Substance Misuse Practitioner

Job overview

To participate in providing the successful and effective delivery of the Integrated Substance Misuse Services within Secured Services, delivering best practice psychosocial interventions to support the patients’ recovery journey.

To provide high quality patient care with a strong focus towards harm reduction and health promotion / recovery agendas through comprehensive assessment, care-planning, implementation and evaluation of care for people with substance misuse problems.

Please note this post is subject to security vetting. To be considered for this post you will need to have continuously resided in the UK without any breaks for a minimum of 3 years prior to this application and be able to evidence your years of residency. Please note without sufficient evidence your application may not progress.

Main duties of the job

To carry a psychosocial case load with responsibility for assessing, care-planning, implementing and evaluating patient care.

To undertake comprehensive assessment of patients needs following referral to the service and completion formulations to advise patient care.

To lead/co-facilitate group work relevant to substance misuse and offending behaviour.

To effectively liaise and develop links with services, both internal and external, within the prison setting and in the community to establish effective through care and after care pathways.

To act as a second check and signatory in the dispensing of controlled drugs in relation to substance misuse.

To aid and support the Peer Mentor scheme through supervision of the peer mentors and involvement in recruitment and training.

To provide information and advice about drugs, alcohol, smoking cessation and related issues, to include blood borne viruses and safer sex.

To work in conjunction with the prescriber, attending 13 week reviews and SMS complex case meetings to ensure appropriate patient clinical care.

To devise care plans, formulating from assessment and implement and review on a regular basis, in-line with patient needs.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

As described in the main duties of the job, as well as:

To be responsible for a caseload of patients with a diverse range of substance misuse treatment needs, and to provide a comprehensive package of care that includes reference to both psychosocial and pharmacological treatments including Methadone, Espranor, Buvidal, Naltrexone, Acamprosate and Disulfiram.

To work within an wider integrated healthcare team to ensure the best standards of care for patients. This includes joint working with primary care, mental health and pharmacy colleagues.

To ensure continuity of case by effectively plan for patient discharge and prison transfer and/or release in conjunction with community services. To ensure appropriate transfer of patient information and management of highlighted patient risks including facilitating take-home naloxone training.

To obtain clinical observations on patients to support safer prescribing decisions and monitor withdrawal. This includes obtaining urine drug samples and screening for blood-borne viruses.

To provide information, advice and guidance on a range of issues relating to substance misuse, including overdose and tolerance, harm reduction, specific substance awareness and safer injecting.

To  plan, deliver and train junior staff in evidence-based psychosocial interventions via one-to-one and group sessions.

To be actively involved in appraisal systems, clinical and managerial supervision, and be active in identifying aims and objectives for personal development to meet department objectives. This includes remaining up-to-date with any and all mandatory and role-specific training.

To assess and respond to patients at risk of suicide using the appropriate interventions, including the prison service's ACCT process.

For further information on the advertised role, please refer to the job description located under the Supporting Documents heading. The full person specification can be accessed under the ‘About You’ Section of the document.