Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

Job summary
We have an exciting opportunity for a staff member to work in the Warrington area, covering several different GP surgeries within the working hours.

Core working hours are 9am-5pm.

This position is for an experienced registered mental health nurse to work in an exciting, innovative post that supports patients to access mental health support via Primary Care. It is vital that candidates have community experience and understand the role.

This job is only suitable for a NMC Registered Mental Health Nurse.

The core working hours of this role are 9am - 5pm excluding bank holidays.

Applicants will need to confirm they are able to complete these hours and have the means to be able to travel between the different GP surgeries.

Main duties of the job
The successful applicant will work in the Primary Care setting, offering specialist mental health assessment to those patients who have moderate to severe mental health conditions. This role allows the practitioner to work across the interface between Primary Care setting and Secondary Care Mental Health Services to provide advice, support, and assessment to patients. This will allow timelier access to services and ensure that the patient gets the right treatment at the right time and will offer the practitioner the environment to work in an autonomous way.

The role aims to improve the experience for our patients with mental health needs to ensure they can transition between services with the best support in place.

The post holder will be an effective member of a multi-disciplinary team, effectively triaging and signposting patients into the right team or service to support them in their needs.

The post holder will be supported in their role by a variety of other professionals. This includes Pharmacists, GP's, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Leads, Non Medical Prescribers and Psychologists - as well as the management team.

About us
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Job responsibilities

• To provide a safe and effective day to day operation of the service, including the handling of clinical enquiries. The role holder may be required to undertake telephone triage screening assessments to assess the level of risk/priority with that patient, so they can be treated, signposted, or referred on to agencies as appropriate as well as face to face appointments within the GP surgery.
• To undertake assessments of individual patients difficulties, establishing risk and determining the appropriate course of action, taking into consideration all possible options. The relationship should adopt a partnership approach, engaging service users in the positive management of their health and wellbeing.
• Work with patients to support adherence to prescribed treatments, monitoring mental health medication, taking into consideration any physical health interactions.
• To providing short term interventions and support, under the guidance of the GP and ensure that monitoring is well managed, and care and treatment is provided in line with practice standards.
• Provide and receive information, some of which may be contentious, sensitive, and complex to and from individuals and their families/carers and actively support as appropriate.
• To collate and organise contemporaneous information about opportunities and resources in the local area which may be of benefit to patients referred to the service (e.g., voluntary and community organisations, educational and recreational opportunities). Facilitate sign posting to other appropriate services and occasionally undertake very short-term interventions for patients with moderate to severe mental health difficulties.
• To evaluate outcomes and maintain accurate clinical data.
• Have an awareness of your own clinical competencies, knowledge base and experience and ensure that you practice within this and seek support as required.
• Utilise clinical curiosity in assessing and developing treatment plans with patients. Obtaining and focussing on goal based outcomes with patients, using a holistic approach to their care and social circumstances.
• To understand and process Quality Outcome Framework data.
• Undertake joint assessment work (as required) with PCN colleagues.
• Offer advice to or obtain advice for the Primary Care Team on appropriate interventions and on-going Service User care management.
• Ensure systems/ pathways are in place to enable smooth transition between primary care and secondary mental health services.
• Regularly be involved in quality improvement activity/audit/significant event review and clinical meetings.

Clinical Partnership

• Support the establishment of partnerships and networks with key stakeholders across the PCN/ secondary mental health care system.
• Develop links and foster a culture of partnership between Primary Care Teams and Secondary Mental Health Services.
• Facilitate joint work with PCN, Secondary Care providers and Voluntary Care Sector (VCS) to increase range of services / interventions available to the communities.
• Attend PCN meetings and work with PCN members to develop and implement joint governance and clinical forums.

Qualifications
Essential

• Registered on the appropriate part of the NMC register and hold a current NMC registration or holds a relevant professional qualification (to be maintained)
• Assessor/Mentorship Training

Desirable

• Post registration training in relevant field
• Leadership/Management training
• Qualification in non medical prescribing

Experience/Knowledge
Essential

• Experience of mentorship, supervision and coordination of staff.
• Experience of Care Planning process working in a multi-agency framework.
• Demonstrate a contribution to change management process
• Demonstrate experience of problem solving approaches
• Recovery model
• Mental Health Act (1983)
• Effective Care Coordination
• Relevant national policies and guidance
• Evidence based and reflective practice
• Mental Capacity Act
• Vulnerable Adults Procedure and Child Protection
• Safety, Privacy and Dignity Guidelines

Desirable

• Community experience
• Experience of working as a Nurse in Charge/ Shift Coordinator
• Experience in positive leadership of a team An overview of the Trust's objectives

Skills
Essential

• Demonstrate sound leadership qualities and an understanding of management styles
• Understanding of quality and change in the clinical setting
• Ability to delegate and co-ordinate
• Ability to work to deadlines
• Ability to utilise assessment skills and tools effectively
• Ability to communicate in a variety of settings
• IT skills
• Able to present factual information and refer questions to others where appropriate
• Able to deal with sensitive issues with tact and diplomacy
• Ability to develop effective interpersonal relationships with colleagues
• Effective time and workload management
• Mentorship skills and record keeping
• Ability to identify and minimise risk effectively
• Ability to travel in the course of performing duties.
• Flexible approach to working
• Commitment to effective teamwork
• Commitment to service development
• Good time management
• Demonstrate continuous professional development

Desirable

• Project Management
• Formulation of reports
• Presentation skills
• Resource and budget management

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).