Job overview

The Mental Health Liaison Teams (MHLT) are multi-disciplinary teams providing a specialist, frontline, emergency mental health assessment and/or treatment service for those referred to the team from the acute Trust Emergency Department and medical wards and formulate an appropriate on-going plan for each person assessed. The team will also provide advice, training and consultation to teams referring into the service.

Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.

The Senior Support Worker will work as a member of the multi-disciplinary team supporting the MHLT clinicians in the team to provide personalised care to service users, undertaking clinical and administrative tasks with supportive supervision as required. The post holder will spend significant amounts of time engaging with people who present to the Emergency Department with mental health needs as well as supporting with administrative tasks.

The post holder should be available to work extended shifts, including nights, covering a 7-day week service and may be expected to support other Oxleas Crisis teams where there is a clear clinical need to do so.

Main duties of the job

1. Work as a member of the multi-disciplinary team to provide the best possible treatment options for people presenting to the Emergency Department / on acute medical wards experiencing Mental Ill health.
2. Provide a wide range of practical support to people with mental Ill health under the direction of qualified staff within the MHLT
3. Assist in the delivery of high standards of care to individual patients
4. Utilise effective communication skills when liaising with the acute Trusts wards and Emergency department, providing and receiving accurate information regarding referrals and updates on patients care.
5. Support the MHLT with taking and opening referrals, data collection, updating of information on the electronic systems, following up referrals to bed management (Oxleas and External) for bed requests, ensuring all documentation is completed for transfer of patients, arranging transport if required
6. Supporting the MHLT with liaising and obtaining information from Community mental health teams, GP, family and other external agencies
7. Supporting the MHLT with referrals to the Recovery House and Home Treatment Team

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families.  This is strengthened by our new values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care