CAMHS Single Point of Access (SPA) Clinician

Job overview

The purpose of the Single Point of Access (SPA) is to assess children and young people being referred in to the CAMHS Division to ascertain the most appropriate service to meet their needs. The post requires significant clinical and organisational skills. You will adhere to the goals of ‘No wrong Front Door’ and support the operations of the Access Team who seek to identify the right service for a young person at the right time. You will be responsible for coordinating the intake of referrals into CAMHS, carrying out telephone triages, face to face assessments and brief interventions with children aged 0-18 years and their families. The post of access clinicians will also contribute to the management of waiting lists and the duty call rota. The SPA Clinician will work with front line administrators and senior colleagues to identify presenting needs, manage risk and support young people and parents whilst they wait for therapy. This will involve liaising with young people, parents, carers and professionals at the point of their referral as well as when issues arise during the wait for treatment. We have developed a system of screening/triage delivered by therapists to help identify treatment needs and assess risk. The post-holder will play a crucial role in coordinating this as well as undertaking clinical assessments and some brief interventions themselves. The post-holder will be well supported in this role by senior colleagues particularly in risk assessment and management.

Main duties of the job

Coordinate the day to day running of the SPA team, including screening new referrals and allocating these to the access clinicians. Complete telephone triages/screening for young people themselves, telephone risk assessment and management plans. Complete brief assessments and interventions for young people referred to the CAMHS Division. Manage and maintain clear waiting lists for the clinical teams that sit within the CAMHS Division. Ensure the safe delivery of Key KPI’s and access to treatment standards.  Comply with the service requirements for the completion of routine outcome measures. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients  To plan and implement formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems.   Where appropriate, to implement a range of brief psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations.  To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Coordinate the day to day running of the SPA team, including screening new referrals and allocating these to the access clinicians.  Complete telephone triages/screening for young people who are referred to our service, making contact with families, allied professionals and the young person themselves. Complete over the telephone risk assessment and management plans.  Complete brief assessments and interventions for young people referred to the CAMHS Division.  Manage and maintain clear waiting lists for the clinical teams that sit within the CAMHS Division. Manage and maintain a clear duty rota for the CAMHS Division. Ensure the safe delivery of Key KPI’s and access to treatment standards. Comply with the service requirements for the completion of routine outcome measures.  To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the Service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.Where appropriate, to implement a range of brief psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.  To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.  To be responsible and accountable for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management. To attend multi agency meetings to support the referral and assessment of children and young people to specialist CAMHS.