Band 6 MINT Specialist Mental Health Practitioner - Weston-Super-Mare

Job overview

The role promotes and provides early assessment, treatment and improved access to evidence-based interventions supporting people contacting primary care for help with their mental health needs.

Please note: This post is open to newly qualified social workers. In line with AWP trust policy all newly qualified social workers (NQSW) will be recruited initially at Band 5 level, regardless of advertised role banding. All NQSW’s are expected to successfully complete their ASYE within 2 years of employment, unless there are exceptional circumstances in which case it may be extended for a further 2 years.

If you have been appointed to an advertised Band 6 role this will be an automatic progression, following confirmation of your successful ASYE completion. If you have been appointed to a Band 5 post you will then be eligible to apply for a subsequent Band 6 vacancy upon successful ASYE completion.

Main duties of the job

The Specialist Mental Health Practitioner role will help people over 18 years old, who are accessing support through primary care, to define achievable goals and access local community resources.

Areas of focus will include:

Those with mental health needs that do not meet the access criteria for IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies provided through Vita Health) and do not meet the access criteria for secondary care.

People with serious or significant mental illness (SMI) who are supported within recovery services and relatively stable in secondary care mental health services, who could be cared for within primary care.

Those diagnosed with, or presenting with traits of, personality disorder who will benefit from being signposted to services who can best meet their needs

Older adults with complex presenting issues

First contact with primary care

Facilitate mental health and ‘strengths-based’ support conversations in Primary Care and support the Primary Care Team in accessing appropriate level of services

Promote understanding and confidence in the delivery of mental health care and collaboration with all agencies involved in the care of service users

Where required, train and supervise junior staff in line with own role

Promote the importance of working with strengths and aspirations of the person referred.

Provide succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice) to support patient safety planning.

Working for our organisation

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. Contribute to delivering and co-developing the primary care mental health service model. This includes care pathways for the provision of integrated physical and mental health care in a designated Primary Care Network within the Division.
2. Be the point of contact for patients that are directed from primary care via an agreed route, promote early assessment / treatment, and ensure robust relationships and links with other community-based services.
3. Work closely with and become a part of the primary care team, including social prescribers and recovery navigators, to support adults (18+) with mental health needs, whose mental health needs can be best met within primary care and whose difficulties are best understood within a biopsychosocial model.
4. Work closely with colleagues in specialist community mental health services to ensure smooth transitions between teams and services and facilitate an ‘easy in, easy out’ approach to improve access to evidence-based interventions.
5. Connect people to appropriate community and voluntary sector support working alongside Social Prescribers.
6. Facilitate mental health and ‘strengths-based’ support conversations in Primary Care and support the Primary Care Team in accessing appropriate level of services.
7. Build and facilitate closer links between Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and Community

1. Promote understanding and confidence in the delivery of mental health care and collaboration with all agencies involved in the care of service users
2. Provide targeted formal and informal learning opportunities for all staff within the primary care teams to develop their knowledge and capabilities within the mental health component of holistic care
3. Provide information, ‘sign posting’ and support for service users and their relatives/carers with mental health needs
4. Foster strong collaborative and trusting working relationships with the referring agent/Primary Care Health Professionals underpinned by an educative and solutions focused philosophy whilst providing credible clinical expertise
5. Facilitate the development of safe and effective mental health care practice within the primary care setting.
6. Where required, train and supervise AWP junior staff in line with own role

1. Promote the importance of working with strengths and aspirations of the person referred.
2. Provide succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice) to support patient safety planning.
3. Assess and advise on the impact of culture and diversity alongside colleagues from Primary Care.
4. Give best practice advice and support in a broad range of conditions for people with both functional and organic mental health needs.
5. Promote the needs of family and carer/s, including various support networks and third sector agencies.
6. Advise and support on evaluating risk from a positive risk-taking perspective.
7. Support and advice within safeguarding and public protection procedures where the issues are complicated by mental health problems, alongside Primary Care colleagues.
8. Provide a prompt response to all contacts following jointly agreed procedures and within agreed time frames.
9. Ensure, where needed, that people experience a seamless transfer into AWP provider/treatment services via trusted assessment processes.
10. Following assessment, provide short- term follow up of patients where appropriate.
11. Contribute evidence-based expertise to multi-disciplinary team processes.
12. Promote positive attitudes, mutual understanding and collaboration between non-mental health staff and mental health services, users, carers, voluntary agencies, primary care and social services
13. Demonstrate responsibility for developing own practice in line with professional qualifications and for contributing to the development of others, by making use of and providing, effective feedback, supervision, coaching and appraisal.
14. Adhere to the relevant professional code of conduct ensuring required skills and competencies required are maintained.
15. Monitor and maintain health, safety and security of self and others, undertaking assessments and taking appropriate action where required.
16. Develop own knowledge and practice, and contribute to the development of others, making use of available feedback, supervision and appraisal to identify appropriate areas of development for this work role, taking responsibility for accessing identified learning and training opportunities.
17. Maintain appropriate health record, in accordance with professional and organisational standards.
18. Participate in clinical audit and service evaluation programmes as required
19. Participate in local arrangements, where required, to manage unexpected staff absence

PLEASE SEE JD ATTCHED FOR MORE DETAILS

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist
• Post qualifying experience working in the community

• Additional training (ie CBT, DBT or other)

This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

Click here to view our applicant guidance

Please apply to join us, we would love to hear from you. Any personal details you supply to us are kept safe in line with the General Data Protection Regulations.

Adverts normally close for application a few minutes before midnight on the closing date and we will let you know if we are offering you an interview by email via our recruitment system ‘TRAC’. We contact all applicants within 4 weeks after the closing date, so please check your emails regularly once you have submitted your application; you are welcome to contact us, via the TRAC system, if you have any queries about your application.

Please note the use of AI is monitored and if you have used it in your application you are required to declare this.