Senior Community Mental Health Practitioner inExeter inExeter PUBLISHED 19 DEC 2023

Job Purpose

The post holder will deliver high quality comprehensive mental health services. The role involves managing a defined caseload with a focus on providing expert assessment and treatment for people with complex mental health difficulties and their carers. This will include recovery co-ordination (design and co-ordination of treatment packages that are personalised and evaluated in line with payment by results). To provide statutory Adult Social Care, Care Management functions (assessment, care planning and reviewing). The liaison with a wide range of statutory and non-statutory agencies is central to this role.

The post holder will contribute to the clinical leadership of the team, providing supervision for other members and participating in team and service development, and evaluation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

• Contribute to the teams engagement with a wide range of stakeholders including staff, service users, their carers and other statutory and voluntary sector agencies.

Impart highly complex and sensitive information to :

1. Patients and families/carers re assessment, care planning, treatment and review
2. Multi-disciplinary teams to ensure the provision of consistent well coordinated care
3. Primary care teams regarding client care
4. External agencies also involved in the provision of care e.g.: voluntary and private sector, police, social services, housing, employment etc.
5. Service user/carer groups

• Liaise with a wide range of other professionals and agencies.
• Contribute to the safe and effective day to day operations of the service including the handling of clinical enquires.
• Provide and receive information some of which may be contentious, sensitive and highly complex to and from individuals and their families/carers, where there may be barriers to understanding.
• Provide a high standards of written and verbal communication that is clear and in line with professional documentation standards
• Participate in and chair clinical meetings, this will include CPA and non-CPA reviews, professional meetings, and clinical risk meetings.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate in a way that is empathic and reassuring whilst employing negotiating techniques to gain co-operation from highly complex individuals.
• Communicate information in a way that makes it relevant and understandable for service users and carers, working in line with practice standards and operational policies.
• Facilitate fair access to social care services and promote social inclusion regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

• Undertake complex risk assessments and develop a formulation of risk which will lead to the development of risk management plans which have taken into consideration a range of possible options.
• Undertake and continuously re-evaluate complex bio-psycho-social assessments and develop a working formulation and diagnosis which will lead to the development of personalised care packages in line with evidence based and payment by results.
• Ensure the continuous re-evaluation of individuals needs and clinical risk situations and use clinical judgement to formulate the most appropriate clinical plan.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• Organise and facilitate complex meetings, these will include: CPA and non-CPA professional and risk meetings.
• Responsible for managing their own workload to ensure the needs to the individuals who use our services are met taking the wider needs of the team into consideration.
• Ensure that interventions are planned in an integrated and co-ordinated manner particularly where dependent on other external agencies.
• Plan and organise individuals packages of care and ensure that reviews are held within the required time frames, for example Section 117, Funding Panels and CPA.
• Plan own workload and the workload of junior colleagues to ensure that care is provided in the most high quality and cost efficient manner, prioritise and make adjustments as appropriate.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

• Ensure that caseload is well managed and that care and treatment is provided in line with practice standards and recovery co-ordination (CPA and non-CPA).
• Understand social factors that impact upon mental health.
• Develop and deliver care packages including assessing, planning, intervention and evaluation.
• Ensure that all interventions have clear outcomes and that these are taken into consideration when sourcing the resources to best meet the individuals needs. This will include enabling individuals to take up Direct Payments and offering the person as much choice and control of resources as appropriate.
• Ensure that all social care packages are reviewed within the relevant timescales and focus on integration within existing community resources where possible.
• Deliver services using a recovery and strengths approach where the needs of the individual and their carers are held as central and their involvement is proactively encouraged.
• Deliver care in line with evidence based practice and employ engagement and therapeutic skills that are appropriate to the clinical situation presented.
• Responsibility for triaging individuals and signposting to the most appropriate services.
• Provide specialist advice to referrers/other multi-disciplinary staff in relation to the care of individuals.
• Enable communication and engagement of individuals and their carers to ensure that they have a voice about the services they receive and how these are developed. This may include engagement of advocacy services.
• Ensure that appropriate action is taken to safeguarding adults and children. This may include providing and receiving highly complex and sensitive information in relation to safeguarding adult and children work, co-ordinating and chairing safeguarding meetings and implementing relevant care plans.
• Ensure that assessment and treatment plans are holistic, outcome focused and take into account the physical health and social needs of the individual, including input of significant others.
• Ensure the monitoring and review of mental health medication taking into consideration interactions with physical health needs.
• Assess the eligibility of the person for services including financial maximisation, debt advice, budgetary management, FAB/FACS assessment.
• Ensuring timely and accurate documentation of all clinical activity in line with professional guidance and best practice.
• Practice in a way that actively minimises dependency and promotes recovery.

We are looking for a dynamic and enthusiastic Senior Community Mental Health Practitioner (22.5 hours per week - 0.6 wte) to join the Specialist Team for Early Psychosis (STEP) based at Wonford House, Exeter, Devon and St. Johns Court, Exmouth, Devon.

You will be part of a team that is compassionate and supportive. Genuinely committed to working together with the people who use our services, their families, carers and wider support networks in everything that we say and do.

This team provides early intervention for people between the ages of 14-65 years, who may be experiencing a first episode of psychosis. We provide specialist assessments over an extended period of time and provide specialist evidenced based interventions for those confirmed as having a psychosis for a period of up to three years. These include Family Interventions, Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis and Employment support, alongside the usual Care Coordination. Physical Health monitoring and interventions are a developing part of the teams work.

This post will be working primarily in the Exeter & East Devon areas.

• Providing complex assessment and care planning for individuals and their families/carers experiencing First Episode Psychosis (FEP).
• Working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Engage service users and carers assertively in the community.
• Develop and maintain therapeutic relationships with service users and their families and carers and other services to prevent hospital admission.
• Offer a range of NICE evidence based interventions
• To offer proactive risk management approaches to help the service user and their family to reduce disabling effects of psychosis and enable full and sustained recovery
• Provide psycho-education regarding FEP to service users and families.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships and networks with colleagues within mental health services, primary care and other partner agencies including physical health checks and interventions
• Ensure basic needs are addressed i.e. housing, income, support in accessing education/training etc.
• Provide interventions and work with other disciplines/agencies/teams in the care of service users experiencing co-morbid problems with substance use/misuse.
• Engage the service user and their family in relapse prevention and crisis planning and provide and coordinate interventions that maximise the service users' ability to resolve crises, remain at home and avoid the need for hospitalisation.
• Support medication concordance.
• Contribute to wider service development including education of other agencies on FEP.