Discharge Coordinator in Norwich

Join us in Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) as we continue our journey of improving and investing in our inpatient and community services as well as supporting and developing our staff. We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated individuals with a caring and empathetic approach to join our developing Clinical Bed Management Service.

We want qualified mental health practitioners (registered mental health or learning disabilities Nurses, Occupational Therapists or Social Workers) who have a passion to improve the lives of our patients to join our team. We require someone who is dedicated to ensuring our patients' inpatient stay is as productive but as short in duration as possible.

Your focus will be on working with inpatient staff, the patient themselves and their carers as well as community services across health, housing and social care to expedite the patients' discharge from their hospital stay. The expectation is that you will support the development and execution of a comprehensive discharge plan for people with often complex and diverse mental health and psychological needs.

Primarily working Monday to Friday, during core hours across NSFT’s inpatient sites in Norfolk and Suffolk, you will be required to be able to travel to visit our inpatient service users who are placed in hospitals across both counties.

Work as a core member of the centralised Clinical Bed Management Team but develop excellent working relationships with locality based inpatient MDTs, Crisis Teams, CMHTs, Housing Providers, 3rd Sector and Charitable Organisations and Adult Social Care Services. Contribute to locality and trust wide flow information and meetings.

In conjunction with other professionals, identify current inpatients whose needs could best be met in a lesser restrictive environment e.g. in their own home with crisis/outreach support, in a respite or ‘step-down’ facility or in a residential/nursing care home setting. Work to develop comprehensive discharge plans for individuals with complex mental health and psychological needs, whose discharge from hospital could be expedited.

Undertake collaborative actions with inpatient MDTs, Community Mental Health Services, Adult Social Care, housing and 3rd Sector care providers, service users themselves and their Carers/families to facilitate safe and timely discharge of identified service users from hospital. By attending locality based clinical meetings and discussions, the post holder will work as a key member of the MDT, ensuring that high quality individualised care is delivered which ensures safety and a commitment to promoting recovery and wellbeing and maximising independence.

The Clinical Bed Management Service is a team of experienced and skilled clinicians whose main aim is to ensure that NSFT’s patient population can access the necessary assessment and care they require at the right time, in the right place from the right service. The Service is made up of Clinical Bed Managers and Discharge Coordinators supported by a dedicated Medical Director for Patient Pathways in Acute Care & Flow.

We work across all adult and older adult inpatient pathways and collaborate with inpatient and community MDTs both within NSFT and sometimes external to the Trust if our patient is receiving their inpatient treatment elsewhere. Our Service is responsible for ensuring the efficient and effective use of the Trust's inpatient resources and for eradicating the use of out of Trust hospital placements.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Janice O’Hare Job title: Consultant Email address: janice.o’hare@nsft.nhs.uk