Specialty Doctor in MHSOP - Liaison

Job summary

The Durham and Darlington Liaison service is one of the largest liaison services in the North East and Cumbria. It covers acute hospital services in Durham and Darlington, which are provided by County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT).

The two main sites are University Hospital of North Durham (533 beds) located in the city of Durham, and Darlington Memorial Hospital (433 beds) in Darlington. This post is based at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The Durham and Darlington Liaison service operates on a 24/7 basis and works to national targets to see ED referrals within 1 hour and ward referrals within 24 hours.

The service operates at Enhanced level with comprehensive features. These include:

A nationally recognised post discharge service which supports predominantly elderly patients with delirium and dementia to return home with intensive support. This initiative reduces care home admissions for such patients by 10% saving £6million per year.

Follow up appointments for patients presenting to the ED. Up to 5 sessions are provided as required and this initiative has reduced admission to secondary care services and the crisis team.

Intensive work on wards to support patients with mental health needs and challenging behaviour.

Close links to the Persistent Physical Symptoms outpatient service.

A delirium follow-up clinic for patients with delirium.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work with the acute hospital liaison team to provide specialist clinical input in older peoples mental health. This will include seeing patients in County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, providing specialist input to the team, and providing teaching and training for acute Trust colleagues.

In particular the post holder will provide follow up appointments for patients that have previously been assessed in the ED, work with the ward-based teams providing assessment, treatment and discharge planning for people with a co-morbid mental health problem. It is anticipated that the average number of face-to-face contacts per week will be in the region of 15 (including planned follow-up clinics).

It is anticipated the post holder will provide specialised advice on capacity and risk issues, and support the acute hospital teams in recognising and managing mental health needs for patients within the acute Trust.

The post holder will be expected to support some of the community work around the shorter term follow up of patients with delirium post-discharge and hold a small caseload of such patients (approximately 10), usually in conjunction with another member of the team such as one of the Advanced Nurse Practitioners.

The post holder will be required to work closely with the local community and inpatient mental health services in order that people leaving the acute hospital are provided with the most appropriate follow-up and support.

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. 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).