Senior Psychiatric Liaison Practitioner

The post holder will be an experienced Senior Psychiatric Liaison practitioner carrying out front line specialist assessments and crisis risk management plans within the ED. The post holder must have experience working with Older Adults as well as Working Age Adults. The post holder will work as part of the Mental Health Liaison Team. They will need to be skilled, proactive, creative, compassionate and willing to connect immediately with multiple colleagues in the system (CMHTs, CRHTT, Police, Recovery House, Emergency Department, Medical wards etc.). The post holder will need to conduct rapid screening, assessment and treatment of patients presenting with and without medical co-morbidities, and provide specialist advice and senior reviews to members of the MHLT and acute hospital. The post holder will be an independent decision maker regarding the assessment of those presenting to the Emergency Department and wards. They will be required to carry out specialist assessments and reach decisions on appropriate treatment plans or onward referrals autonomously and provide evidence-based care as outlined in NICE guidelines. The post holder will be competent and confident in positive risk taking and will support junior members to also work in a way that promotes patient autonomy and avoid admissions that are not supported by clinical need., 1. Work alongside senior team colleagues to provide clinical leadership to the team 2. Work alongside other senior colleagues to operate a Rapid Assessment and Treatment function for patients referred from the ED for specialist mental health assessment utilising the SBAR model of rapid assessment and care planning, and a modified version of the UK Mental Health Triage Scale. 3. Support and develop the clinical skills of junior team members, particularly in relation to the safe and appropriate use of positive risk taking 4. Establish and maintain effective working relationships with acute trust staff 5. Promote and initiate any actions to safeguard vulnerable children and adults. 6. Provide a comprehensive consultation-liaison service to individual clinicians, particularly in assisting them develop emergency plans of care and make difficult decisions in cases where patients are exhibiting complex psychosocial needs and/or challenging behaviours 7. Be required to teach others. 8. Be responsible for specific clinical projects. 9. Be expected to participate fully in quality assurance initiatives. 10. The post-holder will act as a role model in providing a service for people with mental health problems for all staff within general hospital setting. 11. Ensure that collection of required data to inform key clinical performance indicators 12. The post holder represents the Trust in the general hospital setting and will play a vital role in communicating and maintaining a good working relationships.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people. Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We're Kind
• We're Fair
• We Listen
• We Care