Mental Health Practitioner with Mental Health Triage and Response | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in Winwick

The Mental Health Triage and Response team is a dynamic service which incorporates our street triage cars, Places of Safety (s136 suites) and the new Mental Health Crisis Assessment Service (MHCAS) which fall within the Mersey Care Footprint.

We were awarded the Seni Lewis award at the 2024 HSJ Patient Safety Awards and the 2022 NHS parliamentary award for Urgent and Emergency Care. We play an important role in Mersey Care's response to the national roll out of Right Care Right Person and in the move to support individuals experiencing mental health crisis away from traditional A&E settings, as outlined in the NHS 10 year plan.

This role is suited to individuals who are self-motivated and forward-thinking. Experience of Crisis Management, Assessment and experience of ward work would be beneficial. Level 2 Police vetting is required for working alongside Police/BTP.

The role of the Mental Health Practitioner within the Mental Health Triage and Response Team includes:

• Providing support to our Emergency Services colleagues
• Management of service users detained under Section 136
• Operating the identified Places of Safety and MHCAS

You will work collaboratively alongside other Registered Mental Health Practitioners, healthcare support workers and also with Police forces, NWAS, Local Authorities, Acute Trust colleagues and Mental Health Services.

The Mental Health Triage and Response Team and MHCAS supports service users presenting in crisis and ensures that their needs are met within the identified places of safety and assist with a timely assessment and safety planning.

You will need to demonstrate flexibility, effective communication, problem solving and be able to recognise and assess risk in order to effectively support the service user during a crisis period.

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.

Key responsibilities include:

• Participating in regular clinical and managerial supervision as per Trust policy
• Assisting with screening and telephone triage of referrals, prioritising as appropriate
• Providing information for referrers, service users and carers
• Formulating, contributing and participating in the development and implementation of specialist assessments, including risk, with patients requiring crisis care
• Formulating and delivering plans of care as appropriate in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary team
• Carrying out generic and specialist assessments including risk with patients requiring crisis care
• Providing short-term evidence-based practices and fixed term interventions
• Supporting the delivery of education and self-help materials within a variety of locations
• Developing and maintaining effective working partnerships with services in other statutory and non-statutory organisations
• Ensuring the clinical environment is conducive to promote service users' health, safety and well-being
• Ensuring record keeping is in accordance with Professional and Trust standards
• Ensuring the safe management of medicines and adhere to safe practice and principles of administration in accordance with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct and Trust Medicines Code
• Working in a professional and collaborative manner with the Multi-disciplinary Team
• Participating and promoting positive intra-agency working
• Assisting in setting standards of service user care based on sound research findings and evidenced based practice

This advert closes on Tuesday 17 Feb 2026.