Assistant Practitioner - Physical Health Team
Band 4
Main area: Community Mental Health - Physical Health Focus
Grade: Band 4
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 350-MHC6822165-A
Site: V7 Town: Prescot
Salary: £26,530 - £29,114 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 26/01/2025 23:59
Interview date: 06/02/2025
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities. We are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and particularly encourage applications from ethnic minorities, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ people that are under-represented in our workforce. We also welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces personnel.
Job overview
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Community Physical Health Team as we move into a new model working with our Primary Care colleagues to deliver health assessments for people with a severe mental illness. The post is open to qualified Assistant Practitioners covering either South Sefton Liverpool and Mid Mersey.
The post holder will demonstrate excellent clinical and communication skills and be a team player working closely with the Community Physical Health team and Primary Care. You will have a clear commitment to person-centred care and will be able to demonstrate this in your work with individuals, families, and teams. You will be expected to work under the supervision of the band 7.
The post holder will provide physical health assessments, health promotion advice in line with national guidance, and signpost/refer people to appropriate services/organisations to meet the needs identified through their health assessment. There will also be a requirement for the successful candidate to work with the team in developing and delivering enhanced support to the identified patient group and monitoring the impact of their interventions on patient outcomes.
Main duties of the job
1. To provide clinical assessment, screening, and intervention for the physical health needs for individuals on the SMI register.
2. To work with qualified nurses in meeting the health outcomes of our clients and provide person-centred intervention and holistic care.
3. To liaise with identified GP practices ensuring the patients' needs are appropriately identified and met.
Working for our organisation
Merseycare 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. 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.
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. To contribute to the delivery of Physical Health assessment and care plans under the direct supervision of the practitioner.
2. To be proactive in maximizing health, well-being, and social inclusion of service users.
3. To report any concerns or identified physical health issues to the MDT, nurse practitioner, and/or GP.
4. To maintain effective communication between the community physical health team, individuals, relatives, carers, community mental health teams, and primary care services.
5. To use a variety of verbal and non-verbal skills to overcome communication barriers presented by service users due to their learning disability and mental health needs.
6. To carry out specific duties that contribute to the assessment of service user’s physical health assessment, health interventions, and signposting.
7. To carry out, under supervision or direction, activities that optimize service user’s level of functioning and develop meaningful activities for individuals and groups.
8. To use skills and techniques gained during mandatory training to de-escalate situations where service users become physically and verbally aggressive.
Person specification
Qualifications
* NVQ Level 3 or equivalent
* ECG
* Venepuncture
* Health Promotion
Values
* Accountability
* Support
* High professional standards
* Engaging leadership style
* Transparency and honesty
* Discreet
* Responsive to service users
* Change oriented
Knowledge/Experience
* Experience of working in a LD/mental health setting and supporting individuals who display complex behaviours of concern.
* Experience of working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
* Experience of completing physical health checks and escalation for physical health concerns.
* Sound knowledge of the physical health inequalities experienced by the mental health population.
Skills
* Ability to maintain confidentiality.
* Ability to supervise support workers.
* Ability to work on own initiative and assist qualified practitioners.
* Ability to work as a member of the team.
* Flexibility.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled and meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please email recruitment@merseycare.nhs.uk to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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