Care Coordinator | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen to taken on a role as a Community Practitioner / Care-Coordinator in the Lambeth and Southwark Care Home Intervention Team (CHIT). This is an ideal post for someone passionate about supporting care home staff to improve the quality of person-centered care they provide for people with challenging behaviour, and would suit a current band 6 wanting to expand their experience, or an enthusiastic and skilled band 5 who is keen to develop into a community post.

You will be someone who is passionate about working with older adults living with dementia or other mental health needs and who wants to make a difference in the lives of people that live and work in care homes. We encourage applications from clinicians who value creativity, innovative thinking, originality and are looking for a role that fits with these values. You will also have excellent collaboration, negotiation and communication skills, as the staff and the residents in the care homes you will work with face many challenges that have increased significantly in recent months. You will need to be motivated and enthusiastic about providing high quality person-centred care and be someone who is able to inspire others to do so too.

The post-holder will be expected to carry out an assessment and formulate a plan of care for service users who are experiencing behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia or challenging behaviour in the context of mental illness.

They will work in conjunction with the residential to support staff skill development. They will care co-ordinate a defined caseload. They will provide support and consultation their carers, relatives and friends as directed by the line manager. This will include developing and evaluating care plans in conjunction with the multi-disciplinary team, service-users, carers, and family.

We are a multi-disciplinary team who work with people aged 65 and above living in residential or nursing care homes in Lambeth and Southwark. We specialise in understanding the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), and behavours that challenge care staff in the context of a person's mental health needs.

We also seek to continually improve our service and the lives of residents by using QI methodology in partnership with care homes. We are dedicated to supporting professional development, and we welcome contributions towards team development.

1) To promote a holistic, person-centred assessment and formulation framework to local authority and private providers of older people's care to support direct care staff to implement the plan of care.

2) To care co-ordinate a clinical caseload of service users with behaviours that challenge, who may also experience co-morbidity.

3)To develop and facilitate education/training opportunities to enhance the knowledge to private providers of Residential / Nursing home care and to develop skill to promote positive care of service users with dementia and mental illness resulting in enhance quality of life.

4) To work in a consultation role with service users, carers and staff to provide consultation and supervision to stakeholders and associated professionals about behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia or challenging behaviour in the context of mental illness issues.

5) To act as a voice for those we work with to ensure that service user and carer views are incorporated into the development of the service.

6) Contribute to clinical audit and outcome measures with the support of the MDT. Attend meetings, forums and working groups as appropriate.

7) To ensure anti-discriminatory practice is upheld and promoted. To ensure relevant legislation and practice is upheld. Continually seek to improve practice via reflective learning, making effective use of supervision, training and learning opportunities.