Specialty Doctor in Community Adult Mental Health

Job summary

This is a new post which has been created following additional service reconfiguration. The post is in the Community Mental Health team, (CMHT) based at Huntington House, York. The post is a 6 PA post. It is expected that the speciality doctor will be working alongside a Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Elisa Ambrosi, who also works 8 PAs into this part of the service.

The Central CMHT provides expert secondary mental health care to adults over the age of 18 who live in the central part of York and surrounding area. This part of York also serves the university populations. The locality has recently moved from GP allocated services to post code allocated services and there are further plans to align our services with the Primary Care Home model. The other parts of the city are covered by the North CMHT based in York at Huntington House; the west team based at Acomb Garth in York and the South Team, based at Worsley Court in Selby. Our colleagues in the older persons CMHTs provide care for older adults (typically over 70, although the age boundary is flexible depending on need).

The team is multi-disciplinary, utilising the expertise of doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers and support workers. There is access to the dietetics team, physical health team and pharmacy.

Main duties of the job

This is a new post providing senior medical leadership to the Central CMHT service in York. The post-holder will not hold a case load but be expected to work to a clinical leadership model of consultation.

The post holder will provide senior medical care/supervision in the assessment, diagnosis, care planning and delivery of pharmacological and psychosocial interventions, for patients referred to Central CMHT. The team provides a holistic, developmental bio-psychosocial approach to managing patients aged 18-64 and the post holder will work jointly with colleagues from other disciplines and all relevant agencies to provide a comprehensive approach to patient care and treatment.

The post-holder will participate in mental health assessments of patients on the caseload including the taking full psychiatric histories, review of previous clinical records, doing mental state examinations, risk assessments, making diagnoses (if appropriate) and formulating management plans. They should also have a good understanding of the use of the Mental Health and Mental Capacity Act and be approved under Section 12 or able to achieve with 6 months of appointment. If not Section 12 approved there will be support from the Trust to attain Section 12 approval. In the interim any section 12 work will be undertaken by the team consultant Dr Ambrosi and the covering consultant psychiatrist.

About us

We are one of the largest specialist mental health and learning disabilities trusts in the country, with an annual income of £320m and a workforce of some 6,700 staff operating from around 100 sites in Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire and York and Selby. We provide a range inpatient and community services to 2m people living in County Durham, the Tees Valley, Scarborough, Whitby, Ryedale, Harrogate, Hambleton and Richmondshire. We also provide additional specialist services to other parts of Northern England.

We are a multi-award winning trust and are included within the Health Service Journals Best 100 Places to Work. The trust take a positive and proactive approach to support staff in their personal development and has embedded the Talent Management approach within the Trust.

Psychiatrists are essential contributors to the majority of our mental health teams. Service users expect and are justified to expect collaborative relationships with dedicated psychiatrists who work consistently as part of effective services. Our medical staffing shortage puts strain on services and puts strain on workforce wellbeing and costs extend beyond the financial. The Medical Directorate and Medical Development Team are striving to improve medical workforce recruitment and retention in a variety of ways and the cornerstone of these efforts is The TEWV Charter for the Medical Workforce. (Please see attached Supporting Document).