Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist, Perinatal Psychiatry, Solihull

Perinatal mental health services are undergoing a time of huge expansion nationally. Locally this has led to the development of a comprehensive perinatal mental health service for South Birmingham during Wave 1 of national funding. Wave 2 of this nationally funding has led to the creation of comprehensive services covering the Black Country and West Birmingham and the North & East Birmingham and Solihull., We are seeking to recruit a substantive consultant psychiatrist who will provide perinatal psychiatric care to the Solihull area for 8PAs per week., The postholder will provide perinatal psychiatric care to the Solihull area.

The postholder and the other consultants for Birmingham will provide reciprocal cover for the community team during the working week, as well as for the inpatient MBU.

A considerable amount of multi-agency work is envisaged with the post-holder working with relevant key agencies including Child Protection teams, Health Visiting Services and Public Health colleagues from the Local Authorities, close working with professionals at UHB, primary care - including IAPT workers, GPs and Children's Centres, and collaboration with the voluntary sector. Training and advice for linked agencies will be an important role of the postholder.

Collaboration with other agencies including maternity services, health visitors and GPs with which women will come into contact during their pregnancy and post-natal period is an integral part of the role, with timely and appropriate information sharing between agencies.

An important aspect of this post will be supporting the continued development of this new community team. Dr Berrisford is responsible for five inpatient unit beds and is the clinical lead for the perinatal service as a whole, the other 5 inpatient beds and West Birmingham CMHT are covered by Dr Brownsett - Dr Brownsett will cease working for West Birmingham as she takes over the care for all beds for the MBU during Dr Berrisford's sabbatical period, Dr Jankovic provides perinatal mental health care at Birmingham Women's Hospital and also has an academic appointment. Dr Ahmed and Dr Sultana provides perinatal care at Heart of England Foundation Trust., Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) provides a comprehensive mental healthcare service for residents of Birmingham and Solihull and to communities in the West Midlands and beyond. Our Trust values are at the centre of all our work: compassionate, inclusive and committed.

Birmingham is the second largest city in the UK and as a result brings with it a whole range of cultural, social, sporting and leisure opportunities. It is one of the youngest cities in Europe which adds to the vibrancy of the area.

We operate out of more than 50 sites and serve a culturally and socially diverse population of 1.2 million spread over 172 square miles. We have an annual budget of £240 million and a dedicated workforce of over 4,000 staff - making us one of the largest and most complex Mental Health Foundation Trusts in the country. Our catchment population is ethnically diverse and characterised in places by high levels of deprivation, low earnings and unemployment. These factors create a higher requirement for access to health services and a greater need for innovative ways of engaging people from the most affected areas.

This gives us the perfect opportunity to try new ways of engaging, educating and interacting with our population. This additional creativity is essential to enable us to fulfil our ambition to ensure that all members of our population with mental illness access the care and the help that they need at the time that they need it.