Street Triage Practitioner | Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity to work alongside our Police colleagues in the Fylde Coast area. The successful applicants will also collocate at the Police station, utilising a shared vehicle to work across Fylde & Wyre. The purpose of the Street Triage Team will be to provide an effective and timely intervention by police and appropriately skilled mental health professionals, for individuals suffering from mental ill health, creating an appropriate pathway in reduce unnecessary escalation to a crisis situation and/or attendance at the A&E department providing effective care for patients. The objectives of the Street Triage service are:

• To improve the timeliness of response to individuals and their immediate families or carers, who are experiencing an acute deterioration in their mental health.
• To improve treatment and support outcomes for individuals, who come into contact with the police, through early intervention and referral to mental health services.
• To provide a coordinated approach between the police and mental health services: to ensure that people receive the right care, in the right place at the right time.
• To reduce inappropriate extended use of emergency services, in responding to metal health needs.
This Service will be accessible to people of all ages, where it is believed that they may have a mental illness; a learning disability; personality disorder or use substances; who come into contact with the police, outside of custody. The team will assess the mental state of the individual and where applicable, include a face-to-face contact and advise if detention under the Mental Health Act is necessary. The intention is to facilitate interactions and assessments in the most appropriate locations. Identify at the earliest opportunity the mental health needs of the individual and to ensure the most suitable access to support services. The team will provide signposting for those who do not meet the criteria for detention; with an emphasis on providing a prompt response to incidents. 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.