Adolescent Outreach Case Worker and DBT Practitioner

Job overview

We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic Mental Health Practitioner with a specialist interest in delivering Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. It is essential for applicants to be willing to complete or to have undertaken intensive training in DBT.

The successful applicant will be part of the DBT pathway within AOT and will attend weekly Consult, as well as running the weekly DBT group and having a caseload of individual DBT clients. They will also be expected to work with the families of young people within the DBT programme to disseminate understanding of DBT using specific DBT training skills. The successful applicant will be expected to promote the ethos of DBT across Tier 4 CAMHS.

Main duties of the job

The Adolescent Outreach Team provides an acute Tier 4 community service to 12 to 18 year olds experiencing a range of significant and multiple mental health difficulties including depression, anxiety, psychosis, self-harm and emerging personality disorder. These young people experience multi-layered difficulties at a level which considerably interferes with day to day life and is usually associated with high levels of risk. AOT aims to prevent admission to an in-patient unit and providing a supportive discharge package to optimise length of stay where admission cannot be avoided, supporting one of the lowest acute inpatient stays in the country.

This post will be centred on the delivery of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) pathway for adolescents who are already under the care of Tier 4 CAMHS but will also include Care Coordination and assessment of other AOT clients.     The primary aim of the Adolescent Outreach Team (AOT) is to contain and treat high-risk young people in the community to avoid inpatient care. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is provided, according to need, as a treatment pathway within AOT.      Generic clinical sessions, individual DBT sessions, and other relevant clinical review meetings are delivered flexibly according to client need and can take place in the young person’s home, local clinic bases, an inpatient unit, or in schools.  The post-holder’s administrative base will be AOT offices.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Clinical – Core AOT work
• To act as care coordinator within AOT and, where appropriate, to take responsibility for initiating reviews of care plans under enhanced CPA
• When care planning, to include young people, their carers, referring agents, and others involved the network of care
• To be responsible for the flexible management of a defined caseload designed to meet the individual needs of the young person and their carers
• To prepare reports for and to attend review meetings
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment components of young people’s care plans
• In collaboration, to make crisis plans appropriate to presenting risk
• To adhere to the Lone Working Policy.
• To share the task of chairing meetings and taking minutes
• To contribute to the effective working of the multidisciplinary team and to participate in team and service development
• To promote effective communication within the team and share relevant information as required
• To work within the policies and procedures of the Trust and within relevant legal frameworks
• In particular, to have a clear understanding of risk assessment and child protection protocols, Mental Health Act, and CPA
• To keep up-to-date with developments within the field of adolescent mental health.

Clinical – AOT DBT pathway

• To undertake DBT training
• To provide assessments of young people considered for the DBT care pathway.
• To contribute to the formulation of clients’ difficulties so as to provide effective DBT treatment.
• To be active in all modes of DBT provision, including attendance at DBT Consultation Team meetings, delivery of a skills group, delivery of individual DBT treatments and family work modules, and the provision of telephone coaching.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management within the DBT model and within the AOT service delivery context.
• To attend review meetings in order to ensure the safe running of services and adherence to complex Care Plans
• Work with families when they are in DBT