Associate Mental Health Practitioner

EAST LONDON NHS FOUNDATION TRUST; Greater London; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent health service provider in Greater London is seeking an Associate Mental Health Practitioner to support individuals in crisis. Responsibilities include triaging calls, managing mental health needs, and ensuring high-quality crisis support. Candidates should demonstrate strong assessment and decision-making skills. The role offers flexible arrangements and training opportunities.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Relocation support of up to £10,000

Qualifications

• Ability to work under supervision providing mental health support.
• Experience with mental health crisis intervention.
• Willingness to undertake physical health checks training.

Responsibilities

• Respond to calls and messages from patients in crisis.
• Triage and manage mental health support requests.
• Ensure high-quality crisis support line operation.
• Document actions and refer patients effectively.

Skills

Assessment skills

Decision making

Crisis management

Communication skills

Education

Relevant mental health training

Job description

The Associate Mental Health Practitioner will work across the Service as directed to provide and support smooth transitions between teams and a high level of experience for the person in crisis. The Associate Practitioner will demonstrate robust assessment, risk assessment and management skills and possess sound decision making skills for people in a mental health crisis and will formulate crisis safety plans under the guidance of registered clinicians. They will demonstrate an understanding of a range of brief interventions and be able to provide robust physical health checks or be willing to undertake training to do so. They will be expected to work under supervision, with adherence to Trust procedures and policies, and to employ value based and socially inclusive practice.

Responsibilities

• Taking calls and text messages from patients and carers with all levels and complexities of Mental Health needs
• Triaging calls and text messages ensuring they are dealt with by the most appropriate professional
• Provision of a high quality Mental Health crisis support line
• Meeting the key performance indicators set for answering calls and responding to text messages
• Liaise with other professionals and agencies as appropriate to support the person in crisis
• Triage all calls and text messages coming through to the ELFT centralised crisis line
• If patient has a physical health need that takes precedent over mental health need then seek and document advice on whether to transfer back to NHS111 or 999
• Signposting callers to other Trust services where appropriate – referring patients and carers to appropriate downstream mental health and support services
• Seek advice and support with regard to escalating concerns about an individual user
• Seek and document advice from a qualified mental health practitioner in order to continue the call and text message thread
• Be clear at which point to hand‑off the call or text message to a qualified mental health practitioner in order to continue the discussion based on details already gathered
• To ensure that all callers are welcomed in a courteous manner
• To ensure that all telephone and text message enquiries to teams are handled politely and sympathetically, ensuring that all onward referrals are completed in a timely and accurate manner which may often involve dealing with difficult and distressed patients on the phone

Quality Improvement

Making Things Better: Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don't stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services. We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

About the Trust

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care. We were rated 'Outstanding' by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated 'Outstanding' again in 2018 and continue to be rated 'Outstanding' in 2021. We were named in the HSJ's Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018. We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us. We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds and cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre‑set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to make sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's job share, part time or another flexible pattern. As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.