Mental Health Response Vehicle & FPCC Clinical Lead

NHS; Gloucester; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job description

Mental Health Response Vehicle & FPCC Clinical Lead

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

The MHRRV pilot was intended as a forerunner to mental health ambulances, as the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) priority stipulates the requirement for these from 2024. The pilot also reflected the national commitment to partnership working between police and NHS in the response to mental health incidents. The Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) national partnership agreement, published in July 2023, describes the strategic ambition for police to be less involved in responses to these incidents where possible and a move towards a more health-based emergency response to Mental Health Crises in the Community.

Concurrently the Mental Health First Point of Contact Service operated by GHC is undergoing a significant stage of progression with expansion in hours of operation and development of the NHS 111 service for Mental Health and Urgent Care Crisis Telephone line.

The Clinical Lead role is a rotational post requiring the postholder to work on the MHRRV providing a timely face to face response for people who may be experiencing a mental health crisis, improving patient outcomes and experience.

The other rotational aspect of the Role also requires the Clinical Lead to act as a visible and approachable Mental Health expert practitioner at the FPCC providing expert clinical advice, support, supervision and guidance to staff delivering the Mental Health Crisis telephone service.

Main duties of the job

The primary focus of the role is to work as an expert autonomous practitioner on the MHRRV providing a timely face to face response for people who may be experiencing a mental health crisis and to rotate duties acting as Clinical Lead at the FPCC providing expert clinical advice, support, supervision and guidance to staff delivering the Mental Health Crisis telephone service.

The post holder will be required:

• To exercise a high degree of professional autonomy and make critical judgments to satisfy the expectations and demands that arise in the delivery of an emergency blue light service.
• To engage in responding to Crisis calls whilst at FPCC, acting as a clinical role model, leading by example, mentoring clinical staff and where required taking the lead in managing challenging complex clinical scenarios.
• To navigate, liaise with and refer onto mental health services, voluntary and public sector agencies and community support groups where least restrictive option can be utilised.
• To provide specialist advice, supervision and support to emergency services system colleagues in relation to patients with mental health issues in Crises.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Job responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities:

• Undertake a full range of activities required to deliver a comprehensive face to face bio psychosocial mental health assessment in an emergency, to people who may be distressed/ in crisis.
• Use highly developed communication skills in working with people in Mental Health Crises to understand their personal and often very sensitive difficulties, recognising the need for varying methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating.
• Assess, plan, implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for people in Crises including assessing patients for suitability for psychological interventions and medical treatment.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of service users presenting in Mental Health Crises that require an emergency response in line with the service and agreed protocols.
• Work with other health and social care professionals to assess, treat and monitor management of patients in line with national and local policies and practice needs.
• Assume a clinical leadership role where co-ordination of a multi-agency approach is required in response to complex referrals or patients presenting to Urgent and Emergency services in mental Health Crises.
• To provide education, support and supervision to emergency services staff and health care professionals involved in MHRRV service and FPCC.
• Engage and involve family members, carers in management of response to people in a Mental Health crisis and any ongoing treatment as necessary.
• Promote and deliver the care to patients required to manage the demand of the quality and outcomes framework as appropriate.
• To respond to Crisis calls whilst at FPCC, acting as a clinical role model, leading by example, mentoring clinical staff and where required taking the lead in managing challenging complex clinical scenarios.
• Provide specialist advice and consultation to other clinicians, professionals and emergency care workers on a broad range of issues relating to people presenting with Mental Health Crises.
• Keep coherent records of all clinical activity at FPCC and in line with joint Memorandum of Understanding and Operational Policy for MHRRV.
• Carry out clinical audits of service performance, including service user surveys and evaluations, and help to collate and disseminate the results for feedback.

Person Specification

QUALIFICATIONS

LENGTH AND / OR NATURE OF EXPERIENCE

• Significant, recent clinical experience in the assessment of mental health Crises at Band 6 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 MH Urgent Care Services ie Crisis, Mental Health Liaison.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision and education to clinical staff.

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.

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Deputy Service Director Urgent Care Mental Health