Consultant Psychiatrist - CAMHS Complex & Vulnerable Pathway

Job overview

We are recruiting for a part-time Consultant Psychiatrist to join our Buckinghamshire CAMHS Complex and Vulnerable Pathway based  at the Sue Nichols Centre in Aylesbury and Saffron House in High Wycombe.

With your expertise in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, you'll be joining a well-established multi-disciplinary team that looks after the Complex & Vulnerable Pathway which includes: OSCA (including Crisis), Link, ACE (adopted and care experienced team) and DSFT (Dynamic Support Facilitation Team).

This role offers 8 programmed activities over at least 4 days where you'll be providing senior clinical input and leadership for the team, managing cases, contributing to new assessments, provide clinical support for complex cases in the team including support with risk management, and actively contribute to team discussions.

We offer rewarding career development with protected SPA time as part of your job plan, encouraging you to take leadership courses to enhance your skills. We also offer a relocation allowance of up to £8,000 for external applicants (subject to eligibility criteria).

Could this be the next step in your career? Come and join one of the UK's leading mental health Trusts and be part of a successful service implementing an exciting and innovative service model for children and young people’s mental health.

Main duties of the job

You'll provide psychiatric input into the following two areas of the pathway:

The Link programme

Established to provide extra support to children and young people who are often described as having ‘complex needs’. These young people’s needs are often multiple, persistent, and severe. The interventions from this team can include advice, consultation, specialist assessment, and some direct intervention.

The CAMHS Outreach Service for Children and Adolescents (OSCA)

The team evolved from the recognition that some young people needed improved access to mental health services, where a more flexible approach to engaging the young person and family can be taken.  Such families often require a more intensive package of treatment & care than can be routinely offered by other teams within CAMHS.

The OSCA team currently has four functions:

• Crisis and Home Treatment: typically used as an adjunct to existing care packages. Crisis offers a service to young people between the ages of 0 to 18, seven days a week, 24 hours a day within the Buckinghamshire area
• Assertive Outreach: focus on maintaining engagement with services and psychosocial support & interventions
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT):  a specific treatment for young people who may be experiencing heightened suicidal urges and self-harming behaviours and/or exhibiting signs of an emerging emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD); borderline type
• In-reach to and supported discharge from inpatient units

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Complex and Vulnerable Pathway includes four teams- the Outreach Service for Children and Adolescents (OSCA) (which includes the crisis team), the Adopted and Care Experienced team (ACE), the Dynamic Support Facilitation Team (DSFT) and the Thames Valley Link programme in Buckinghamshire.

The ACE Team offers support for adopted and looked after children within Buckinghamshire. This is a multi disciplinary team that offers support to both young people and carers. The team offers Consultation to Social Workers, trauma and attachment based psychological interventions to young people, mentalisation based carers support, and support to wider networks. There is also a small sub-team that offers support within the Buckinghamshire Local Authority children’s homes.

The DSFT are a small team with specialist skills and knowledge in working with people who have an intellectual disability and/or autism. They are not a clinical team but work to support those with autism and/or intellectual disability who are at risk of admission.

The Link programme has been established to provide extra support to children and young people who are often described as having ‘complex needs’. These young people’s needs are often multiple, persistent, and severe. The interventions from this team can include advice, consultation, specialist assessment, and some direct intervention. We are partners with a third sector organisation (RAW) who provide youth workers who can support some young people open to the Link programme.

The CAMHS Outreach Service for Children and Adolescents (OSCA) team evolved from the recognition that some young people needed improved access to mental health services, where a more flexible approach to engaging the young person and family can be taken.  Such families often require a more intensive package of treatment & care than can be routinely offered by other teams within CAMHS.      The Crisis service offers immediate support to young people out of hours 24/7 days a week. The team are trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy offering specialist skills in emotional regulation to reduce the risk of self-harm and suicide. There is 24/7 access to a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist.