Band 6 Specialist Practitioner - Bristol

To assess young people with psychosis or possible psychosis.

To plan and implement specialist programmes of care for young people following the first appearance of psychosis or for a limited period where psychosis is suspected, including carrying a specialist caseload of clients and acting as care co-ordinator.

To liaise and work in collaboration with other agencies in planning and assessing programmes of care.

To provide specialist advice to young people, carers and professionals.

To develop awareness sessions around psychosis and early intervention to be delivered within education and youth services.

To provide clinical supervision to junior staff, students and support workers.

To undertake audit, research and development activities.

We are looking for practitioners with experience and enthusiasm in delivering psycho-social interventions to contribute to the provision of services for these people and their families.

A community mental health practitioner is required to provide care coordination to our service users and deliver a range of psycho-social interventions.

Within the role you would be expected to understand and implement the model for First Episode Psychosis, be familiar with psycho-social interventions and working with individuals experiencing psychosis alongside their families.

You will be committed to a recovery based approach promoting social inclusion. You will be enthusiastic about making links with colleagues as well as other agencies and have an interest in talking to groups of people about psychosis.

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust) a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.

We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.

Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

A) 1. To work within the South Gloucestershire Early Interventions for Psychosis Service, but develop and maintain excellent working links with colleagues within the local Community Mental Health Teams.

2. To provide comprehensive and specialist assessment of people experiencing a first episode psychosis, covering the age group 14 - 65 years. This will include the use of formal psychiatric and psychological rating scales, as well as liaison with carers and staff from other agencies that may be involved with the young person.

3. To plan, prioritise and deliver specialist programmes of care to people for up to a three year period following a first episode of psychosis, or for a limited time where there is a possibly emerging psychosis. This will include case formulation, design of intervention, delivery and evaluation. As care co-ordinator, you will be involved in co-ordinating multi agency input around the persons needs and will be responsible for your caseload within the community.

4. To work with and on behalf of people in a way that promotes and develops their efforts, resources and quality of life. To deliver services in a manner that is appropriate, relevant and respectful to all community members, recognising diversity of ethnicity, culture, belief, privilege and capacity.

5. To liaise and where appropriate work in partnership with staff from other statutory services, voluntary agencies and community groups that work with adolescents, including education, in planning, providing and assessing programmes of care.

6. To provide advice to other members of the Early Interventions for Psychosis Service team and to staff from childrens agencies on the particular needs of people with psychosis and their families / carers.

7. To provide advice and to assist other members of the South Gloucestershire Early Interventions for Psychosis Service with interventions which draw on own specialist professional knowledge (for example, an occupational therapist specialist would be expected to advice on and carry out specialist occupational and vocational assessments).

8. With other members of the South Gloucestershire Early Interventions for Psychosis Service, to develop and facilitate clinical groups and workshops as appropriate.

9. To provide advice and support to carers/ relatives of our service…