Job overview

We are looking for experienced professionally registered, Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers or Occupational Therapists with a genuine passion for supporting those in mental health crisis, to complete the recruitment to our Connection team. We value all our team and offer a financial recruitment and retention premium on this post. 

Connection is moving forward and this is an exciting time to join us for the next stages of our service development; increasing face to face community assessment work, and working collaboratively with partner agencies to ensure people in mental health crisis receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time. 

Based at St Ann's Hospital, with a sea view from the office, Connection is Dorset’s 24/7 open access mental health crisis service.  Access Mental Health Dorset

This is a diverse role with new challenges each day:  Direct clinical assessments, advice and support, supervise our fantastic mental health support workers,  give clinical advice to other agencies and emergency services, co-ordinate urgent and emergency responses, and liaise with a range of internal and external services.

We are committed to professional development and support, offering  internal and external training/education programmes and  supervision.

Full and part time hours available. This is a 24/7 service with shift patterns including weekends, bank holidays and nights. All reasonable flexible working requests will be considered. 

Main duties of the job

Telephone and face to face  mental health assessments, brief clinical interventions and support, signposting and referrals.  

 Validating, de-escalating crisis and coaching people in distress tolerance and emotional regulation strategies. Using a range of brief interventions, you will empower patients, carers and families to manage distress and crisis effectively. 

As well as telephone based work the role also include opportunity to complete urgent face to face assessments across Dorset when indicated. 

Providing clinical information, advice and support to other professionals and emergency services. Supporting police and ambulance service in accessing most appropriate support for those presenting in mental health crisis.

The team is part of the Trust Access Mental Health services and works closely with a range of other teams and services,  including Home Treatment teams, Liaison Psychiatry and the Retreats. Overnight, Connection covers the Home Treatment Team caseload and manages any referrals.

Supervising and supporting the Mental Health Support Workers within the team providing guidance and support. 

Working for our organisation

At Dorset HealthCare we’re on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through our outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We’re a dynamic, forward-looking Trust, running 12 community hospitals, specialist inpatient facilities and a wide range of integrated community and mental health services for a population of almost 800,000 people.

We do things differently here – it’s one of the reasons the CQC rated us ‘outstanding’ in 2019. It’s also why 95% of patients across our services say they have a good or very good experience of our services and 89% of staff feel they can really make a difference. 

Our 7,000-strong workforce is at the heart of what we do and our success is a testament to our brilliant people. We're all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities and we celebrate diversity. We’re an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be authentic, and we are all encouraged to be the best version of ourselves.

Working with us you’ll be part of a strong team, challenge yourself, build a career, and teach us what we don’t know. And you’ll be working towards our vision to be better every day through excellence, compassion and expertise in all we do.