Location: Causeway Federation

Salary: £43,742- £50,056

Contract Type: Permanent

Opening date: 07/03/25

Closes: Fri, 21 March 2025 @ 12:00 PM

Interview Dates: Thursday 10th April 2025

Further Information

It is not possible to apply for this job via our recruitment system. Please click the job details button below for more information on this job and how to apply. A model for primary care multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) has been developed and is well established in GP Practices across the Causeway GP Federation area. We anticipate that the next scheduled phase of MDT rollout, taking place within East Antrim GP Federation area, may impact upon the current Senior Mental Health Practitioner workforce in Causeway, therefore generating opportunities within this Federation area. In anticipation of this, we are seeking to compile a waiting list for Senior Mental Health Practitioners for Causeway GP Federation. This waiting list will be valid for 12 months. The Senior Mental Health Practitioner is responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe and effective care to the whole practice population. S/he will be highly specialist resource providing clinical expertise in care, advice and support within General Practice. S/he will lead and/or work within the multi-disciplinary team in order to ensure a seamless, coordinated approach to person-centred care, across the clinical pathway, and provide timely onward referral to other professionals and agencies as appropriate. Clinically the focus of the role is the delivery of evidence-based practice for patients/families, providing an initial assessment to patients of any age, presenting with undifferentiated undiagnosed mental health problems providing initial management including brief interventions or prescribing, where appropriate, and reviewing patients at the request of the GP S/he will work collaboratively with the whole general practice team to lead and/or participate in the provision of expert advice in developing, implementing and monitoring policies, procedures and protocols which meet national, regional and local requirements. The fundamental role for mental health care practitioner within a GP Practice is to ensure that individual needs are met in a timely, appropriate and accessible manner. GPs estimate that mental ill-health accounts for a significant percentage of their daily workload in general practice, either as the sole problem or a major part of the presenting problem. GPs also indicate that patients who present with mental health problems tend to consult more frequently and have longer consultations than those without mental illness and therefore place a high workload demand on general practice. The role and function of the Senior Mental Health Practitioner is to work as a core member of the new MDTs alongside the GP in his/ her practice providing a first contact mental health service to patients across the lifespan who present in General Practice with a mental health issue. The Senior Mental Health Practitioner will undertake consultations with patients registered with the practice presenting with a range of needs and based on a standardised assessment pathway will provide an initial formulation of need, provide clinical advice, watchful waiting, prescribe if appropriate, provide initial short-term treatment and/or signpost to other services. The postholders will work primarily with people who are not eligible for or availing of other services from the Health and Social Care Trust, either primary or secondary care services. It is envisaged that while the Senior Mental Health Practitioner may assess patients with the full range of mental health issues, they will only provide short term interventions with patients at step one or with patients on the perimeter of step two. The Senior Mental Health Practitioner will have a critical role in signposting and / or referring patients and will have a critical interface role with Trust primary mental health care teams, primary care mental health and wellbeing hubs, recovery colleges, and the community mental health teams for older people. . The Senior Mental Health Practitioner will refer patients with higher level complex mental health conditions directly to more appropriate Health and Social Care Trust services. The Senior Mental Health Practitioner will have specific areas of specialist or expert practice and will mentor and develop other members of staff and contribute to the training and professional development agenda according to their particular area of expertise. The post holder will also know and understand Health and Social Care Trust services and will provide advice and guidance to other multi-disciplinary team members on Trust pathways and Trust thresholds for intervention. The post holder will be expected to provide cover for colleagues within the Primary Care MDT and deputise for the Deputy Mental Health Manager as required and may occasionally involve evening work. For more information, please visit https://www.northernfsu.co.uk/careers where you can easily download the following: ? Applicant Information Pack ? Application Form ? Equal Opportunities Form The Federation offers a competitive salary, excellent terms and conditions of employment and many enhanced benefits and schemes packages. The closing date for submission of completed application forms is 12 noon on Friday 21st March 2025. It is anticipated that interviews will take place on Thursday 3rd April 2025. Successful candidates will be subject to an Enhanced AccessNI Disclosure check The Federation is an equal opportunities employer