Clinical Perinatal Specialist

Job overview

The North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) have developed Perinatal Mental Health Services in North Central London across the five boroughs of Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. The service has been running since 2017.

The Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service (SPMHS) is a multi-disciplinary community mental health service for pregnant and postnatal women and birthing people with mental illness. The aim of the team is to detect, prevent and treat perinatal mental health problems to improve the experiences of pregnancy and the two years postpartum for service users and their families.

Staff work closely with the five maternity sites in North Central London; University College London Hospital, Whittington Hospital, Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital and North Middlesex University Hospital. Clinics run at maternity sites, children’s centres and community centres across the boroughs as well as home visits.

The model consists of an Administrative Hub and operates with 3 clinical sub-teams;

-East team (Enfield & Haringey)

-South team (Camden & Islington)

-West team (Barnet)

This role is based across the South Team (Camden and Islington). The post holder will be based at St Pancras Hospital.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be supported and supervised by the band 7 senior perinatal clinicians to carry out a high number of comprehensive new patient assessments and manage a caseload of patients in order to deliver care that is evidence based, effective, culturally competent care and safe in a timely manner. Assessments and support is provided via a combination of in person appointments at people's homes or in clinics or via video appointments.

In carrying out this role the post holder will make best use of the resources available to them and work closely with other NLFT mental health teams, social care teams, health services or community services as appropriate in order to assist recovery.

The post holder will support governance and audit within the team, ensuring that service delivery focuses on the quality agenda and that dignity, privacy and respect is afforded at all times to service users.  The post holder will be responsible for writing up assessments and updating relevant health records in a timely manner and in-line with service operational policies.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will:

• Undertake specialist initial clinical assessment and formulation using a range of both specialist and generic tools.
• Make an autonomous judgement about own caseload
• Assess, plan, implement and evaluate care in negotiation with service users, carers, and other services, considering the needs of a diverse community.
• Intervene using a range of therapeutic modalities e.g., CBT, Systemic Family Therapy etc.
• Assist in and determining the point of discharge / transfer of the service user.
• Communicate clinical assessment or presentation to others within the team and appropriate external agencies including GPs.
• Maintain contemporaneous records to the standard required by the trust and the relevant professional body.
• Assess and manage risk.
• Encourage service users to accept an optimum level of responsibility for their programme of care and with their consent, where appropriate, seek the cooperation of friends/relatives/carers.