Community and Inpatient Liaison Practitioner

Job overview

The Gables Specialist Mental Health Team is a multidisciplinary service which provides comprehensive assessments and evidence-based treatments for adults experiencing a range of mental health disorders who are also presenting with risks that require management and support of a multi-disciplinary team.

The role of the Community and Inpatient Liaison practitioner will be to support care coordinators and the clinical team to interface with inpatient wards in order to support the flow of patient’s between inpatient and community services and to facilitate discharges from the inpatient service into the community. The role would also include supporting with discharging patients who have been open to the community services whose treatment has been completed to improve the flow and capacity within the Specialist Mental Health Team

Main duties of the job

The role of the Community and Inpatient Liaison Practitioner would allow care coordinators to maintain the therapeutic input with their patients while more practical tasks are taken on by the Community and Inpatient Liaison Practitioner. This would involve supporting with care planning, undertaking care act assessments, capacity assessments and relevant paperwork for panel presentations to either the local authority or the 117 panels.

It would be expected that the Community and Inpatient Liaison Practitioner would largely attend ward reviews, attend professionals meetings, liaise and interface with care coordinators, discharge coordinators and inpatient ward staff in order to contribute towards safe and effective working relationships with other teams, services, and organisations. The Community and Inpatient Liaison role would also support discharges from community services by identifying suitable patients and facilitating discharges for those who no longer require secondary care services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To support the existing community staff to develop their knowledge and understanding of available treatment and support options, both within EPUT services, and with the wider services available within the local areas that the team cover
• To support the community processes that facilitate flow and capacity through the system from inpatient to The Gables SMHT and from The Gables SMHT into the primary care domains.
• To support care coordinators in managing the practical elements of discharge planning from inpatient environments including, care act assessments, 117 panel presentations etc. to reduce delays and improve working relationships between services, while allowing the care coordinator to maintain a therapeutic relationship with inpatients and maintain their visits with other patients in the community.
• Identify, assess and manage clinical and non-clinical risks / hazards in your area through the completion of the relevant risk assessments and the implementation of risk treatment plans for inclusion in the local and Trust’s risk registers through the Risk Management department
• Provide supervision and annual appraisals  to junior members of staff and oversee the Hub compliance for supervision and appraisal performance