Specialist CAMHS Practitioner - Learning Disabilities

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others. There’s a place for you at CNWL. We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people. We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

Brent CAMHS is looking for a permanent Specialist CAMHS Practitioner to join our friendly, supportive, and experienced multi-disciplinary specialist mental health service. We are looking for an enthusiastic and skilled clinician to be a core member of the LD team. They should maintain clinical curiosity and engage in reflective practice as well as be able to be an advocate for children, young people and families’ needs.

The post holder will provide specialist assessments and interventions to children and young people. This will involve undertaking direct assessment and intervention with the client and indirect assessment, monitoring and intervention with staff and/or carers. Intervention will include working across a variety of settings, including home, school and short break services and will involve working with the multi-disciplinary team.

Main duties of the job:

• To provide comprehensive specialist assessments, including risk assessment of children, young people and their families/carers referred with moderate, complex and severe mental health problems/ behaviours that challenge others using the PBS framework.
• To use a range of assessment techniques including observations, standard measures and questionnaires, direct work and interviews with parents and professionals in order to collate information required to complete a functional analysis assessment.
• To formulate and to be responsible for implementing in partnership with other agencies working with the child/young person a positive behaviour plan/intervention.
• To communicate in a sensitive manner assessment outcomes/PBS formulations and positive behaviour support plans.
• To co-ordinate and run psycho-educational and therapeutic groups using the PBS framework with support from the assistant psychologist/team lead.
• To evaluate the implementation and impact of the intervention.
• To write confidential behavioural support plans, reports for case conferences, and education that may have wide ranging implications for children, young people and their families.
• To be available to carry out urgent assessments.
• To undertake other psychological and/or diagnostic assessments (i.e. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2, or cognitive assessments) and interventions if required and appropriate.
• To provide consultation and appropriate training to other professionals working with the children referred to the service in order to ensure implementation of behavioural support plans and PBS skills.
• To attend PBS training and to deliver relevant training to families and other agencies in order to support and ensure the implementation of PBS.
• To liaise with and where appropriate participate in joint work with other members of the Learning Disabilities Pathway in Harrow CAMHS Learning Disabilities team.
• To act as care coordinator for an identified caseload and to be responsible for the coordination of assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of therapeutic packages of care provided by the multidisciplinary team.
• To ensure that the needs of the client group is paramount and be aware of and adhere to NICE Guidelines relating to Child Protection.
• To ensure acceptable levels of safety (regarding potential verbal and physical aggression from disturbed clients) for self and to advise other colleagues when necessary.
• To maintain accurate clinical records in accordance with service standards and to record and maintain patient data in local database systems (System 1) and the trust wide electronic database.

Person Specification:

• Registered Nurse in Learning Disabilities or Post graduate training in autism and Challenging behaviour (e.g. ABA diploma, IABA extended course, post grad certificate in autism, MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis).
• Previous experience of working in CAMHS or experience in Adult Services for Autism/Learning Disability with clear evidence of transferrable skills.
• Evidence of well developed clinical skills and knowledge in CAMHS.
• A developed knowledge of LD and ASD as well as issues related to assessment and interventions for this population.
• Awareness of current national guidelines and policies in the field of CAMHS.