Senior Mental Health Practitioner - Enhanced Triage

Devon Partnership Nhs Trust; Totnes; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare organization in the UK is seeking a Band 6 Senior Mental Health Practitioner to join their Managing Mood, Emotions & Relationships pathway. You will develop and evaluate innovative triage assessments aimed at supporting children and young people with emotional difficulties. The role emphasizes collaboration and timely, needs-led decision-making within a multi-disciplinary team. Ideal candidates should have relevant mental health qualifications and strong interpersonal skills.

Qualifications

• Experience in conducting mental health assessments.
• Ability to develop care plans and manage risks.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Undertake enhanced triage assessments for timely decision-making.
• Provide brief formulations and risk assessments in collaboration with others.
• Conduct telephone triage for service suitability and information gathering.
• Support development and evaluation of the Enhanced Triage Pilot.

Skills

Enhanced triage assessments

Risk assessments

Collaboration with multi-disciplinary teams

Psychoeducation

Education

Relevant mental health qualification

Job description

Children and Family Health Devon is excited to offer a 12-month fixed-term opportunity for a Band 6 Senior Mental Health Practitioner to join our Managing Mood, Emotions & Relationships (MERs) pathway as part of a newly funded Enhanced Triage Pilot. This innovative model is designed to improve access, flow and coordination for children and young people presenting with emotional and relational difficulties. The pilot ensures that every child referred for a specialist mental health assessment receives a telephone triage assessment within two weeks of referral, providing earlier engagement, better prioritisation and improved continuity of care. You will play a key role in developing, delivering and evaluating this new approach, helping us test a model that puts children and families firmly at the centre of what we do.

• Undertake enhanced triage assessments to support timely, needs-led decision-making for children and young people.
• Provide brief formulations, risk assessments and signposting in collaboration with multi-disciplinary colleagues.
• Conduct telephone triage calls to confirm service suitability, gather clinical information and complete initial risk assessments.
• Develop care plans while children are waiting, including safety planning, signposting and psychoeducation.
• Support the ongoing development and evaluation of the Enhanced Triage Pilot, contributing to audit and quality-improvement work.
• Uphold safeguarding and risk-management standards and promote high-quality, responsive care.
  Successful applicants will be employed by Devon Partnership Trust (https://jobs.dpt.nhs.uk/locations/working-here )

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD)

CFHD comprises an Alliance of NHS organisations working together to improve health outcomes for children and young people in Devon. CFHD provides integrated care and treatment for children and young people across physical and mental health. We are working closely with other organisations and providers to ensure we deliver locality and county-wide based integrated access to all of our services, based on the i-Thrive Framework, in response to consultation with our service users and communities. CFHD works closely with our local universities of Plymouth, Exeter & the Peninsula Medical School where we support students in clinical training placements and in addition support our own staff to undertake post graduate training. Our children and young people say We would like the people who work for Children and Family Health Devon to be understanding, patient and respectful. They should be trustworthy and make us feel safe and comfortable. It is important that they use their skills and experience to listen carefully in a non-patronising and non-judgemental way. When staff are positive and friendly, they help to create an environment that is informal and without pressure. Our vision is to be a successful, vibrant, partnership that benefits the communities we serve.