Job summary
Are you a Mental Health Nurse, Social worker, or Occupational Therapist ready for the next step in your career? Do you enjoy a fast-paced environment with lots of variety?
A fantastic opportunity has arisen within the Single Point of Access (SPA) service based within Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This is a developing service that is in scope of the Community Mental Health Transformation project and will contribute to the development of a system wide 'one front door' for mental health for Leeds community services.
The Single Point of Access (SPA) clinical roles involve offering telephone triage to people who require routine or crisis care for mental health issues, alongside offering information and advice to third parties including professionals, carers, family, and friends. The role also includes fortnightly face to face clinical practice days within our community services (being a car driver will be beneficial).
Main duties of the job
We are seeking to recruit enthusiastic and motivated staff who have an interest in facilitating services users get on the right care clinical pathway smoothly.
The successful candidates will be able to prioritise competing demands, whilst continuing to make best practice clinical judgements. The post holder needs to be proficient in quickly assessing and positively engaging with service users, family members, friends, and other referrers. The role requires a calm approach and an ability to maintain professional curiosity into people's mental wellbeing. The post holder will need to be highly organised, a good communicator. They will possess risk assessment and management skills and develop initial safety plans where needed and offer advice and support regarding management of identified risks.
The service will operate between the hours of 8am and 9pm 7 days a week. There are opportunities for flexible shift patterns and working.
About us
We are a high quality, high performing NHS foundation trust. We are the main provider of specialist mental health and learning disability services in Leeds. We also provide specialist inpatient services in York as well as some highly specialised services across the country.We employ around 3,000 staff and every year we have contact with over 25,000 service users. Our vision is to provide outstanding mental health and learning disability services as an employer of choice. Our ambition is to support our service users and carers, our staff and the communities we serve to live healthy and fulfilling lives. We need people like you to help us achieve our goals; to live our lives free from stigma and discrimination; and to improve the lives of people with a learning disability and mental ill health. We perform well againstlocal and national targetsand inour most recent CQC inspection, 85% of our services were rated good or outstanding.As a teaching trust with strong links to local universities, we are a centre of excellence for teaching,research and development.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- To signpost, refer and support access to mental health services in secondary care and other services.
- To clearly identify urgent and non-urgent referrals and allocate to the most appropriate pathway.
- To interrogate the Trusts electronic clinical information system in order to obtain relevant service user information to support the decision making process.
- To liaise with the relevant healthcare professionals and carers/family members or other identified support networks (with appropriate consent) to obtain relevant information to support the decision making process.
- To work collaboratively with the SPA admin staff to provide a high quality triage service to service users, carers, voluntary sectors colleagues and other healthcare professionals.
- To build close working relationships with the referral sources by assisting in the development of pathways from the SPA to other mental health providers and agencies to ensure that effective signposting and pathways are maintained.
- Use effective communication skills, both oral and in writing, to communicate complex, sensitive and often contentious information to a wide range of people including clinical and non-clinical staff.
- The post holder may have to listen to difficult, verbally aggressive or emotionally distressed service users or family members.
- The post holder may have to communicate difficult messages to service users and family members
Job description
Job responsibilities
- To signpost, refer and support access to mental health services in secondary care and other services.
- To clearly identify urgent and non-urgent referrals and allocate to the most appropriate pathway.
- To interrogate the Trusts electronic clinical information system in order to obtain relevant service user information to support the decision making process.
- To liaise with the relevant healthcare professionals and carers/family members or other identified support networks (with appropriate consent) to obtain relevant information to support the decision making process.
- To work collaboratively with the SPA admin staff to provide a high quality triage service to service users, carers, voluntary sectors colleagues and other healthcare professionals.
- To build close working relationships with the referral sources by assisting in the development of pathways from the SPA to other mental health providers and agencies to ensure that effective signposting and pathways are maintained.
- Use effective communication skills, both oral and in writing, to communicate complex, sensitive and often contentious information to a wide range of people including clinical and non-clinical staff.
- The post holder may have to listen to difficult, verbally aggressive or emotionally distressed service users or family members.
- The post holder may have to communicate difficult messages to service users and family members
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Relevant core professional qualification (DipOT/BSc OT, Dip SW, RN (Mental Health), or other relevant qualification). Evidence of post qualification development.
Experience
Essential
- 18 months post registration experience of working with adults of all ages with acute mental health problems. Experience of working with people at risk & can demonstrate experience of formulating crisis plans for people in acute mental health crisis.
Knowledge
Essential
- A good understanding of mental health services, including relevant legislation including MHA & MCA. A clear understanding and commitment to The Single Point of Access, as defined in the local working instructions. A good understanding of crisis resolution services.
Skills
Essential
- Capacity to embrace change and be proactive in the context of the new service. Calm and confident with these in distress. Reflective and considered approach to problem solving. Sensitive to needs of people from minority ethnic communities.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Relevant core professional qualification (DipOT/BSc OT, Dip SW, RN (Mental Health), or other relevant qualification). Evidence of post qualification development.
Experience
Essential
- 18 months post registration experience of working with adults of all ages with acute mental health problems. Experience of working with people at risk & can demonstrate experience of formulating crisis plans for people in acute mental health crisis.
Knowledge
Essential
- A good understanding of mental health services, including relevant legislation including MHA & MCA. A clear understanding and commitment to The Single Point of Access, as defined in the local working instructions. A good understanding of crisis resolution services.
Skills
Essential
- Capacity to embrace change and be proactive in the context of the new service. Calm and confident with these in distress. Reflective and considered approach to problem solving. Sensitive to needs of people from minority ethnic communities.
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
