Assistant Practitioner

You will be responsible for supporting service users under the Clozapine clinic within Halton Recovery Team, to achieve and maintain good mental / physical health, and adopt healthier lifestyles., To support the Clozapine clinic interventions under the supervision of a qualified practitioner.
To carry out assigned duties, involving direct care and observation of service users under guidance and supervision of a qualified practitioner.
To report to the qualified practitioner any observations made whilst providing care to service-users.
To support areas of the wider team with physical health interventions as and when needed (phlebotomy, ECG, physical health checks)., To contribute to the delivery of a planned programme of care under the direct supervision of the qualified practitioner.
To assist the qualified practitioners by being proactive in maximizing health, well being and social inclusion of service users.
To provide assistance with activities of daily living, participating in and developing health promotional activities.
To report general observations and provide feedback to the qualified practitioner both verbally and in written formats, if required. This should include any concerns arising from the service-users physical or mental health.
To carry out supported observations and provide feedback to the qualified practitioner both verbally and in written formats, as required.
To contribute to the effective running of the service by providing and receiving information to/from other departments, e.g. catering department. Ensure this information is provided in the most effective way. i.e. telephone, fax or in writing.
To maintain effective communication between individuals, relatives, carers and the multidisciplinary team.
To assist the qualified practitioner, under their direct supervision to administer medication to service users in line with trust policy.
To use a variety of verbal and non-verbal skills to overcome communication barriers presented by service users due to their mental health needs.
As directed by the qualified practitioners, play a specific role in maintaining a safe environment for service users, staff and visitors.
To carry out specific duties that contribute to the assessment of service users physical/psychological healthcare needs as requested by the qualified practitioner.
To carry out, under supervision or direction, activities, which optimize service users level of functioning and develop meaningful activities for individuals and groups.
As directed by the qualified practitioner, maintain accurate charts that contribute to the assessment of a service users physical condition e.g. diet and fluid charts, weight or blood pressure, pulse and temperature.
To prepare agreed assessment reports and treatment plans to assist the qualified practitioner with care planning.
To use skills and techniques, gained during mandatory training, to de-escalate situations where service users become physically and verbally aggressive.
To contribute to the development of risk management plans for the service user or risk to others as a result of the behaviour or actions of service users.
To escort service users as directed by the qualified practitioner.
PROFESSIONAL
To participate in the Divisions performance management/supervision framework and work towards meeting identified goals and objectives as agreed in a personal development plan.
To act, at all times, in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.
To undertake mandatory training as stipulated by the trust and ensure that all interactions with service users are in line with this e.g. Manual Handling.
Under the guidance and supervision of a qualified practitioner, to make accurate and appropriate entries into health records.
To assist the qualified practitioner to prepare reports and protocols.
To participate in handovers and staff meetings to assist effective two-way communication.
To seek advice and further training, if appropriate.
To make the qualified practitioner aware of any incidents arising during own span of duty and carry out any actions arising from this as directed.
To participate, as directed in the induction of new staff.
To provide supervision and guidance to support staff.
To participate in the support, education and training of support staff.
To provide support to practitioners undertaking NVQ's and assess in practice.
ORGANISATIONAL
To adhere to the trusts rights based approach taking into account service user choice.
To take responsibility for ensuring own personal safety and that of the service user when using equipment.
To take reasonable care for the health and safety of oneself and any other that may be affected by your acts and omissions at work.
To ensure familiar familiarity with the terms and conditions of own post.
To participate in service development activities, as required.
OTHER
To maintain the dignity of service users at all times whilst dealing with aspects of personal care.
To seek appropriate advice and support from the qualified practitioner during occasions when service users or their carers become agitated or distressed.
To maintain service user confidentiality at all times both on and off duty.
To maintain appropriate professional boundaries with service users at all times both on and off duty.
To ensure that work is conducted in accordance with the Trusts Equality and Diversity Strategy.
To co-operate with reasonable requests from managers to vary your area of work to meet unplanned clinical need.
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We celebrate diversity and promote equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust's guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs. Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email [email protected] to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
We reserve the right to close any vacancy earlier than advertised in exceptional circumstances once we have received a high volume of applications.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £13 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team or email [email protected]) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team can prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Please be advised that the use of Artificial Intelligence on applications is monitored and if you choose to use this, you must declare this on your application form.

In your role you will work alongside all members of a multi-disciplinary team. You must be an organised individual with experience of working in a Band 4 role. Experience of all aspects of physical health monitoring (phlebotomy, ECGS), and ideally (though not essential) experience within a Clozapine Clinic environment.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.