

Freedom to Act:

When required to, work without supervision and make autonomous clinical formulation and decisions in relation to the care, treatment and safe discharge of patients with complex mental health needs.

Post-holder will receive regular management supervision and appraisal on an annual basis, or more as needed.

Service Development:

Demonstrate a commitment to the improvement of patient care and the understanding of the needs of older adults and will work collaboratively with others within the team and within mental health and acute hospital services as required, in relation to development of the service provided for this client group.

Management:

In the absence of the team manager take responsibility for the management of the team and patient care provided by the team to agreed local and national standards.

Support the team manager in the supervision, monitoring and appraisal of the performance of registered and non-registered staff within the team.

With team manager ensure that rota is maintained to enable service is operationally covered and where difficulties are identified in maintaining service provision that this is escalated to senior managers of the service in team managers absence.

Support the team manager in the recording of accurate clinical activity data.

Please note that this Job Description is not exhaustive and may change as the post develops, but such change will not take place without consultation between the post holder and his/her manager.

The post holder is required to conform to all NHS Plymouth policies and must attend any training sessions as required.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Mental Health Nurse/Registered General Nurse or Allied Health Professional such as Physiotherapist, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist (on relevant register e.g. NMC or HCPC).
• Mentorship qualification or equivalent experience.

Desirable

• Post qualification experience/training in mental health and related issues.
• Leadership qualifications.
• Teaching Qualification.
• Non Medical Prescribing.

Experience

Essential

• 18 months + recent experience as a Band 5 Nurse or AHP equivalent either working with older adults or within dementia/complex care environments or with functional mental health issues.
• Ability to demonstrate transferable skills.
• Either experience of working with older adults with Depression and older adults with dementia.
• Or experience of working with adults with functional mental health problems.
• 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

• Previous experience of working in a community mental health setting.
• Evidence of developing and contributing to service development.
• Experience of change in health care.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Up to date knowledge of current practice with emphasis on Liaison Psychiatry.
• Evidence of post registration development.
• 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.
• Time management.
• Ability to manage environmental stress.
• Ability to work in a changing team.
• Articulate with a high level of communication skills.
• Ability to deal with high levels of emotional stress.
• Ability to sustain high levels of concentration.
• Motivated and committed to developing new ideas and improving patient care.
• Ability to function as an autonomous practitioner.
• IT skills.

Desirable

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy skills.
• Problem solving skills.
• Solution focussed therapy skills.
• Physical healthcare skills.
• Motivational interviewing skills.
• DBT skills.
• Cognitive assessment skills.
• Experience of working in both acute mental health and in complex care and dementia care.

Disposition

Essential

• Autonomous practitioner with ability to work unsupervised.
• Facilitative and Influencing skills.
• Flexible and adaptable.
• Tact, diplomacy and self-confident.
• Ability to meet deadlines.
• Ability to prioritise and reprioritise work to meet clinical demand.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).