Dietitian in Mental Health | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Key to this role will be providing evidence based dietary treatment to support the prevention and management of physical health conditions and promote recovery of mental wellness in service users, who have a mental health diagnosis.

The successful candidate will receive regular supervision in keeping with experience and be supported by a knowledgeable and friendly wider team.

About the role

The post includes inpatient and outpatient clinic work offered both virtually and in-person. This involves seeing working age and older adult service users on inpatient wards, rehabilitation and special care units. The majority of wards are within the Maudsley Hospital. Other services are the Ladywell Unit at Lewisham University Hospital, Heather Close Rehabilitation Service and an older adult service, Greenvale Special Care Unit.

Referrals include under-nutrition, underweight and re-feeding syndrome, and over-nutrition and metabolic syndrome linked to mental ill health and psychiatric medications, especially antipsychotics. Also, food allergies / food intolerances, gut issues and specific food likes and dislikes resulting in fewer foods eaten with risk of nutritional deficiencies and disordered eating.

The post requires the ability to work with individuals and groups. Professionalism and excellent communication skills are key. We use motivational interviewing techniques to explore and bring about behavioural change and we are incorporating trauma informed care into our work.

We support all our staff to develop and shine as individuals and to work towards their career aspirations. Training is offered in all areas of mental health via regular supervision, annual appraisal and agreeing a personal development programme and opportunities include Internal and external courses, professional team meetings and shadowing of colleagues.

About Us

We are a dynamic, pro-active and inclusive dietetics team and you would join us as an integral member of our team. We provide specialist mental health dietetic services in the community via dietetic clinics for working age adults. And our inpatient services span psychiatric intensive care, acute, and rehabilitation wards, forensic medium and low secure services, older people's services, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services as well as National and Specialist Services. Our team includes adult and CAMHS specialist eating disorder dietitians, who work within our SLaM Eating disorders services providing dietetic care across all settings.

Overall Job Purpose:

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details.

· To provide a kind, caring and responsive, evidence-based clinical nutrition and dietetics service to working age and older adult service users, who have a mental health diagnosis, on inpatient wards, dietetic outpatient clinics and rehabilitation and special care units.

· To be an integral part of the multidisciplinary team, representing and advocating for excellence in nutrition and dietetic care for all service users within the clinical remit.

· Support the service by providing nutrition knowledge, dietary advice and training for staff from a variety of other disciplines, which is sound, evidence based and up to date.

· Raise awareness, understanding and effective implementation of the trust nutrition policy.

· To collaborate with the dietetic team and other multidisciplinary team members to support, develop and implement quality improvement projects.

You will be a Dietitian who has a passion for providing excellence in the nutritional and dietetic care and who wants to work in mental health Dietetics.

You must be a qualified Dietitian registered with the UK Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) to be eligible for this post.

We welcome applications from newly qualified Dietitians as well as those with some prior working experience within the field of dietetics.