Harm Reduction Nurse | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

We are offering an exciting opportunity for a Band 6 RGN or RMN to become an important, member of our highly regarded Harm Reduction Pathway within the consortium. You will be supporting our existing harm reduction interventions such as HCV clinic, needle exchanges, BBV and sexual health interventions, smoking cessation and naloxone provision whilst supporting new developments and innovations.

The Harm Reduction Nurse would be responsible for the pathway and ensuring the pathway is operating safe and effectively, delivering on all performance targets reducing drug related harm to clients and wider community.

The objective of the Harm Reduction Pathway is to minimise harms physically, mentally and socially associated to an individual's substance use. This treatment pathway offers a lucrative opportunity to be creative with regards to health promotion.

RWCDAS provides an excellent, high-quality treatment offer to service users across the boroughs of Richmond and Wandsworth who are keen to seek support for their substance use. Our services are busy and dynamic, currently operating across 2 core sites within each borough. The service proudly also has access to wider recovery links and nodes within the local area, including those utilised by our outreach team, homeless pathway and group programme.

The post-holder will be expected to work across our treatment pathways however will largely be based within each core site and hold an interest in the traditional harms associated to substance use and be curious to the potential wider holistic implications affecting service user health and wellbeing.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust(SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.
1. To hold responsibility for the Harm Reduction Treatment Pathway within the consortium
2. To discharge professional responsibilities under the Mental Health Act (1983) and revised subsequent act Mental Capacity Act (2005) and the NMC Professional Code of Conduct and SLaM commitments.
3. To understand the principles of harm reduction in relation to a vast array of substances (licit and illicit) recognising the benefits of using this framework when working with service users
4. Work holistically to promote service user wellbeing by facilitating access into community and specialist resources. Promoting and empowering service users to improve their own health and wellbeing as well as creating a safe space for clients to be transparent about their treatment needs
5. To promote and facilitate individuals into both abstinence based and medically assisted forms of recovery and recognise the importance of supporting those who are not currently pursuing abstinence
6. To improve access to smoking cessation advice
7. To support practice which aims to reduce drug related harms to the service user. Empowering staff within the consortium to deliver evidence-based examples of harm reduction throughout treatment journey
8. To support the Blood Borne Virus (BBV) pathway, maintaining and developing relationships with external agencies/professionals vital to treatment facilitation. The Harm Reduction Nurse will support senior Harm Reduction and hepatology staff with the provision BBV treatment and oversight/upkeep of clinical documentation as well as data associated to BBV within RWCDAS. The Harm Reduction Nurse will support staff education and awareness of the impact of BBV as well as the importance of screening and treatment availability
9. Ensure clinical procedures such as: Blood Borne Virus (BBV) screening (dry blood spot, capillary blood test and phlebotomy), IM injections and soft tissue care are safely delivered, supporting the core team on occasion with nurse led clinics
10. The Harm Reduction nurse will help lead on the development of on-site BBV screening/prevention opportunities which will be delivered effectively and safely, via phlebotomy, capillary blood testing and Hepatitis B vaccination
11. The Harm Reduction Nurse will support oversight of Needle Exchange service within the consortium. To ensure service offers high quality equipment with intention of developing service in accordance to Public Health England recommendation within NICE guidelines
12. The Harm Reduction Nurse will support management and oversight of Naloxone provision, empowering service users and staff to feel able to challenge and recognise risk associated to overdose both in relation to opioids and other substances
13. The Harm Reduction Nurse will support senior Harm Reduction Staff with the delivery of Harm Reduction training sessions to a range of colleagues, professionals, and service users. Ensuring information and content is current and representative of national guidelines. To continue developing training packages and opportunities for colleagues, external professionals, and service users.
14. To hold management of a small, defined caseload of clients who have been identified as requiring specialist harm reduction intervention. Inclusive of nurse specific responsibilities such as BBV, vaccinations, sexual health, soft tissue care and health promotion
15. The Harm Reduction Nurse will represent the pathway throughout the consortium however will be expected to work closely with outreach pathway, delivering care and harm reduction intervention to individuals traditionally, on the peripheral of core treatment
16. To be keen to develop one's own knowledge of core drug and alcohol treatment, working collaboratively with multi-disciplinary team on promoting health and wellbeing of clients using drugs and alcohol. To fully inform service users about their healthcare options, involve them in decisions and consent, and encourage them to take opportunities to achieve a sustained improvement in healthcare
17. To support management of data representation associated to Harm Reduction pathway
18. The recording of clinical case notes is of a high standard, that recording is undertaken within the required timeframes and shared appropriately
19. To actively promote and encourage service user and carer involvement in the service
20. To deliver Harm Reduction support to consortiums community engagement pathway, promoting service involvement in wider health promotion campaigns as well as management and inclusivity of volunteer staff within this pathway
21. To work collaboratively, creatively and flexibly with other pathways within the consortium as well external agencies, peers and volunteers
22. To participate in the Consortium's Group Training Program, SLaM mandatory training and the Consortium Duty and Triage rotas as required
23. To actively engage in opportunities for learning and development at an individual and team level.
24. To form productive working relationships with external agencies and professionals, existing and new, to ensure that service users have access to a wide range of recovery and community resources.
25. To personify a positive, collaborative and recovery-focused work ethic.
26. To present a professional appearance, help maintain an orderly working environment
27. To ensure that all visitors to the service (including service users, families/carers, professionals and the general public) are welcomed in a responsive, helpful and professional manner
28. To attend meetings at appointed times, maintain professional personnel and service user records and meet deadlines
29. To proactively maintain professional knowledge and practice and attend, use and contribute to supervision and team meetings effectively
30. To assess risk and safeguarding issues and ensure service users and children are protected
31. To work within professional boundaries maintaining safety and appropriate confidentiality at all times.
32. To ensure services and duties are delivered in compliance with the law and relevant national and local policies, standards and guidance, including the CQC, NTA, NICE and other quality standards
33. To read and comply with policies and procedures

We are looking for enthusiastic, motivated, caring and creative people to come and join us and work within an exciting and fast paced environment that provides high quality addictions and recovery care to a diverse service user group.