Job overview

We are looking to appoint a skilled and motivated Clinical Nurse Specialist to work within Bexley Mental Health Hub. The successful candidate will have excellent assessment and formulation skills supporting primary care to manage people in the community utilising local services wherever possible. They will provide support and guidance to staff working in Mind in Bexley as Mental Health Advisors to ensure the right people are offered clinical assessments and interventions at the right time. They will also work with secondary care teams (ADAPT, EIP and ICMP) to identify and transfer people who require secondary care services.

The Mental Health Hub is the front door to mental health services and therefore are a busy, demanding service requiring individuals to work at pace to ensure people are considered for the most appropriate intervention including clinical treatments, social care interventions, talking therapies with Mind in Bexley or other community assets. The Hub is currently piloting new ways of working and this role is part of the pilot service, it will require the post holder to understanding the stress of changing models and flexibility to support residents and staff though these changes to improve service delivery. The current model has been carefully reviewed and considered and the post holder will need to work under direction to ensure consistency of communication to staff and wider system partners to ensure the service excels.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will work with all relevant community partners to:

·       Improve the lives of people with mental ill health by minimising the impact of their condition through the delivery of an excellent, compassionate services to promote the recovery and well-being of patients and their carers/families.

·       Facilitate the interface between primary care and secondary mental health services to provide assessment for ongoing treatment decisions, lead brief inventions and facilitate groups with partner organisations

·       Offer expertise in networking and navigation to promote ease of access to a range of specialist mental health support services. This ensures that each person, once assessed, receives the best possible care in the right place at the right time and by the right supporting service.

·       Work with adults (18+) whose mental health needs can be best met within primary care and whose difficulties are best understood within a biopsychosocial model

·       Work as an MDT with clinicians from a range of teams and Mind in Bexley to ensure individuals receive the best possible outcome

·       Provide clinical leadership and oversight of referrals and assessments ensuring staff including mental health advisor are offered advice and guidance to ensure safe and meaningful conversations with residents to ensure we understand their needs

·       Lead on the initial triage of referrals to ensure that the appropriate pathways are undertaken for patients

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families.  This is strengthened by our new values:

• We’re Kind
• We’re Fair
• We Listen
• We Care