Perinatal Mental Health Specialist Midwife

Job overview

Working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams, the Specialist Midwife for Perinatal Mental Health plays a pivotal role in delivering high-quality, evidence-based midwifery care that is personalised, clinically led and responsive to individual needs. The postholder will champion compassionate, woman-centred care, driving positive outcomes and providing expert support to women experiencing mental health challenges throughout the perinatal period.

Main duties of the job

As the clinical expert, the post holder will be expected to exercise a high degree of professional autonomy, providing advice, support, supervision and training to staff within the area of expertise in order to enhance maternity care.

The post holder will be responsible for identifying gaps in areas of service provision and developing strategies to address areas of deficit.  They will facilitate the development of expert clinical practice through research and education, working closely with key agencies across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

To establish an infrastructure that will deliver a level of service that is equitable, evidence-based and consistent with relevant recommendations, reports and guidelines.

The midwife must ensure that they maintain clinical and managerial competence through continued learning and be able to give evidence to support her continued practice.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Management

To work effectively as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, promoting effective communication.

To develop and implement Trust policies, evidence-based guidelines and care pathways relevant to area of specialist knowledge and expertise.

To work closely with the senior midwifery team to develop pathways for perinatal mental health to ensure efficient effective service and value for money.

To identify and promote ways of improving the service, utilising available research and pathways with other agencies/mental health providers.

To maintain high quality contemporaneous records of care, treatment, referrals and outcomes.

To support the senior midwifery team to ensure that continuous quality improvement programmes are in place.

To participate in project management and promote effective team working.

To ensure a safe environment is maintained for women, their babies, visitors and staff.

To foster a culture of incident reporting, reflection and openness between professionals within the maternity service.

To report to direct line manager and the midwifery management team any quality issues, complaints, accidents or untoward incidents in accordance with Trust policy and investigate as required.

To maintain good standards of midwifery care, assisting in the implementation of recommendations from Government professional bodies in relation to maternity care.

To provide regular, clear feedback to the clinical areas to maintain and improve performance.

To promote interdisciplinary working, with outcomes aimed at the best interest of women and their families.

To actively participate in professional and operational meetings on a regular basis.

Clinical Expertise

To be a proficient clinical professional for Perinatal Mental Health providing direct expert clinical care for women with mental health issues where needed.

To provide professional leadership and expert advice, acting in a consultative capacity for area of specialism and providing specialist advice across the service.

To demonstrate specialist expertise and professional knowledge in the clinical area working as a positive role model for professional practice.

To raise awareness to staff of mental health needs and improve the identification and referral of women to the mental health pathways and associated services.

To work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies to ensure the needs of women and babies are met.

To communicate complex and sensitive information to appropriate team professionals/agencies/women using discretion and maintaining confidentiality at all times.

To work as an innovator capable of leading changes in clinical practice and pioneering new frameworks to evidence based care.

To be accountable for continuously improving the quality of women centered care and maternity services, safeguarding standards of midwifery practice as well as promoting clinical excellence.

To set standards and promote best practice.

To represent midwifery and promote area of specialism internally as well as external to the Trust.

To provide regular progress reports to the midwifery management team.

To communicate complex and sensitive information to women and their families, enabling them to make informed choices about their care.

To be aware of local and national guidelines for safeguarding children and the Children’s Act. Working closely with key agencies to safeguard those children who may be at risk of harm.

To work closely with the maternity safeguarding team to ensure safeguarding policy and procedure are followed.

To provide competent antenatal and postnatal midwifery care to those women allocated to the Phoenix caseload (mothers who use harmful substances in pregnancy), including risk assessment, care planning and involvement in all safeguarding processes as per trust policy.

Education and Training

To be responsible for the planning, delivery and evaluation of training on mental health in collaboration with the senior midwifery team and the practice development midwife.

To share professional knowledge and lead in the advancement of evidence-based practice.

To develop and implement training materials and information leaflets.

To provide mentorship and preceptorship to midwives and students.

To identify the personal and professional development needs of self and others and take effective action to address them.

To develop and improve own competence in a structured way through clinical supervision and appraisal.

Research and Audit

To establish an ongoing programme of clinical audit to evaluate practice, ensuring the data is used to develop and improve practice.

To systematically analyze and evaluate the service each year against key performance targets, publishing an annual report and taking a lead role in the implementation of subsequent actions.

To critically appraise the outcome of relevant research, evaluations and audits and facilitate the implementation of these to improve the Perinatal Mental Health care pathway.

To undertake research as appropriate within own specialist area.

To be aware of relevant research findings and apply these to clinical practice.

To network with colleagues to identify and develop collaborative research opportunities.

To develop a research culture and actively promote the publication and dissemination of research findings and audit.

To produce and present annual statistics and reports on the specialist Perinatal Mental Health service.

To identify appropriate data for collection in line with national or local guidelines.  Monitor the quality and quantity of data being collected and take the necessary action to deal with and problems to maintain data quality.