Senior Psychiatric Liaison Nurse

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

The Lambeth Mental Health Liaison Service at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust seeks a permanent full-time Senior Mental Health Liaison Nurse. The role centers on front-of-house specialist assessments in the Emergency Department, acting as a shift coordinator to prioritise patients and route them to the correct pathway.

You will work with ED staff and visiting agencies, provide direct support, and signpost to services such as UCC, GP, and IAPT.

Qualifications

• Senior mental health practitioner with front-of-house triage experience.
• Ability to triage urgent/emergent mental health needs in ED.
• Leadership and supervision within a psychiatric liaison team.

Responsibilities

• Be based on the emergency floor to provide direct formal/informal support to ED teams and visiting agencies.
• Direct referrals from ED to appropriate assessment pathways via front door triage.
• Collaborate with the Enhanced Care Team on enhanced observations for mental health patients.
• Act as part of the ED response for patients detained under S136 or police referrals.
• Lead the liaison service and provide safeguarding guidance and clinical supervision.

Skills

Front door triage

Triage coordination

ED liaison

Clinical supervision

Safeguarding

Education

Registered Mental Health Nurse

NMC registration

Job description

Here at the Lambeth Mental Health Liaison Service, we are excited to advertise a permanent full time senior mental health liaison nurse position within our team. The primary function of this role is to work as a highly experienced mental health practitioner, carrying out front of house specialist assessments (i.e. the front door triage model) within the Emergency Department (ED) as part of the Mental Health Liaison Team (MHLT). The psychiatric nurse in charge (Psych NIC) is responsible for ensuring all those who present to the ED with an acute mental health need, receive timely and appropriate care, in the right place, at the right time, by the right person. The PNIC will be expected to actively identify and triage those presenting to the ED with an urgent or emergent need for mental health care, psychological support and/ or those with substance misuse problems. Working alongside the ED team they try to ensure appropriate medical clearance wherever appropriate. However, this does not explicitly mean that all face-to-face contact is completed by the PNIC; instead acting as a shift coordinator to ensure that all patients are prioritised in terms of need and allocated to the team appropriate to that need of the patient and the skill mix on shift., The Psych NIC will:}

• be based on the emergency floor for much of the shift providing direct formal and informal support to the ED teams and visiting agencies.
• Offering face to face support directing referrals from the emergency floor to the most appropriate assessment pathway i.e. via the front door triage model, direct to the PLN's for full assessment or determining if further medical assessments need to be completed inline with our parallel assessment protocol.
• Work alongside the enhanced care team (ECT) in making decisions about enhanced observations for mental health patients.
• Act as part of the ED response team for patients detained on S136 or police referrals, and work to ensure timely throughput in department in line with the GSTT CODE10 protocol.
• Work alongside ED triage teams to evaluate fitness for assessment, and support visible parallel working. (see parallel working protocol)
• Through use of the front door triage model and from being visible and approachable able assist referrers in signposting to other services - including UCC, GP, IAPT etc.
• Assist the PLN assessment team working as the Psychiatric Nurse in Charge.
• Take a lead role within the liaison service, providing support and guidance within the service but also within their specialist lead area. i.e. safeguarding etc.
• provide clinical supervision with the band 6 (assessing) psychiatric liaison nursing team.South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training. SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field. The core philosophy of the Core24 Mental Health Liaison team is: "We take a professional, honest, caring and open-minded approach. We encourage and support choice. We are prompt and will take time to listen, work collaboratively with you and stick to our word. We respect differences"}