ARRS Mental Health Practitioner

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

ARRS Mental Health Practitioner - Primary Care (TWNS only)

This is an exciting opportunity to improve the experience for individuals with mental health needs through offering early assessment and access to treatment and support to promote mental health and well-being within primary care.

Embedded in one of five Primary Care Networks (PCNs), our ARRS Practitioners are outward facing linking seamlessly with the Gloucestershire Health and Care (GHC) NHS Foundation Trust, where we will provide support with supervision and training opportunities. The PCNs provide a welcoming environment for SMHPs making them feel part of their teams and there is Countywide support from SMHP colleagues based in other practices.

Main duties of the job

The ARRS Practitioner will be an integrated member of the GP practice team and will take the lead in ensuring best practice is delivered across your allocated GP surgeries. The role requires working autonomously in providing high volume assessment, diagnosis, and treatment appointments, advice and support for GPs in caring for patients with mental health issues, and improving links with community providers. The MH Practitioner will work within a number of GP practices within a specific Primary Care Network.

Enthusiasm, an ability to work flexibly and collaboratively with colleagues across service areas to bring about change, and the desire to develop and improve services will be fundamental to these roles. Professional development, governance support, training, and supervision will be provided by GHC Trust working collaboratively with colleagues in Primary Care.

We will consider offering a Band 6 developmental role to candidates with suitable knowledge and experience. Support from our Operational Lead, the wider team, and colleagues within each PCN will be in place to help development into the Band 7 role.

Job responsibilities

The post holder will be expected:

• To work within a multi-professional primary care team to provide a service for adults 18+ with varying levels of mental health needs, including SMI and Complex Emotional Needs that may co-exist with physical health problems within the registered patient population.
• To exercise a high degree of professional autonomy and make critical judgments to satisfy the expectations and demands of the role.
• To act as a practice leader, managing your own workload and to work across professional, organisational and system boundaries to improve services and develop practice.
• To navigate, liaise with and refer onto mental health services, voluntary and public sector agencies and community support groups.
• To support the delivery of annual mental health reviews for adults on the practices mental health register.
• To provide specialist advice, supervision and support to practice colleagues in relation to patients with mental health issues.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Person Specification

QUALIFICATIONS

• NMP

LENGTH AND / OR NATURE OF EXPERIENCE

• Significant, recent clinical experience in the assessment of mental health at Band 7 level.
• Front line experience of using advanced assessment skills especially in determining the nature and severity of mental illness/health (functional and organic) and differentiation between physical and mental health symptoms and conditions.
• Extensive working knowledge of the makeup of the wider health and social care community including statutory and non-statutory services and direct experience of multi inter-agency working and collaboration.
• Detailed working knowledge of how specialist mental health services are organised and operate, where and how they fit into the health and social care community.
• Contemporary experience of working in a primary care setting.
• Experience of assessment and management of patients with mental health conditions in a primary care setting.
• Experience of the wider community mental health service in recovery / crisis teams.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.