Senior Mental Health Liaison Nurse

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South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I'm going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you'll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

Here at the Lambeth Mental Health Liaison Service, we are excited to advertise our vacancy for 1.0w senior mental health liaison nurse within our team.

The primary function of this role is to work as a highly experienced mental health practitioner, carrying out front of house specialist assessments (i.e. the front door triage model) within the Emergency Department (ED) as part of the Mental Health Liaison Team (MHLT).

The psychiatric nurse in charge (Psych NIC) is responsible for ensuring all those who present to the ED with an acute mental health need, receive timely and appropriate care, in the right place, at the right time, by the right person.

The PNIC will be expected to actively identify and triage those presenting to the ED with an urgent or emergent need for mental health care, psychological support and/ or those with substance misuse problems. Working alongside the ED team they try to ensure appropriate medical clearance wherever appropriate. However, this does not explicitly mean that all face-to-face contact is completed by the PNIC; instead acting as a shift coordinator to ensure that all patients are prioritised in terms of need and allocated to the team appropriate to that need of the patient and the skill mix on shift.

Main duties of the job

The Psych NIC will:

• be based on the emergency floor for much of the shift providing direct formal and informal support to the ED teams and visiting agencies.

• Offering face to face support directing referrals from the emergency floor to the most appropriate assessment pathway i.e. via the front door triage model, direct to the PLN's for full assessment or determining if further medical assessments need to be completed inline with our parallel assessment protocol.

• work alongside the enhanced care team (ECT) in making decisions about enhanced observations for mental health patients.
• Act as part of the ED response team for patients detained on S136 or police referrals, and work to ensure timely throughput in department in line with the GSTT CODE10 protocol.
• Work alongside ED triage teams to evaluate fitness for assessment, and support visible parallel working. (see parallel working protocol)
• Through use of the front door triage model and from being visable and approachable abel assist referrers in signposting to other services - including UCC, GP, IAPT etc...

• Assist the PLN assessment team working as the Psychistric Nurse in Charge.
• Take a lead role within the liaison service, providing support and guidance within the service but also within their specialist lead area. i.e. safeguarding etc.
• provide clinical supervision with the band 6 (assessing) psychiatric liaison nursing team.

Working for our organisation

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field.

The core philosophy of the Core24 Mental Health Liaison team is:

"We take a professional, honest, caring and open-minded approach. We encourage and support choice. We are prompt and will take time to listen, work collaboratively with you and stick to our word. We respect differences"

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide a senior single point of access for staff to make/ discuss referrals to the MHLT from the ED, ensuring they are allocated for further assessment in a timely manner.

To provide specialist, face-to-face screening at the point of referral, to all those who self-present to the ED with an acute mental health need.

Provide initial response to all police and ambulance arrivals in the department, for patients with a mental health need, and lead on co-ordinating the patient's journey through the ED.

Complete a brief risk and mental state examination from the completed screening, making autonomous decisions around discharge and/ or onward referral and signposting to primary care/ mental health services/ third-sector organisations if appropriate; providing brief psychoeducation and intervention where appropriate.

Acting as a senior clinician within both the ED and the MHLT; providing advice, clinical support, clinical supervision and senior review where necessary.

Promoting and devising risk management and admission plans, for those who may be transferred from the ED to a ward within the hospital.

Maintaining oversight of demand and acuity across the entire emergency floor, managing patient-flow effectively and proactively.

To provide senior clinical support in managing incidents of challenging behaviour in the ED, related to mental health/ illness

To liaise effectively with services and service providers both inside and outside of the organisation (including CMHTs, Police, Ambulance, Social Services, GPs and acute trust staff).

Participate in teaching and training of ED and other staff within GSTT, in line with the trust's Mental Health Strategy.

Person specification

Qualification

Essential criteria

• Registered Mental Health Nurse
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Educated to post-graduate/ master's level

Desirable criteria

• Registered General Adult/ LD Nurse/ formal training or education in physical health
• Evidence of other advanced education related to Liaison Psychiatry

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant post-qualification experience in mental health services, both inpatient and community
• Experience working within crisis mental health care; of assessing and managing crisis within acute mental illness
• Experience of making autonomous decisions regarding discharge, sign-posting and admission of service users following a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of risk
• Experience of working with service users with harmful use of illicit substances and alcohol

Desirable criteria

• Experience of assessing and risk-managing violent self-harm
• Experience of service development, Quality Improvement and leading change.
• Experience of managing or leading a team/ colleagues
• Experience at working at band 6 level or above within liaison psychiatry, or band 7 level in a crisis mental health service
• Experience of teaching or delivering training

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• A sound knowledge of risk assessment and risk management in mental health and acute care settings
• Knowledge of restrictive practice and restrictive interventions; the ability to reduce restrictive practice in clinical settings

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of brief psychological interventions and their use in an ED setting; ability to deliver brief psychological interventions for the management of acute psychiatric distress
• Knowledge of relevant policies, research and codes of practice related to ED; an awareness of national targets, frameworks and pressures related to ED
• Knowledge of Core 24 service models and RCPsych guidance on liaison psychiatry services.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care to meet the needs of service users, appropriate to the setting of the Emergency Department

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

• Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
• Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
• We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity

Please note:

• That all applications for this post will need to be made online
• That you read and understand the Job Description and Person Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
• That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
• That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
• That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful
• That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
• That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
• That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe'

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Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 536.4KB)
• SLaM Staff Benefits (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Happy to Talk Flexible Working (PDF, 680.1KB)