Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Location: Bideford, EX393AG

Salary: £37338.00 to £44962.00

Date posted: 30th May 2025

Closing date: 15th June 2025

Are you an experienced mental health practitioner looking for a fulfilling role in a supportive and dynamic team? The OPMH Community Team in North Devon is seeking a Senior Mental Health Practitioner to join our dedicated team that provides high-quality assessment and treatment for clients aged 65 and over, managing functional mental health and dementia presentations.

• Provide specialist mental health assessments and therapeutic interventions to individuals in their own homes or in residential settings across North Devon.
• Collaborate closely with multidisciplinary teams to ensure the best outcomes for service users.
• Manage a caseload, ensuring that clinical priorities are met with professionalism and compassion.

• Proven experience working in mental health, ideally within Older Peoples Mental Health (OPMH).
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a genuine passion for working with older adults.
• Strong time management skills and the ability to manage a caseload effectively, ensuring high-quality care.
• Ability to travel across North Devon to meet the demands of the role.
• Flexibility in working arrangements, with the ability to adapt to changing priorities in this rural locality.
• You will demonstrate strong leadership and clinical expertise, supporting junior team members and promoting best practice.

• You will be undertaking assessments of new clients and providing care planned interventions to your caseload.
• The team works with 4 primary care networks each at different stages of implementing Community Mental Health Framework developments, enhancements to provision for clients in residential care and to services for those living with frailty in their own homes.
• Within the team and Devon Partnership Trust you will find a commitment to supporting staff in their career development and wellbeing.
• The main base for the team and location for weekly MDT meetings is at Bideford Hospital, with additional desk space at Barnstaple Health and Wellbeing clinic.
• Clients are seen in their own homes, clinic settings and by utilising remote technology.

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery. We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do.

We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trust's core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification which will provide further information on this role.

• A professional mental health qualification and registration e.g. RMN, Social Work Degree or equivalent, BSc/Diploma in OT, SROT Chartered Clinical Psychologist, ENB 811/812 or Community Nursing Degree.
• Non-Medical Prescriber and/or another recognised therapy qualification.
• Post graduate qualification relevant to specialism.
• Training to level 3 in Safeguarding Adults and children and young people.

• Substantial experience of managing an extensive and complex caseload of clients with a range of complex mental health presentations.
• Working within a community mental health setting in either the statutory or voluntary sector.
• Mentoring students in line with professional requirements.
• Providing clinical supervision.
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency environment.
• Participation in user involvement in services.
• Experience of delivering model based psychological therapy.

• Excellent communication skills including the ability to engage with clients experiencing a wide range of mental health presentations.
• Ability to assess and develop plans to manage risk.
• Ability to be mobile across a geographical area in a timely manner.

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.