Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work in the Primary Care Mental Health Team (PCMHT). We are looking for an experienced mental health practitioner; nurse, social worker, psychologist or occupational therapist to join the team.

From working in the team you will be able to gain more knowledge of completing triage assessments, having a caseload and offering short term interventions. The team is made of a diverse MDT, we offer teaching sessions, space for reflective practice and an opportunity to be a champion in your chosen areas.

You will be working as part of a Primary Care Mental Health Team to deliver timely assessments, care planning and evidenced based health and psychosocial care interventions to the adult population in Lewisham with mental health needs. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to interface directly with partner agencies including Primary Care, Secondary Care and MIND to ensure effective service delivery and discharge planning.

The PCMHT’s are now working directly with Primary Care and sharing the same electronic record system and the successful candidate will receive training. The team works with our newly developed Care Process Model to ensure our patients and carers receive standardised care.

• To support the team with overall management of referrals, providing timely screening, triage and trusted assessments for patients with a wide range of mental disorder.
• To be professionally accountable for a delivering a range of evidenced based psycho-social interventions for a specific case list.
• To work in collaboration with our partner agencies and the MDT to provide a range of interventions to support service users to stay well within their local communities including psychological, social prescribing and medication advice and management
• To work with patients and carers using evidenced based tool to inform care planning to support engagement with treatment and appropriate services.
• To support family and carers with the management of risk and to escalate all risk concerns as required ensuring that there is clear communication of risk to all involved with care.
• To develop a close relationship with Primary Care practices with the PCN, attending practice meetings and effective communication

Working for our organisation

The Primary Care Mental Health Teams are an integrated service providing support in primary care for people experiencing complex mental health problems. The service consists of a multidisciplinary team of mental health practitioners including psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, employment specialists, occupational therapists and psychologists who work in a recovery focused way, using a strengths-based approach based on individual needs rather than diagnosis.

Some of our benefits are highlighted here:

• Generous pay, pensions and leave, we offer a comprehensive pay, pensions and leave package which is dependent on the role and length of service.
• Work life balance, flexible working and support a range of flexible options, such as: part-time working and job sharing.
• Career development, we support your development through a number of programmes such as mentoring, coaching, positive people management, collective leadership and other talent programmes
• Car lease, our staff benefits from competitive deals to lease cars
• Accommodation, our staff benefits from keyworker housing available which is available on selected sites
• NHS discounts, with discounts up to 10% from a variety of well-known retail brands though Health Service Discounts website.

• Reporting any incident or Serious Untoward Incidents that may take place in a community setting and provide reports and accurate records relating to the
• Working safely to ensure safe custody of medicines, sharps, and clinical equipment in a community setting; and reporting of all incidents following Trust Policy
• Recognising and responding appropriately to “self-harm and suicide prevention” with particular regard to the risks in community settings, in line with Trust policies and training
• Understanding and working within the boundaries of the Lone Working Policy and awareness of Personal Safety in a community setting, including clear and updated communication with
• Responding to urgent situations, emergencies or crises using protocols specific to the local community

• Understanding and implementing safeguarding procedures in a community setting; recognise, report and investigate safeguarding issues and raise safeguarding alerts if you suspect that a service user and/or carer has been exposed to harm or
• Understanding and implementing of Duty of Candour with regard to the particular issues in a community

• Demonstrating an awareness and understanding of relevant and up-to- date Mental Health Law of particular relevance in community settings; ensuring adherence to legislation at all
• Having knowledge of the legal requirements of the Mental Health Act, Care Act, Mental Capacity Act, Programme Approach, Deprivation of Liberty, Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults and Community Treatment Orders.

• Understanding and implementing infection control measures in a community

• Preparing and providing reports on information and statistics as required relating to case load, regularity of visits and details of contact with clients and
• Communicating/liaising effectively with relevant agencies to ensure that an integrated programme of care is provided
• Working closely with relevant professionals identifying health needs of the practice population and support the development of services in response to those
• Leading and participating in team, locality and Trust initiatives as required and promote the strategic aims and objectives of the service, Nursing strategy and other relevant quality improvement initiatives in the
• Leading and actively contributing to clinical or governance reviews of the team’s activity and the monitoring of performance in line with trust directives and audit programmes in the
• Documenting according to Trust policy, write in plain language, avoiding jargon and use of
• Engaging in practice reflection through clinical supervision and reflective practice groups and contributing to the delivery of clinical supervision to junior
• Demonstrate leadership skills within the clinical context of the community, showing awareness of the challenges facing staff working in a community setting and supporting junior staff as appropriate.

• To contribute to the improvement of pathways between primary and secondary care and where practicable, to standardise processes across the pathways
• To support primary care initiatives which improve the physical health outcomes of those with a long-term mental health condition and the mental health outcomes of those with a long-term physical health condition

Training Development and Education:

• To undertake mandatory and statutory training as required by Trust policy, identifying individual training needs.
• To contribute and commit to undertaking an annual Development Review/appraisal.
• To undertake personal development as identified in the Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Person specification

Education and Qualification

• Holdd a professional qualification
• Evidence of recent continued professional development.

• A commitment to completing quality improvement training.
• Mentorship or equivalent

Experience

• Relevant clinical experience.
• Demonstrate ability to complete good quality research based/reflective practice e.g. understanding and ability to use supervision to reflect on skills, attitude and knowledge and develop these by using evidence-based practice.
• Knowledge of relevant professional and clinical legislation.
• Ability to proactively and independently manage a workload.
• Experience of successfully providing a range of clinical interventions, including triage and assessment, to people in the designated care group with a variety of health problems.

• Experience of working in primary care
• Experience of developing and facilitating teaching programme for staff.
• Experience of working in a community mental health setting.
• Experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in adult mental health.

Knowledge

• An understanding of the relationship between primary and secondary care services.
• Awareness of racial and diversity issues and factors affecting access to mental health care.
• Knowledge of key legislation and guidelines in relation to statutory mental health responsibilities, including Safeguarding Adults, Young people and children.
• An understanding of the stepped care model of delivery of psychological therapies for depression, anxiety and personality disorder.
• Ability to provide quality care that is responsive to service user needs, without close supervision.

• Theoretical knowledge of psychopathology and the evidence base for the relevant treatment.
• Knowledge of the theory of psychological models, such as CBT, DBT, or MBT.

Skills and Abilities

• Highly developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, highly technical and sensitive information to clients, their families and colleagues.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate and to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive and/or challenging behaviour.
• Effective IT skills.
• Good organisational skills.
• Skills in emotional resilience: able to cope in difficult interpersonal situations.

• Accredited practitioner skills in at least one model of psychological therapy.
• Accredited nurse prescriber
• Ability to contribute to, monitor and implement changes and improvements to services.
• Specialised clinical skills, e.g. group work, anxiety/anger management, family work skills

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’