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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Primary Care focus

1. Contribute to delivering and co-developing the primary care mental health service model. This includes care pathways for the provision of integrated physical and mental health care in a designated Primary Care Network within the Division.
2. Be the point of contact for patients that are directed from primary care via an agreed route, promote early assessment / treatment, and ensure robust relationships and links with other community-based services.
3. Work closely with and become a part of the primary care team, including social prescribers and recovery navigators, to support adults (18+) with mental health needs, whose mental health needs can be best met within primary care and whose difficulties are best understood within a biopsychosocial model.
4. Work closely with colleagues in specialist community mental health services to ensure smooth transitions between teams and services and facilitate an ‘easy in, easy out’ approach to improve access to evidence-based interventions.
5. Connect people to appropriate community and voluntary sector support working alongside Social Prescribers.
6. Facilitate mental health and ‘strengths-based’ assessments in Primary Care and support the Primary Care Team in accessing appropriate level of services.
7. Build and facilitate closer links between Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs), Social Care teams, community services and a wide range of voluntary sector organisations, to achieve seamless transitions and support for people with mental health challenges.
8. Promote understanding and confidence in the delivery of mental health care and collaboration with all agencies involved in the care of service users
9. Provide targeted formal and informal learning opportunities for all staff within the primary care teams to develop their knowledge and capabilities within the mental health component of holistic care
10. Provide information, ‘sign posting’ and support for service users and their relatives/carers with mental health needs
11. Foster strong collaborative and trusting working relationships with the referring agent/Primary Care Health Professionals underpinned by an educative and solutions focused philosophy whilst providing credible clinical expertise
12. Facilitate the development of safe and effective mental health care practice within the primary care setting.
13. Where required, train and supervise AWP junior staff in line with own role

Clinical practice 

1. Promote the importance of working with strengths and aspirations of the person referred. 
2. Provide succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice) to support patient safety planning.
3. Assess and advise on the impact of culture and diversity alongside colleagues from Primary Care.
4. Give best practice advice and support in a broad range of conditions for people with both functional and organic mental health needs.
5. Promote the needs of family and carer/s, including various support networks and third sector agencies.  
6. Advise and support on evaluating risk from a positive risk-taking perspective. 
7. Support and advise within safeguarding and public protection procedures where the issues are complicated by mental health problems, alongside Primary Care colleagues. 
8. Provide a prompt response to all contacts following jointly agreed procedures and within agreed time frames.
9. Ensure, where needed, that people experience a seamless transfer into AWP provider/treatment services via trusted assessment processes.
10. Following assessment, provide short- term follow up of patients where appropriate.
11. Contribute evidence-based expertise to multi-disciplinary team processes.
12. Promote positive attitudes, mutual understanding and collaboration between non-mental health staff and mental health services, users, carers, voluntary agencies, primary care and social services
13. Demonstrate responsibility for developing own practice in line with professional qualifications and for contributing to the development of others, by making use of and providing, effective feedback, supervision, coaching and appraisal.
14. Adhere to the relevant professional code of conduct ensuring required skills and competencies required are maintained.
15. Monitor and maintain health, safety and security of self and others, undertaking assessments and taking appropriate action where required. 
16. Develop own knowledge and practice, and contribute to the development of others, making use of available feedback, supervision and appraisal to identify appropriate areas of development for this work role, taking responsibility for accessing identified learning and training opportunities.
17. Maintain appropriate health record, in accordance with professional and organisational standards

Please see attached job description and person specification for full details.