CAMHS Practitioner

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder will coordinate care, assessing and treating children and young people in the team working in collaboration with the MDT.

They will also be involved in supporting and advising parents and carers of young people referred to the service as well as offering consultation and advice to their professional networks.

Participate as a MDT member in the assessment and treatment of children and young people referred to CAMHS.

Ensure that all recording and reporting of client contact are accurate, up to date, of good quality and within CAMHS and professional requirement standards of record keeping. To collect & collate information about individual clinical activity on ePJS.

Work with the team and clients to maintain a safe therapeutic environment. Work to assure the quality of care through achieving high operational standards in clinical systems.

To maintain and ensure good professional standards and attitudes towards the care and treatment of children, young people and their families.

To link with other statutory and voluntary agencies and professionals as well as other CAMHS teams in terms of referrals and joint work. Maintain good relationships and clear lines of communication with other professional agencies and departments, providing specialist advice and support where appropriate.

Contribute to the effective functioning of the team and service through attendance at relevant meetings, taking responsibilities within the service as appropriate and negotiated with the line manager.

Carry out mental health and risk assessments on young people in your care routinely and work under the supervision of the team manager and senior clinicians to manage these situations effectively.

Work with other CAMHS practitioners in the service from all disciplines. You will be a member of a number of internal and external professional networks to ensure that care plans for individual children are co-ordinated efficiently across agencies. This post is a clinical post and the expectation of time management is the majority of time is spent in actual clinical practice.

Work to provide rapid response and intervention for patients who are referred to CAMHS, where this is required.

Work across interfaces in order to provide an integrated service model intended to reduce response time of referral.

Well developed communication skills are required in order to communicate with staff of all levels and from a variety of disciplines within SLaM and partner agencies.

An ability to promote partnership working between primary and secondary care, local authority, voluntary and statutory agencies, and the independent sector

An ability to communicate complex and sensitive information effectively with patients, relatives and carers, where there may be barriers to understanding.

An ability to deal effectively with patient or carer concerns, complaints and anxieties as they arise

Ensure due-regard to given customs, values and spiritual beliefs of patients, carers and their relatives

Maintain a high standard of verbal and written communication to provide continuity of care.

Assume responsibility for case management of young people and families who are determined to be at low/medium/high risk.

Make clinical formulation from CAMHS assessment, including risk assessment, on which to recommend a treatment intervention.

Design, write and share copies of care plans with children, young people and their carers.

Assess safeguarding issues and refer concerns to Child Protection Teams.

Deliver interventions for young people who have self-harmed/are in crisis or presenting with other mental health concerns; the treatment interventions provided would be based on NICE guidelines and evidence based practice.

Use individual, group work, family work, advice and supervision according to the needs of children and young people and have a flexible and innovative approach to packages of care.

Participate and lead in joint complex assessments with other disciplines and other agencies and provide reports for referrers, families and other agencies as required.

Maintain good relationships and clear lines of communication with other professional agencies and departments, providing specialist advice and support where appropriate.

Undertake all duties in line with the professional Codes of Professional Conduct and maintain professional registration requirements for the post according to discipline/profession.

Work in accordance and within the principles, policies, procedures and guidelines of all aspects of clinical governance.

Attend monthly supervision and annual appraisal meetings make effective use of colleagues in sharing and participating in casework supervision and other forms of supervision when required according to local practice, including attending peer supervision meetings.

Identify development and training needs with manager in accordance with Trust/Directorate guidelines. Remain up to date with changing practices and wherever possible make full use of all training and educational facilities.

Join with colleagues in specialist teaching, consultation /support to other professionals and agencies. Participate in the provision of a good quality learning environment for trainees, overseeing placements and supervising trainees.

Participate in the monitoring, evaluation and audit of the service.

Work with others to undertake and promote research-based practice and use that knowledge in your everyday practice, sharing it with others in the team.

Work autonomously and participate in the delivery and development of patient centered, evidence based care as appropriate, using a range of advanced skills and knowledgefor patients with both diagnosed and undiagnosed conditions.

Offer advice and support or refer/signpost to other agencies for specialist advice/support/service if appropriate.

Please see attached job specification for further details.

Person Specification

Qualifications, knowledge/skills and experience

Essential

• First level nursing qualification/registration RMN or RSCN
• Doctorate level qualification in Clinical or Counselling Psychology
• First level qualification in OT, social work, or equivalent
• First level qualification in Art, Drama or Music therapy with related experience in the psychological aspects of caring for children and adolescent with mental health problems/needs, developmental/ learning disability problems.
• All applicants will require a professional training and relevant Clinical experience, including CAMHS ( or clear evidence of transferable skills) in combination with professional registration with one of the following statutory bodies: the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) , Health Professional's Council (HPC/ HCPC), Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), social work England or The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) .

Desirable

• Specialist knowledge and training in therapeutic approaches commonly used in CAMHS such as CBT,DBT, Family Therapy etc.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a Community or specialist CAMHS multidisciplinary team
• Experience of multi-agency working
• Working knowledge of MHA, MCA and safeguarding children legislation

Desirable

• Experience working in a CAMHS duty system.
• Experience working in a CAMHS duty system.

Knowledge/Skills

Essential

• Knowledge and skills in core CAMHS treatment skills, range of interventions and more in-depth knowledge in at least one treatment model.
• Excellent risk assessment and documentation skills.
• Knowledge and understanding of issues relating to information sharing and confidentiality
• Understanding of and ability to maintain a safe therapeutic environment.
• Understanding of and ability to maintain a safe therapeutic environment.

Desirable

• Understanding of and ability to maintain a safe therapeutic environment.

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

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Southwark CAMHS - Mapother House

Maudsley Hospital, De Crespigny Park, London.

London

SE5 8AZ

Employer's website

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