Mental Health Practitioner

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Borough of Swale; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS trust seeks a Mental Health Practitioner to deliver specialist mental healthcare within the Mental Health In-Reach Team. This role involves managing a diverse caseload of offenders, providing interventions, and collaborating with community teams to ensure continuity of care. Ideal candidates will possess a strong background in mental health practices and demonstrate compassion and commitment towards improving health outcomes for offenders.

Qualifications

• Experienced in managing a diverse caseload.
• Skilled in risk assessments and care planning.
• Ability to deliver group and individual therapy.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist mental healthcare within multidisciplinary teams.
• Deliver interventions including triage and evidence-based treatments.
• Manage assessments and facilitate therapy sessions.

Skills

Assessment Skills

Mental Health Interventions

Team Collaboration

Education

Qualified mental health professional

Job description

As a Mental Health Practitioner, you will provide specialist mental healthcare to offenders as part of the Mental Health In-Reach Team and wider mental health services. Your role involves working in a psychologically minded way to help offenders achieve their goals and improve health outcomes.

Our Mental Health Team offers specialist interventions at primary and secondary care levels, including referral management, screening assessments, triage, evidence-based interventions, care planning, risk assessments, and facilitation of one-to-one and group work.

Practitioners manage a varied and challenging caseload, performing assessments, screenings, and interventions for offenders with learning disabilities and mental health conditions. You will contribute to reducing inpatient admissions and facilitate early discharges through high-intensity interventions and complex case management.

A key goal is to ensure continuity of care for offenders in community settings, reducing stays in prison inpatient services and external NHS or private inpatient facilities. You will collaborate with community mental health teams to share information and maintain the Care Programme Approach as needed.

Responsibilities include:

1. Providing specialist mental healthcare within the team and wider multidisciplinary team.
2. Delivering interventions such as referral management, screening, triage, and evidence-based treatments.
3. Developing care plans and performing risk assessments.
4. Facilitating individual and group therapy sessions.
5. Managing a diverse and challenging caseload.

Oxleas offers a broad range of NHS healthcare services in community and secure environments. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services, serving prisons across Kent, South London, Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire.

Our healthcare services operate in six prisons within the Kent Cluster, each requiring tailored services to meet prisoner and prison needs:

• HMP Swaleside – Cat B – Population: 1,112
• HMP Elmley – Cat B/C – Population: 1,252
• HMP Stanford Hill – Cat D – Population: 450
• HMP Maidstone – Cat C – Population: 600
• HMP Rochester – Cat C – Population: 695
• HMP East Sutton Park – Cat D – Population: 90

Our wider services include community healthcare such as district nursing, speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities, and mental health services including psychiatry and therapies. Our 4,300 staff work across hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools, and homes.

We operate over 125 sites across the South of England. Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care, guided by our values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

For further details or informal visits, contact:

• Name: Clare Denny
• Job Title: Recruitment & Retention Resourcing Officer
• Email: [e-mail]
• Phone: [phone]