Clinical Nurse Specialist - Liaison Psychiatry for Older Adults

Clinical Nurse Specialist - Liaison Psychiatry for Older Adults

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time Band 7 - Older Adult Mental Health Practitioner or Clinical Nurse Specialist to join the Mental Health for Older Adults (MHOA) Liaison Team within our busy, multi-disciplinary Liaison Team based at St Thomas' Hospital.

The team works Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm and the team consists of Consultant Older Adult Liaison Psychiatrists, Rotational Core Trainees, Clinical Psychologists, Team Leader, B7 Clinical Nurse Specialists and a B6 Psychiatric Liaison Nurse.

The MHOA Liaison Team provides a Mon-Fri (9am-5pm) service to St Thomas' and Guys Hospitals (GSTT) offering urgent assessment and intervention to older adult patients attending the Emergency Department and those admitted to the inpatient wards. The service works closely with GSTT staff in a variety of medical settings.

The team is very well established within Guys and St Thomas' Hospitals and has an excellent relationship with our acute trust colleagues

You will be expected to conduct specialist clinical assessments and support care pathways for old age patients currently in Guys or St Thomas' Hospital (GSTT), including the emergency department. To assist in the detection of conditions such as delirium, dementia and depression, which when undetected, may lengthen a patients stay in hospital. To ensure appropriate investigation, treatment during the admission and arrangement of aftercare following discharge from hospital for our patients.

Main duties of the job

About the role

The successful applicant must have excellent clinical skills, be able to demonstrate an ability to complete complex, comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments and mental state examinations leading to thorough formulations and care plans. Be able to thoroughly assess risk, formulate safe and effective risk management plans and document this clearly. The successful applicant is expected to be able to formulate appropriate, non-pharmacological management of patients that are exhibiting behaviours that challenge.

You will be expected to offer senior clinical advice and support to colleagues both within the liaison service and wider hospital. You should have sound experience of management of mental health emergencies, and crisis care in a variety of settings.

You should be able work autonomously. The successful applicant is also expected to be able to triage referrals and prioritize their workload to ensure that all referrals are assessed within the appropriate time frame.

You will hold a sound working knowledge of common mental health disorders, the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and DOLs. A comprehensive knowledge of the important interface between physical and mental health is essential as well as strong knowledge of physical health problems within the older adult population is essential.

Hold excellent communication skills and confidence in liaising with Acute Trust and Health and Social Care Professionals at all levels.

About us

About us

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history of providing mental health care, has well-established community links and an international reputation.

We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide.

The Care Quality Commission rates our services as 'good'.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone's potential as change makers.

Job responsibilities

ClinicalTo assess patients and provide a specialist psychiatric liaison service to people with mental health problems over the age of 65 who are being treated within GSTT or who have presented to the emergency department.To provide strong and decisive clinical leadership to all staff within the team and work effectively as part of an MDT.To respond to referrals and requests for advice in a professional and positive manner.To provide face to face assessments and consultations with service users, carers and clinical and non-clinical personnel within the Trust and externally.To devise and deliver treatment and management plans for patients seen within the service.To liaise with and refer on to hospital and community based mental health services, both within the Trust and externally; working closely with the Older Adult directorate in SLaM.

To make decisions regarding whether a person referred requires admission to inpatient mental health services, community mental health referrals or can be discharged to their GP or other agencies. These decisions are often made autonomously where appropriate or on discussion with team colleagues during multidisciplinary meetings.

The post holder will be expected to work autonomously most of the time and manage a caseload of patients. They must also work collaboratively and in an integrated way with all other parts of the Trusts services.

To monitor the teams performance and to ensure that data entry is accurate and that the team meets the required performance targets and KPIs set as a Lambeth Liaison Service.

To be responsible for ensuring that the Liaison Team works closely with the old age in-patient wards, frailty unit and Emergency Department of GSTT.To be responsible for ensuring that services provided by the Older Adult Liaison Team are of the highest standard in terms of fair access, equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice.To be responsible for ensuring that procedures are in place within the Older Adult Liaison Team to support the receipt of referrals, assessments, allocation and closing of referrals that come through the system.

To ensure that clinical governance policy and procedures are implemented. To investigate serious incidents and complaints in accordance with the Trust policies.To undertake investigations into complaints and incidents, provide reports to the Clinical Service Lead as required and implement recommendations arising from these.

To work collaboratively with the Clinical Service Lead, and CMHT and HTT managers to ensure that the service meets the requirements of Core 24, PLAN standards, the MHA 2007, MCA and CPA.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Mental Health Nurse or equivalent
• Mentorship/ENB 998 or equivalent (Practice Assessor)
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Educated to degree level

Experience

• Previous or current experience of working with Older Adults
• Experience of providing teaching and training for staff and services
• Experience of recording, managing and analysing data as part of audit, research, or service evaluation
• Ability to manage and prioritise effectively own time, clinical case load and service needs
• Experience of undertaking assessments in all areas of acute hospital including the Emergency Department setting

Knowledge & Skills

• A sound understanding of how to assess and meet the needs of older adults with mental illness, including dementia and delirium
• Working knowledge of all relevant legislation associated with acute mental health care including MHA, MCA, safeguarding and DOLS
• Evidence of post registration development

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.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Address

St. Thomas’ Hospital

Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH

Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7EH