Community Mental Health Practitioner

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.

We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.

We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.

Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.

It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us ., The Trust rated ‘Good’ in our recent CQC report, and winners at the Gloucestershire Health and Social Care Award’s ‘Mental Health Team of the Year 2016’, has a number of opportunities for Mental Health Nurses to join the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team.

The Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams are an integral part of Urgent Care Services providing triage and assessment providing home treatment, gate keeping of hospital beds and providing telephone support to those individuals that are suffering with psychological, emotional and mental health distress. We are an open access service working with the those aged 11 to end of life whom are suffering with a functional illness.

We are now seeking highly motivated and committed band 5 nurses to join us in providing this service and complement our current team of professionals, assisting with the day to day running of the service and ensuring you are professionally accountable and responsible for service users’ care. As the ideal candidate for this post you would be an RMN qualified nurse looking for a new challenge and seeking an opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives. We’re looking for candidates with excellent communication skills and a passion for helping those experiencing a mental health crisis. You will have the ability to build relationships with key partner agencies and help us to integrate more effectively with other services, as well as thriving on working in a high pressure situation., + To be a member of a multidisciplinary MHARS team that will provide a 24 hour, 7 days a week service.

• To participate in the provision of a comprehensive assessment, planning, short term intervention, support and education service to clients referred to the service with a range of psychiatric illnesses and mental health crises.

• To have face-to-face contact and the provision of telephone advice ensuring that the needs of the service users are met in the most sensitive and appropriate way.

• To maintain responsibility for a shared caseload of up to 20 to 30 service users.

• The post holder will receive regular supervision from Band 6 Clinicians and/or the Team Manager.

The team operate a mixed economy shift system allowing staff to choose either a standard shift working pattern (7.5 hour shifts) or long shift working pattern (12 hour shifts). This is negotiated with the team manager with those choosing to work long shifts having to pick up a regular short shift or long shift to make up contracted hours. Nights undertaken are 9.5 hours.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification., The post holder will be a member of the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team working with people in Gloucestershire who are thought to be experiencing a period of mental health crisis or psychological distress. The service will provide an acute, mobile, 24 hour, 7 days a week community service as an alternative to hospitalisation.

• To contribute to the rapid assessment and implementation of crisis resolution or evidence based home treatment for service users who are experiencing an acute mental health crisis.

• To optimise the service user’s ability to remain in the community and/or be cared for in the least restrictive environment in line with the principles of recovering and social inclusion and the 10 essential capabilities.

• To facilitate early discharge from hospital and respond to agencies requiring assessment of clients who are being considered for immediate psychiatric hospitalisation.

When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:

• Free car parking at many of our sites

• 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service

• A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.

• A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.

• Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours

• Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities

• Recognition and long service awards

• Fast Track physiotherapy

• Our Wellbeing line

• Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date. Good luck with your application.

For more information please see the attached ‘Additional Information for Applicants’ document.