Mental Health Practitioner

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism, community, and physical health services for the populations we serve.

As an integrated Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) delivers a comprehensive range of services, including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults, including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, and forensic services with low and medium secure care.
• Specialist mental health inpatient care for individuals with learning disabilities, alongside specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Extensive community physical health and well‑being services for children and adults, covering prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and long‑term condition management.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,500 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health, general nurses, children’s nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers, as well as those specialising in learning disabilities and community physical health services.

Patients may present with a wide range of mental health and psychological problems, including following an episode of self‑injury, psychiatric emergency and as a consequence of physical illness. You will be expected to work with individuals experiencing psychosomatic disorders and a variety of psychological and adjustment issues resulting from physical illness. You will use higher- level communication skills, both written and oral and have an ability to engage with challenging and/or acutely distressed individuals, sometimes in potentially hostile and/or antagonistic situations.

The Mental Health Liaison team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users, carers and clinical colleagues based within our acute trust at Royal Blackburn Hospital.

This involves:

• To assist in the provision of quality evidence‑based practice, within a busy A& E department and Acute wards. Providing advice; support and care, liaising with other agencies under the guidance of the Mental Health Liaison Nurses for Service Users and their families who present often in a distressed state with complex mental health needs and social difficulties.
• Completion of physical health tools to improve the physical health of service users with mental illness.
• Provide 1:1 support to service users waiting psychiatric admission in A&E

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under‑represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi‑time.

The wellbeing of our people is at the heart of everything we do. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and support to help you thrive both in and out of work.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further details on the role. When completing the supporting information section of your application, please ensure you show how you meet each of the criteria of the person specification providing illustrative examples…