Liaison Psychiatry Practitioner

It is a challenging and rewarding service to work in, and we need the best quality of candidates to help us grow our service further into a 24 hour service. Mental Health Nurses & Occupational Therapists are encouraged to apply. You will be a confident and experienced mental health clinician, who will work across the acute general hospital to provide mental health assessments, care, advice and training to both the Emergency Departments and in-patient wards. You will be able to meet the assessment and formulation needs of both working age adults and older adults and have a good insight into your training needs to fulfil this role. You will have excellent interpersonal skills that you will use to facilitate high quality mental health assessments, and to build good working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. You will be committed to the parity of esteem agenda, and work closely with both physical and mental health clinicians to ensure a seamless delivery of care. It is a 24 hour service 7 days a week at the William Harvey Hospital, and when required The Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital.

Main duties of the job:

• Work as part of a psychiatric liaison team providing a liaison and assessment service 7 days per week that will involve working unsocial hours and public holidays.
• Offer an assessment service to patients aged 18+ (with no upper age limit) presenting at the general hospital with a broad range of mental health and psychological problems, and diagnosed psychiatric illnesses.
• Provide a mental health consultation, liaison and advice service throughout the departments.
• Deliver a range of evidence based psychosocial interventions to individual patients as required.
• Assist and support general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations.
• Provide formal and informal education and case consultation to registered and unregistered staff.
• Represent mental health services within the Hospitals.
• Provide a communication structure between secondary mental health services, primary care and non-statutory services, as a means of ensuring the highest possible standards of patient care.

In return for the above, we offer real commitment to your professional development, and regular supervision within a supportive working environment.

Person specification:

• Qualification

• Essential criteria: Registered Professional Qualification, 12 months post qualification experience.
• Desirable criteria: Qualified Mentor.

• Essential criteria: Up to date knowledge of national and local guidance relevant to Liaison Psychiatry Service.
• Desirable criteria: Service development.

• Essential criteria: Robust Mental Health Needs assessment including risk, mental state and formulation.
• Desirable criteria: Experience in older adult assessment.

KMPT Staff Benefits:

• NHS pension scheme: Your employer pays 23.7% towards your pension and life assurance benefits.
• Annual leave for Agenda for Change: 27 days for full time or pro rata if part time, 29 days after 5 years NHS service, 33 days after 10 years NHS service, plus bank holidays, that’s up to 41 days - more than 8 weeks paid time off!
• Buying and selling of annual leave is also available as part of our flexible approach to staff benefits.
• Flexible working: Covers job share, term time working, flexible shifts etc.
• Statutory and occupational maternity, paternity or adoption leave depending on length of NHS service.
• Other paid/unpaid leave: This can be for Jury Service, Reserved Armed Forces, etc. This is paid outside of annual leave.
• Non paid leave for career breaks.
• Staff Support: KMPT offers a face to face counselling service for any issues.