Job overview

Pennine Lancashire is seeking an experienced Band 7 Mental Health Practitioner to join our Mental Health Liaison Team at Royal Blackburn Hospital. 

This is an exciting opportunity and the successful candidate will be part of an evolving service that has the needs of our service users at its heart.

We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic to come and join a forward thinking, dynamic and constantly developing team.

The applicant must be able to work nights, weekends and bank holidays.

The Mental Health Liaison team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users, carers and clinical colleagues based within our acute trusts.  

This involves:
•    Offering an assessment service to patients presenting with a range of mental health and psychological problems.
•    Providing a mental health consultation-liaison and advice service
•    Delivering a range of nursing and psychosocial interventions to individual patients and their families, as appropriate
•    Assisting and supporting general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations
•    Providing formal and informal education and clinical supervision to registered and unregistered staff

For a full list of what this role involves please review the Job Description/Person Specification 

Main duties of the job

As a member of the mental health liaison team the post holder will be expected to assess and treat patients who are referred from a variety of sources, which will include:

•    Emergency Department
•    Urgent Care Centres
•    Medical assessment areas
•    All wards, departments and clinical teams across the hospital

Patients may present with a wide range of mental health and psychological problems, including following an episode of self-harm, psychiatric emergency and as a consequence of physical illness.  

You will be expected to work with individuals experiencing psychosomatic disorders and a variety of psychological and adjustment issues resulting from physical illness.  

You will be required to make autonomous decisions, based on an analysis of complex presenting problems, while utilising effective clinical judgments about the most appropriate treatment, discharge and follow-up options.

You will use higher- level communication skills, both written and oral and have an ability to engage with challenging and/or acutely distressed individuals, sometimes in potentially hostile and/or antagonistic situations.

If you would like further information about the role please contact us using the details provided

Working for our organisation

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.