Consultant Psychiatrist - Older Adults (Community)

Consultant Psychiatrist - Older Adults (Community)

As a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist working for Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, you will be responsible for ensuring that our service users' needs are met through the delivery of high-quality care.

As a leader of the outpatient multi-disciplinary team at Hartley Hospital, you will work in a state-of-the-art mental health facility, providing clinical care to older adults who require specialist outpatient care. You will work closely with a wide range of clinical and professional disciplines to deliver holistic care by completing assessments of new referrals to the team, making formulations, and managing their treatment to optimise the quality of life of the service users under your caseload.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be the Responsible Clinician for patients in their caseload within the Older Adults Community Mental Health Team.

There are allocated GP surgeries for each caseload within the service, and these are allocated to ensure equity in terms of the number of referrals. In line with New Ways of Working, the post holder will provide a consultative, supervisory, and supportive role to the multidisciplinary team's work.

They will take an active part in the clinical work of the team and a lead role in the development of the service. The post holder will be expected to provide leadership to the Team, whose role is to provide assessment, management, and support to people who may need contact with Older Adults Mental Health services. Practitioners within the team will support access to services in a timely manner, as well as ensure arrangements are in place to enhance smooth pathways between primary care and secondary services.

The post holder will be enabled to work in a consultative manner, being accessible to team members, GP and primary care staff, patients, and carers for the provision of expert advice and interventions in a timely manner. The post holder will operate within multi-disciplinary integrated and co-located teams, which include Health staff and Social services staff. The post holder will be expected to be part of the allocation procedure within the team and be responsive and flexible to the needs of the team.

About us

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region (Halton, Warrington, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, and St Helens) and is also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales, and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction, and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable, and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce costs as we do so.

Job responsibilities

The post holder will be responsible for the overall management of patients under their caseload, which is defined by groupings of General Practice surgeries in the local area. There are a total of 22 General Practice surgeries included within the area which Hartley Hospital covers, and each on average makes 38 referrals per year to the Older Adult Services. The majority of referrals are from primary care, and a small number are from Liaison mental health services or from other medical specialties such as Neurology or Geriatrics.

Currently, there are 1824 open referrals to the team as a whole and 613 to the advertised post's MDT, with the average population covered by each practice being 7,254 and an average of 2,984 patients over the age of 65 being registered at each practice.

The number of referrals per month for the last six months are as follows:

1. July: 101
2. August: 83
3. September: 75
4. October: 85
5. November: 90
6. December: 73

The team composition is as follows:

• 2 x FTE Consultant Psychiatrists Post Holder, Dr Williams/Dr Govindaraj
• 1 x Staff Grade Doctor Dr Leahy
• 1 x Band 7 team manager Kerry Adamson
• 2 x Advanced Nurse Practitioners (1 per MDT) - lead and chair their MDT and complete new patient assessments
• 1 x Band 7 OT
• 4 x Band 6 CPNs (2 per MDT)
• 2 x Band 5 CPNs (1 per MDT)
• 2 x Band 6 nurses in titration team
• 1.4 x Band 6 nurses in Care Home Liaison Team
• 2 x Band 4 Assistant Practitioners in Care Home Liaison Team
• 1 x Band 4 Assistant Practitioner for memory reviews and physical health checks
• 2 x Band 3 Support Workers (only funded for people with a functional diagnosis)
• 1 x Clinical Psychologist and Psychology Assistant.

Please see job description for further details.

Person Specification

Registration

• Full registration with General Medical Council
• Inclusion on or eligible for inclusion on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council or within 6 months of CCST/CCT or equivalent in Old age Psychiatry at date of interview
• Section 12 (2) Approval which is integral to Approved Clinician Status or demonstrated ability to gain approval
• In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice

Transport

• Holds valid UK driving licence and will use own car for work-related travel OR provides evidence of proposed alternative

Qualifications and Training

• MbChb, MBBS or equivalent
• Qualification or higher degree in medical education, clinical research or management
• Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists or equivalent, 3 years higher professional training in Old age psychiatry
• Undertaken 'Train the Trainer' and 'Equality and Diversity' Training

Clinical Skills, Knowledge & Experience

• Excellent clinical knowledge in specialty
• Excellent clinical skills using bio-psycho-social perspective and wide medical knowledge
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
• Makes decisions based on evidence and experience including the contribution of others
• Able to meet duties under MHA and MCA
• Experience in working previously in similar roles at a relevant level.
• Training or worked as a DoLs assessor
• Experience in management and service development
• Knowledge and use of IT systems

Academic Skills and Lifelong Learning

• Able to deliver undergraduate or postgraduate teaching and training
• Participated in continuous professional development
• Participated in research or service evaluation
• Able to use and appraise clinical evidence.
• Has actively participated in clinical audit.
• Able to plan and deliver teaching and training relevant to this post
• Experienced in clinical research and/or service evaluation.
• Has led clinical audits leading to service change

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.

£105,504 to £139,882 a year plus 10% R&R (non-contractual) and 1% on-call supplement.