Allied Health Professional - Clinical Nurse Specialist

Job overview

We are looking for a Band 7 CAMHS Clinician to work in our Wandsworth Single Point of Access (SPA) triage and assessment service.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, passionate, and dedicated CAMHS Experienced Clinician (Psychologist, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Social worker, Psychotherapist, family therapist) interested in contributing to a high-quality mental health provision for the borough of Wandsworth.

You will be an experienced CAMHS Clinician/practitioner who is registered with a professional body and has significant experience in working with children and young people in a CAMHS Community setting and providing high quality mental health assessments.

The advert is open to Registered mental health nurses, HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist/Counselling Psychologists, Psychotherapists, social workers with mental health experience and family therapists.

We are committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and welcome staff from diverse backgrounds, such as candidates from minoritised backgrounds and from the LGBTQ+ community.

We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career   aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles.

Main duties of the job

At the Wandsworth Access, we process and manage all new referrals for children and adolescents in the Wandsworth borough where there are concerns about emotional/mental health and developmental difficulties.

The Wandsworth Access team works closely with other CAMHS teams and with multi-agency professionals including GPs, schools, social care and other organisations and charities in the local community,  to help signpost families to the most appropriate support.

The CAMHS SPA provide triage and assessment for children, adolescents and their families experiencing a range of mental health, neurodevelopmental and emotional health difficulties. The SPA then directs the referrals to the appropriate CAMHS Team or signpost to alternative routes of support.

The successful candidate would be a key clinician within the CAMHS SPA, triaging referrals, offering mental health assessments, and liaising with multi-agency colleagues as described above.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Support neurodevelopmental screening and assessment of children and young people presenting with Neurodevelopmental concerns (including Autism Spectrum Conditions and ADHD)

• To evaluate and make decisions about signposting and/ or delivering intervention options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, the family, and the wider system.

• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

• To liaise with multi-agency professionals as needed and provide specialist mental health advice guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to the care of the young child and their parents/carers.

• To contribute to and/or use evidence-based, integrated working tools and processes, to ensure young people and their parents/carers receive holistic and co-ordinated services in response to their mental health needs.

• To maintain accurate and accessible health care records according to Trust policy and Information Governance requirements.

• To demonstrate high level communication skills, both written and verbal, within all agencies.

• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.

• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies

• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide general advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, as well as to other agencies concerned with Public Protection, such as Social Services, Probation, Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).

• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care. This includes organizing / attending professional network meetings where appropriate.

• To process and triage referrals, arrange tirage calls, and provide screening mental health assessments of young children and their parents/carers referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and where appropriate, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations, and semi-structured interviews in line with CYP IAPT methodology.
• To provide supervision, consultations, and support to qualified staff and to trainees, interns, and assistant psychologists within the service