Discharge Facilitation Practitioner (RMN / LD / OT / Social Worker)

The Specialist Autism Team was first established in May 2021. Since then the team has continued to grow and develop. The service is commissioned to offer an Inreach, Outreach and Discharge Facilitation.

We want to hear from you if you are highly committed to working with autistic adults. We are offering an opportunity for a registered nurse (Mental Health or Learning Disability), OT or social worker to join our multi-disciplinary team as part of our discharge facilitation pathway.

Within this pathway, our primary role is to support autistic individuals back into the community, planning discharge collaboratively from the point of admission in a timely, well planned and sustainable approach. You will also support the individual and their support networks for 6 weeks post discharge to ensure their discharge is safe. It is vital that you have good understanding of autistic differences and the policy's around hospital discharges.

You will work closely with the Multi-disciplinary Team of the Specialist Autism Team which consists of Speech and Language Therapists and Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Learning Disabilities Nurses, Mental Health Nurses, Social workers, Psychology and Assistant Psychology and wider Multi-disciplinary team such as Local Authority, Key Workers and the Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The team prides it's self on the diverse knowledge of each professional. We are very supportive of and encourage continuous learning and development. For this reason we have regular team development sessions or group reflection sessions and each team member plays a vital role in sharing knowledge and information. One to one supervision is held at least every 4 weeks where your personal development is discussed. We have weekly clinical decision meetings where shared decision making is promoted.

To date we have supported autistic people and their support networks who have experienced a number of challenges including high levels of anxiety, unforeseen changes within their life and sensory and communication differences which haven't yet been fully explored and understood back into the community identifying any autistic differences and additional support that may be needed in order for the individual to live a fulfilling life, in the hope to avoid further hospital admissions.

We work between the hours of 9-5 Monday to Friday, with some flexibility required on occasion, to meet individual need.

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care.

The Trust also provides a range of physical health and well-being services in the community alongside a range of partners in the Lancashire, Cumbria and Sefton area.

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust encourages flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, flexi-time and career breaks. We encourage applicants to state clearly on their application forms this request and discuss these options at interview.