Rough Sleepers Mental Health Nurse

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Duties

Clients/Users

To contact rough sleepers, homeless people in Day Centres and other voluntary organisations providing services for homeless people.

To undertake individual comprehensive assessments of mental health housing and social care needs.

To offer short-term intervention to link clients into mainstream services where appropriate.

To undertake care management assessments and responsibilities for individual clients in relation to care planning.

To carry an allocated caseload of clients with ongoing Care Management responsibilities for assessment, care, treatment and review for individual clients.

To assist where necessary in rehabilitation programmes for individuals and groups.

To advocate for clients in relation to access to services, including welfare benefits and housing and social care, and complete applications as required.

Team

To participate as a full member of the multidisciplinary team.

To be familiar with all legislation and policies that relate to the team and apply correctly in practice. This will include all housing legislation and government homelessness initiatives in addition to national and local mental health policies and directives.

To attend team meetings and support groups and other routine and specific meetings as required.

To undertake joint work with other team members and to co-ordinate this if required.

To contribute as required to the development of policies and procedures devised by the team.

To take part in the weekly Duty Rota for the Advice and Referral service.

To take part in regular reviews of team performance and goal setting.

Agency / Liaison

To undertake planned, regular contact sessions at specific agencies e.g. Day Centres, Hostels

To develop good communication with agency staff as a basis for good working relationships.

To represent the CNWL at agency meetings if requested to do so.

To offer informal consultation on mental health issues to agency staff.

To offer formal training sessions to external agencies on mental health and homelessness issues if requested to do so.

To develop and maintain effective joint working arrangements with colleagues in mainstream Health and Social and Community Services Departments to ensure a comprehensive and co-ordinated service.

Data/ Administration

To collect and record client data in the required format both manually and on PC.

To maintain client records accurately and up to date in the required format.

To undertake correspondence about and on behalf of clients.

To write clear reports and summaries as requested.

To take part in any approved research programmes.

To maintain and observe the confidentiality of all information relating to team clients as laid down in the confidentiality policy.

Profession Specific (Nursing)

To use a full range of mental health skills to contribute to the assessment, care and support of team clients.

To order, carry, store and administer prescribed drugs as required by CNWL Mental Health Trust.

To carry a personal caseload and throughout the care co-ordination process to provide for clients and carers, as appropriate, advise, counselling, treatment and advocacy according to professional expertise.

To maintain accurate records about the administration of medicines to individual clients.

To be conversant with and to operate within CNWL policies and practice pertaining to Community Psychiatric Nursing practice.

To have or develop a good understanding of the nature of the nursing role within a multidisciplinary team.

To offer training to other team members on nursing specific issues.

To keep up to date with new thinking and approaches in the nursing profession by reading and appropriate training.

To participate in the teaching of nursing students or other professional students on placement or visiting the team.

To have valid NMC registration and adhere to NMC code of professional conduct.

Street Outreach

To undertake planned and regular evening street outreach in order to extend the teams service to users who may not have regular access via day centres and hostels (up to a maximum of two evenings weekly dependent on the needs of the service).

To work assertively, where necessary, with clients who may actively wish to avoid contact with mental health services, identifying and assessing the potential risks involved in work activities on the street and how best to manage these risks.

To liaise closely with other outreach teams and assist in the assessment of clients referred by them.

To undertake follow up work with individuals contacted on outreach and to engage and assess clinical and social care needs.

To undertake regular sessions as required in hostels and day centres as a means of maintaining contact with service users who are street homeless, and contributing to the teams work generally.

To produce regular reports and statistics for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

To be accountable to the Team Leader.

To receive management and clinical supervision from the Senior Nurse Practitioner.

To practise in such a way that the service is culturally sensitive, accessible and responsive to the needs of a wide range of service users.

To observe all policies determined by CNWL at team level concerning:

- Equal Opportunities

- Confidentiality

- Health and Safety (including Smoking Policy)

- Data Protection

Any other duties as required by the nature of the post.

Person Specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential

• RMN with current NMC registration.

Desirable

• Other relevant training, e.g. substance misuse.
• ENB 810/811/812 (or equivalent).

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a setting that provided care for people who were acutely and chronically ill.

Desirable

• Experience of working with homeless people with mental health problems

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• An understanding of the particular needs of homeless clients with enduring mental health problems.
• A commitment to utilising a range of mental health nursing skills to meet the needs of this client group in a way that promotes optimal user choice and participation in the type and quality of services received.
• An understanding of current government policy in relation to mental health, homelessness & rough sleeping.
• An understanding of the implications of providing mental health services in an inner city area with reference to class, race, sex and disability.
• Effective written and verbal communication.
• Evidence of effective time management and organisational skills.
• Ability to work independently and as a member of a team.

Desirable

• An understanding of housing policy in relation to community care.

Other

Essential

• A commitment to developing clinical nursing skills through training and experience.
• An understanding of the need for and acceptance of supervision.
• An understanding of the meaning and implications of confidentiality.
• Sickness (or attendance) record that is acceptable to the Trust; to be checked at interview.
• Declared mentally fit by the Occupational Health Department to perform the duties of the post.
• The post holder must have the ability to understand and implement the Equal Opportunities Policy at a level appropriate for the post.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Park Royal Centre for Mental Health

London

NW10 7FY

Employer's website

https://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/work (Opens in a new tab)