Mental Health Practitioner

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community based services for the populations we serve.

As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.
• Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers.

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.

For more information visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.

Job overview

The mental health liaison team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users over 16yrs, carers and clinical colleagues based within the Acute Hospital Trust. This involves:

• Offering an assessment service to patients presenting with a range of mental health and psychological problems.
• Providing a mental health consultation-liaison and advice service
• Delivering a range of interventions to individual patients and their families, as appropriate
• Assisting and supporting general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations
• Providing formal and informal education and clinical supervision to registered and unregistered staff
• Representing mental health services within the general hospital
• Providing a communication structure between the general hospital, secondary mental health services, primary care and non-statutory services, as a means of ensuring the highest possible standards of patient care
• Following assessment, discuss and agree with the band 7 practitioner, the most appropriate pathway, signposting and were an inpatient stay is potentially required refer to the Enhanced Gatekeeping MDT.
• Co-ordinate 136 MHA presentations in the A&E Department and support Section 136 Suites co-located.

You will have experience of working with service users who present with complex mental health needs.

Main duties of the job

The Mental Health Liaison team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users, carers and clinical colleagues based within our acute trusts at Royal Preston Hospital and Chorley and South Ribble Hospital.

• Offering an assessment service to patients presenting with a range of mental health and psychological problems.
• Providing a mental health consultation-liaison and advice service
• Delivering a range of interventions to individual patients and their families, as appropriate
• Assisting and supporting general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations
• Providing formal and informal education and clinical supervision to registered and unregistered staff
• Representing mental health services within the general hospital
• Providing a communication structure between the general hospital, secondary mental health services, primary care and non-statutory services, as a means of ensuring the highest possible standards of patient care
• Following assessment, discuss and agree with the band 7 practitioner, the most appropriate pathway, signposting and where an inpatient stay is potentially required refer to the Enhanced Gatekeeping MDT.
• Co-ordinate 136 MHA presentations in the A&E Department and support Section 136 Suites co-located.

Working for our organisation

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care.

For more information please visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached the job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse qualification
• On-going registration with the NMC.
• Specialist qualification or equivalent level in skills and development
• Evidence of commitment to continuing professional development

Knowledge

• Understanding of Health and Safety policies and procedures
• Knowledge and practice of Mental Health Act 1983
• Knowledge and practice of the Mental Capacity Act 2005
• Knowledge of common mental health problems and medication used in relation to these

Experience

• Supervision and management of staff
• Experience of assessing, planning and implementing and reviewing care needs
• Experienced in acting as a mentor/assessor of student staff
• Experience of interacting therapeutically with distress and /or disturbed individuals

Please note that further communication from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) will normally be to the email address given on the application form. You should also ensure that email addresses and telephone numbers are provided for your referees, to enable LSCft to contact them.

Personalisation is essential when submitting an application form to convey your skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively.

Please ensure that you read the person specification attached below as your application will be measured against this document. Applications from job share partners are welcome and other forms of flexible working will be considered for all posts.

For all posts which require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check please be aware of the Disclosure and Barring Service Code of Practice, a copy of which is available by logging on to the DBS website. If the post is subject to DBS disclosure, a charge will be made to the successful candidate(s).

You are advised to consider applying for LSCft vacancies as soon as possible as in some instances vacancies are closed as soon as a sufficient number of applications have been received. If you are not invited to interview within three weeks of the closing date then please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful, as it is not possible to contact all unsuccessful candidates.

LSCft is committed to celebrating difference as an asset and we know that recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds helps to create a more flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability (particularly those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion or belief or sexual orientation.

Our goal is for the Trust to be truly representative of the communities we serve so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people in under-represented groups. If there is anything you’d like to discuss in relation to your application then please ask.