Mental Health Duty Practitioner

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Nhs Trust; Stoke-on-Trent; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust seeks a Duty Mental Health Practitioner to support the Talking Therapies service in triage, risk management, and client referrals. You will interact with CBT Therapists, PWPs, and other teams to ensure safe and effective care for people with common mental health problems.

The role requires a postgraduate qualification in an adult mental health field, current professional registration, and experience of community-based therapeutic work, with a

Qualifications

• Experience of working therapeutically in community settings.
• Understanding of safeguarding levels and risk management.
• Ability to work autonomously and in collaboration with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical risk advice and safeguarding support to staff.
• Carry a caseload and triage referrals into the Talking Therapies service.
• Support interface discussions between Talking Therapies and Secondary Care.
• Develop relationships with internal and external partners to enable clinical pathways.

Skills

Therapy practice

Education

Postgraduate qualification in relevant field

Adult Mental Health qualification (RMN/OT/Social Worker/Therapist)

Job description

Job summary

We have an excellent opportunity for an experienced Duty Mental Health Practitioner to join us in a new role in an established Talking Therapies service.

You will work as part of our Talking Therapies services dealing closely with a wide range of stakeholders providing first-class clinical care.

You should hold a current registration to a professional health registered body, maintain ongoing professional development and training to the equivalent of safeguarding Level 3.

Experience should include:

• working within NHS mental health services with a range of mental health issues.
• assessing & managing multiple presentations of risk. multidisciplinary working.
• assessment & managing wide range of safeguarding issues. working with people with depression and anxiety who may present in acute mental distress
• providing risk & safeguarding advice, consultation and/or supervision to other practitioners.

If you are a highly organised and motivated individual with a commitment to the NHS and patient care then we would welcome your application.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will support the day-to-day management of the duty team. This will include triaging complex referrals that come into the service that may come from professionals or clients self-referring. The post holder will manage, process, hear and deliver sensitive information which may be distressing in nature, and will manage risk within the triage process.

The post holder will also be required to caseload manage members of the therapy team both routinely and on demand, specifically where a team member needs immediate supervision relating to risk management of a client presenting in crisis.

The development of positive working relationships and the ability to work autonomously with partners, agencies and bodies both internal and external to the trust is key to the successful application of this role.

About us

As a Trust we remain bold and ambitious with plans for both service and system collaborative transformation over the coming years to improve the health and wellbeing of our local people through high quality care.

We pride ourselves on ensuring our team has their wellbeing put first and as such provide a range of wellness opportunities including flexible working.

We are committed to the Greener NHS national ambition to becoming the world's first 'carbon net zero' national health system by 2045 (Greener NHS (england.nhs.uk)). As part of this, sustainability is embedded in our strategy as one of our four key enablers. In order to deliver on this commitment, we recognise that we need a workforce that is as passionate as we are about achieving these goals, for the benefit of our service users, workforce, local communities and the planet alike.

The Trust is committed to ensuring that a diverse workforce is representative and inclusive at all levels. We would very much welcome applications from all under-represented groups including women, people with disabilities, people from global majority backgrounds, and those from the lesbian, gay, bi and trans communities.

The Trust is committed to the Step into Health scheme and actively encourages applicants from the Armed Forces Communities to apply.

Job responsibilities

Working as part of the Duty Team you will be responsible for providing advice and support to our staff (CBT Therapists/Counsellors, DIT, IPT, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) and our administrative team) about all aspects of clinical risk, supporting robust risk management and safeguarding processes across the service.

The Duty Mental Health Practitioner will have substantial client contact by telephone, often talking with people who may be distressed, to help screen client suitability for the service and make referrals where appropriate into secondary mental health services. There may be some additional responsibilities in supporting interface discussions between Talking Therapies Services and Secondary Care mental health services.

We welcome applicants who have experience of and confidence in managing risk. A working knowledge of primary and secondary mental health care services would be an advantage.

• Deliver effective caseload management and provide feedback on performance to the senior management team, whilst also managing own caseload within the duty team.
• Responsibility for the management of the duty /triage activity including issues relating to referrals, allocation, activity levels, and clinical risk. This will include receiving highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, and taking referrals over the telephone. Triage may involve experiencing hostility, antagonistic, or highly emotive information, alongside eliciting and providing information that can be sensitive in nature. It will also include communication of information relating to risk and treatment to other professionals, sometimes through interpreters or advocates, including behaviour, state of mind, and where there is a need for empathy and reassurance to gain agreement from the client to proceed with the most appropriate care pathway/care package given the presentation.
• Facilitate the triage of clients presenting with multiple or complex issues, including consideration of allocation to assessment for the appropriate therapeutic treatment, and decisions regarding onward referral to specialist services. This will include communicating sensitive information where clients may be hostile.
• The development of close working relationships with other clinical teams to support appropriate clinical pathways and onward referrals based on complexity and clinical need is crucial.
• Translate the national NHS Talking Therapies agenda into practice by ensuring that recommendations from national policy and guidance are communicated and understood and implemented across the team.

See attached JD for full details

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Post graduate qualification in an associated field of professional scope/therapies or equivalent experience. Professional qualification relevant to Adult Mental Health i.e. RMN, OT, Social Worker, Therapist. Post qualification training at diploma/degree level

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working therapeutically in community settings

Desirable

• Minimum of one years' post registration experience working in a community mental health setting

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of psychosocial interventions

Desirable

• Awareness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and principles of NHS talking Therapies service in relation to treatment for common mental health problems

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.

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).

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).