Parent-Infant and Perinatal Mental Health Specialist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

1. Service and Team responsibilities

1.1 To lead the provision and delivery of the Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) pathway in the Start for Life programme, provided by Lewisham CAMHS and Perinatal services and to be a highly specialist practitioner within the assessment, consultation, and treatment management for infants (0-2s) and parents with perinatal mental health and co-morbid difficulties.

1.2 To work as an independent and autonomous professional within professional guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, taking full responsibility for own work.

1.3 To lead on the introduction of and monitoring the performance of new clinical systems for accepting referrals into assessment and treatment, delivering evidence-based interventions and modifying and adapting interventions drawing on a range of theoretical options.

1.4 To ensure optimum liaison and coordination of care for children and families between primary, community and secondary care.

1.5 To provide highly specialist consultation and supervision to designated parent-infant/perinatal community colleagues within the Start to Life Project and to the wider community workforce as appropriate.

1.6 To provide robust Infant and Perinatal Mental health assessments, other specialist assessments, using self-report measures, as appropriate, structured clinical observations, clinical interviews, and to interpret and integrate this highly complex data to identify and formulate the needs of infants and parent-child relationships, and perinatal mental health presentations.

1.7 To formulate mental healthcare and crisis treatment plans that are specific to each child, parent(s) and family, based upon an analysis of complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes contributing to the presentation. To assess safeguarding issues for each case, consulting with other professionals and referring concerns to the appropriate safeguarding team as required.

1.8 To ensure that evidence-based therapeutic techniques are used within and across the services to meet the emotional/mental health needs of children under 3, and parents with perinatal mental health difficulties and ensure that staff are adequately trained and supervised to deliver these.

1.9 Contribute to monitoring the quality of parent-infant assessments and intervention for children under 3 conducted by clinicians within the CAMH and Perinatal teams.

1.10 To communicate skilfully, and sensitively highly complex, sensitive and potentially distressing information with parents, carers and colleagues taking account of sensory and cultural barriers to communication.

1.11 To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry and recording.

1.12 To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up the catchment area of the service.

2. Professional Leadership

2.1 To provide strategic PIMH input at senior level across Lewisham CAMHS and Perinatal services, ensuring effective advice to the Service managers, Lead Clinicians and other management teams.

2.2 To take a lead role in PIMH representation at relevant Steering groups and other management forums for perinatal and infant mental health in the borough.

2.3 To act as a supervisor, mentor and offer peer support to colleagues, junior staff and trainees in line with Trust values.

2.4 Maintain good working relationships and clear lines of communication with all colleagues, professionals, agencies and departments.

2.5 Develop own skills and advise colleagues on good practices for integrated working.

2.6 Contribute to the CPD of colleagues and junior staff by providing specialist teaching, improving knowledge and skills and through appraisal and appraisal reviews.

2.7 To share and develop good practice and promote evidence based practice.

2.8 To participate in the delivery of pre-registration and post-registration education effectively in order to deliver Trust objectives.

3. Teaching, Training and Supervision

3.1 To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior clinician according to Trust guidelines.

3.2 To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within a wide range of staff teams within the Trust (Perinatal, CAMHS) and externally with partner agencies.

3.3 To provide professional clinical supervision to PIMH colleagues in Perinatal and CAMHS for all aspects of their work.

3.4 To provide placements to trainees as required.

3.5 To provide advice, consultation, training and supervision to staff and parents/carers within Perinatal and CAMHS network across a range of settings including primary care, social services, education, residential units and family homes.

4. Management, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development

4.1 To identify any aspects of the service which need to be improved and to advise service and professional managers on appropriate changes.

4.2 To assist in the short-listing and interviewing of multidisciplinary staff as required.

4.3 To participate in the on-going development of clinical governance mechanisms across PIMH services and the Start for Life programme and in the process of conducting audits and implementing service improvement as an outcome of these audits.

1. To undertake Serious Incident investigations as required by the Directorate.

5. Research and service evaluation

5.1 To contribute to the development of services for Lewisham CAMHS and Perinatal teams through initiating and undertaking service evaluation and audit.

5.2 To undertake computer-based literature reviews and carry out research relevant to the service in general and provide advice and supervision to other staff undertaking these.

5.3 To contribute to the development of outcome measurement and participate in the implementation of the use of same.

5.4 To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through service feedback, presentations and published articles.

5.5 To participate in agreed audit projects and to participate in service improvement based on the findings.

Person Specification

Qualifications & Registration

Essential

• Doctorate or MSc level qualification associated with child and adolescent mental health or perinatal mental health.
• First level qualification in clinical psychology, child psychotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing, social work, family therapy, or equivalent with a strong portfolio of post-registration parent-infant and/or perinatal experience and professional development.
• All applications will require professional registration with a statutory body: the Nursing Midwifery Council, General Social Care council, HCPC, Chartered Clinical Psychologist by BPS, ACP or UKCP.
• Additional training beyond entry-level qualification in a specialised area of practice related to parent-infant therapeutic work, through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses and/or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma or higher.

Desirable

• Management training

Experience

Essential

• Substantive experience of working at a Band 7 level in CAMHS and/or Perinatal including specialist practitioner and clinical performance management work.
• Extensive experience of working with infants and young children with mental health problems and their parents/carers, with range of case severity from early intervention through to complex case management.
• Experience of providing professional support for mental health practitioners including supervision, appraisal and recruitment.
• Experience of managing complex and high risk cases
• Experience of training of professionals from a range of mental health and non-mental health professions in under 5s mental health.

Desirable

• Experience of health services research, evaluation, and audit, and dissemination through teaching, training and publication.

Knowledge

Essential

• Advanced knowledge of clinical and systems research and policy relevant to infant and perinatal mental health.
• Advanced knowledge of the theory, practice and evidence-base of specialised assessments and psychological therapies for young children, parents and families.
• Sound knowledge of national policy and legislation and its implications for the clinical practice and professional management (e.g. Children's NSF, Children Act; Mental Health Act and Safeguarding Children).
• Awareness of racial and diversity issues and their impact on service access, through continuing professional development and attendance of relevant training.

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Proven skills in the use of standard and specialised methods of assessment and case management. Proven skills in delivering a range of evidence-based interventions with children

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

Kaleidoscope

Rushy Green, Catford

London

SE6 4JD

Employer's website

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