Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Job overview

12-Month Fixed Term Contract / Secondment Opportunity (30 hours per week)

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Mental Health Practitioner to join the Older People’s Community Mental Health Service on a 12-month fixed-term contract or secondment basis.

This new and innovative role will work across all localities within the service, supporting the coordination and delivery of Mental Health Act Section 117 reviews for older adults living in the community. Working alongside administrative colleagues and multidisciplinary teams, the post holder will play a key role in ensuring that statutory reviews are completed effectively, promoting high-quality, person-centred care.

The successful candidate will work closely with Responsible Clinicians, Clinical Leads and wider multidisciplinary teams to coordinate reviews, contribute to care planning, and ensure accurate recording of key information within clinical systems. This initiative represents a new way of working and will be evaluated to assess its impact on service capacity, quality, and outcomes for service users and carers.

We are looking for a motivated practitioner who is able to work autonomously, is highly organised, and has excellent communication and liaison skills. The ability to prioritise workload, coordinate multiple stakeholders, and work in a self-directed manner is essential.

The successful applicant can choose their preferred base from one of our OPMH sites across CPFT.

Main duties of the job

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence* and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs. Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

Job Purpose:

• Senior Mental Health practitioners operate in an embedded Community Mental Health Team to provide assessment and interventions for people with significant mental health conditions
• To identify and focus on cases that are subject to Section 117 of MHA and the required annual reviews.
• Participate in MDT meetings and liaison with social care to ensure key information is recorded in S1 records.
• Work closely with the mental health integrated care team in order to provide an excellent mental health service.

We seek to empower service users to actively engage in their recovery journey, working toward an effective discharge and utilising third sector support where needed.

The ideal candidate will have a strong team work ethic, sense of accountability, accompanied by an ability to work under pressure at times, and with a desire for innovation.

*DVLA have a number of reciprocal arrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

• Review and Assessment of mental health needs.
• Engagement with both service users and their carers in accordance with mental health act Section 117 requirements and policy from the care pathways for dementia and functional illness.
• To assess the use of prescribed medications according to professional guidelines and policies. To be familiar with therapeutic and side effects of prescribed medication and observe statutory and local policies in the prescribing, storage and administration of medications.
• To develop the professional role within the team and to offer guidance and support to colleagues as necessary.
• To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiencies of a discreet Section 117 review role and how it compliments/ impacts on the care delivery of the wider service.
• To contribute to local multi-disciplinary team reviews and care planning for identified service users.
• To Work in conjunction with admin staff and social care colleagues in relation to efficient scheduling of patient reviews i.e. clustering those in one care home.
• To work as necessary with colleagues in the Stepped care therapy, Older People’s Mental Health teams and the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment to ensure smooth transitions of responsibilities and joint work where indicated.
• Ability to work flexibly including working outside core hours if clinically required.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.