Mental Health Practitioner

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; City Of London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in the UK is seeking a Mental Health Practitioner to support care homes in managing dementia-related behavioral symptoms. The practitioner will provide training, case management, and specialist assessments. Ideal candidates will have expertise in older adult mental health and experience in care home settings. This role involves collaborating in a multi-disciplinary team to enhance care delivery and minimize hospitalization for patients with mental health issues.

Qualifications

• Experience in case management for individuals with mental health issues.
• Understanding of BPSD and SMI in a care home environment.
• Ability to provide evidence-based practice in a multi-disciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Provide training and support to care home staff.
• Manage referrals and complete specialist assessments.
• Offer time-limited interventions.

Skills

Specialist knowledge of older adult mental health care

Ability to cope with stressful situations

Empathy

Education

Relevant mental health qualification

Job description

The Care Home Team works across Greenwich and Bexley to support care homes in providing a biopsychological approach to behavioural and psychological symptoms of Dementia (BPSD). The Mental Health Practitioner will work as part of a small multi-disciplinary team, providing training and ongoing support to nurses and carers in residential and nursing homes across Bexley and Greenwich.

The training and support focus on BPSD and severe mental illness (SMI), promoting person-centred ways of understanding and delivering care. The Mental Health Practitioner will also manage referrals, complete specialist assessments, and offer time-limited interventions to individual clients to reduce levels of BPSD, reduce the use of anti-psychotic medications, and admissions to hospital.

Key responsibilities include providing case management to individual clients, offering specialist Mental Health Practitioner input as part of the MDT to other clients, and providing specialist advice, assessment, and evidence-based practice to service users with mental health problems in care homes.

The ideal candidate will have specialist knowledge of older adult mental health care and a good understanding of care homes. They will be able to cope with occasional stressful, upsetting, or emotional situations in an empathetic manner and work in an environment where work patterns may be disrupted by frequent demands from service users, clinical staff, students, and administrative support staff.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care, care for people with learning disabilities, and mental health care.

We are proud of the care we provide and our people, and our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. Our values include:

• We're Kind
• We're Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Oxleas is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.