CAMHS MHST Practitioner

This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Wellbeing Practitioner (SWP) or Mental Health Practitioner, with a background of working with education settings, to work in Lewisham CAMHS Mental Health Support Team (MHST). The post holder will be an SWP due to complete the approved 2-year SWP Post Graduate Diploma in Jan 2025 OR a registered Mental Health Practitioner who has undertaken a recognised qualification in one of the core mental health professions. The post holder will use their knowledge, skills, and experience to supervise trainee and qualified Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) and contribute to the general service development and functioning. The post holder will also manage a defined caseload with a focus on providing focused assessment and evidence-based intervention for children and young people (CYP) with mild to moderate mental health difficulties and their parents/carers. Part of this role will include being a named MHST Link Practitioner to a group of schools/colleges, regularly liaising with education staff, external agencies, CAMHS colleagues and other local services. The post holder will travel across the borough to different schools/colleges and adapt working pattern as appropriate in order to meet the needs of the community and service.,

• To deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions to CYP and families.
• To supervise trainee and qualified EMHPs.
• To contribute to multi-disciplinary team discussions and service development.
• To be a Link Practitioner to MHST schools.
• To contribute and facilitate whole school approach workshops.
• To provide advice and guided signposting to CYP, families and education staff.
  
  Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are a service designed to help meet the mental health needs of children and young people in education settings. They are made up of senior clinicians, SWPs, EMHPs, MHST Practitioners and Practitioner Psychologists. They are based across education settings as an additional resource within a whole-system approach to promote wellbeing, support earlier intervention, enable appropriate signposting and deliver evidence-based support, care and interventions.
Lewisham MHST works across four teams and next year will cover over 80% of education settings in the borough. The MHSTs is partnered with their education settings to design a bespoke offer, based on a school/colleges individual needs and works with the mental health services that are already in place, such as counselling, educational psychology, school nurses, pastoral care, educational welfare officers, VCSEs, the local authority, including children's social care, and NHS Children and Young People Mental Health Services (CYPMHS).