Senior Mental Health Practitioner - fixed term

Job overview

Please note this is a fixed term contract for 12 months.

The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team for older adults is a well-established, friendly and supportive multi-disciplinary team based in Fulbourn, Cambridge . The team offer intensive support and treatment at home, and in care homes, for older adults with mental health challenges, including the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. The service we offer includes:

Crisis intervention, intensive treatment, support, risk assessment and management to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and facilitating earlier discharge from mental health hospital. Dementia Intensive Support which offers a practical and a psycho-educational approach to care within patients' homes and care homes.

We are strong, passionate, and a fun-loving team with a wealth of clinical experience and knowledge and are looking for a person to join us who will have the following attributes:

A similar passion for working with older people. A desire to develop and enhance existing skills and knowledge. Drive and motivation whilst working under pressure in very busy team. Experience in carrying out Clinical assessment including robust risk assessments. A strong team-player with a great sense of humour! Motivated by a desire to make a difference. Able to contribute to team meetings and offer a lead role within the teams

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will work within the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team for older people to provide a mental health service seven days a week, within a community setting, by providing a psychosocial assessment to those who present with a range of mental health problems.
• To work in partnership with service users and carers to provide treatment within the least restrictive environment.
• To take on the role of care coordinator for clients and provide leadership support to others, to ensure that full assessment of individual care needs are undertaken, that care is planned, implemented and reviewed on a regular basis.
• To provide assessment to those at risk of being admitted to hospital and provide care, support and treatment within a community setting or facilitate admission to hospital and promote rapid discharge.
• To provide clinical risk and mental health assessment, formulation and short-term contingency planning for people presenting in mental health crisis.
• To act as a role model and promote effective teamwork across the service to meet individual client needs.
• To provide a crisis and home treatment service to patients, which incorporates dementia intensive support.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

Please see Job Description and Person Specification for further information and detail.

• Screen referral to the service and prioritise referrals effectively and safely
• Provide holistic psychosocial assessment, and subsequent planning and implementation of individual packages of care and treatment.
• Undertake clinical risk assessments, based on latest empirical evidence and compliant with local policies and procedures.
• Undertake risk management; practising safely and accordingly to individual service user needs.
• Provide evidence based clinical interventions, making autonomous clinical decisions about own professional practice.
• Responsibility for the development, planning and implementation of brief care and treatment interventions for individual patients.
• Ensure that individual episodes of care are delivered in a timely, effective, and integrated manner.
• Promote a recovery model that empowers patients, carers, and relatives to be at the forefront of decision making and ownership of their packages of care and treatment.

*DVLA have a number of reciprocal arrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website