Job overview

Hello, I'm Phil, the MHLT team lead and I am looking for Urgent Care Practitioners to join the Mental Health Liaison team who can bring knowledge and expertise to this dynamic area of mental health service provision. 

You will be working at the interface between physical and psychological health and bring your knowledge and expertise to your general hospital colleagues. You will undertake specialist and timely mental health assessments and treatment for patients attending the General Hospital. We support patients with a wide range of problems, including self-harm, adjustment to illness and physical and psychological co-morbidities. As there is no entrance requirement for A&E and people’s perceptions of what constitutes a mental health emergency or crisis can vary, our team are referred people with all sorts of problems, including those people presenting to mental health services for the very first time.

I am looking for practitioners who are confident in the management of common mental health problems and who can bring their knowledge to their general hospital colleagues both informally and by undertaking teaching sessions. Although we have a separate Older Persons Liaison Team, the successful applicant may need to provide assessments and support to anyone over the age of 18. We would particularly welcome applicants with a special interest and experience in working with people over the age of 65.

Main duties of the job

You will need excellent communication skills and be able to foster excellent relationships with patients, carers, general hospital colleagues and other parts of the health and social care system.

This is a challenging but rewarding role, offering an exciting opportunity to nurses, occupational therapists or social workers who have strong assessment and therapeutic skills. You will need the ability to work autonomously whilst still contributing to the team as a whole. If you enjoy the challenge and stimulus of working under pressure and are able to remain calm in quickly changing circumstances, you will be well suited to this role. 

As our Urgent Care Pathway moves towards CORE 24 standards, the post-holder will work flexible hours to support delivery of 24/7 services.

This post offers the Trust's £2,000 Golden Hello or Relocation Incentive for Band 6 Nurses & Practitioners, (pro rata and subject to terms and conditions; please see attached Protocol Document for full details

Working for our organisation

This is an exciting role, that welcomes registered mental health nurses, who possess strong mental health assessment and therapeutic skills. Previous experience of working in acute mental health services is desirable although not essential.

We offer a robust induction programme through clinical supervision, coaching and teamwork.

We are pleased to offer you flexible working opportunities.

We encourage flexible working. We know that a positive work/ life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working, for example, home-working, part time hours, flexible start/ finish times or anything else. If it works for you and works for the role, we'll do our best to make it happen.