Community Practitioner

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 6 Community Practitioner to work in the Northumberland and North Tyneside Universal Crisis team -Young Persons Pathway. The team is currently based at St Georges Park Hospital, Morpeth. We are looking to recruit a community practitioner who is passionate about the role and who will be encouraged to be involved in service improvement and the delivery of care ensuring an enhanced, seamless service.

The team works with children, young people and their carers up to the age of 18 years old, with the principal objective of offering assessment and home treatment for young people experiencing a mental health crisis, as an alternative to hospital admission. The post holder will have clinical expertise in assessment, intervention, and evaluation in mental health care. The role will involve the psycho-social assessment of young people who have presented in crisis. They will be required to provide specialist advice regarding mental illness to service users, carers and other practitioners., The successful candidate will have responsibility for the effective management of a shared caseload of children and young people referred into the service, The service provides the following functions: urgent triage, assessment, home based treatment, facilitating early discharge from hospital, and supporting the coordination of Section 136 referrals for young people under the age of 18.

The team offers a Enhanced Follow Up Pathway, this is for any young person who presents in a psychiatric crisis to an Acute trust that requires assessment from our colleagues in Psychiatric Liaison Services. The team also provides a follow up pathway for 18-25yrs olds who present to Northumberland Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) in a psychiatric Crisis. Within the pathway we can offer up to three follow up appointments to determine safety plans and onward pathways.

We work closely with other professionals such as CAMHS, CYPS, Schools, LA, PMH and Police to ensure the young people in are care are fully supported and safeguarded.

The service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days per year via shift working.

The applicant should hold a professionally registered qualification and preferably have experience of working with children, young people and families. It is also essential that they will have experience of working within a mental health/ learning disability area.

We aim to attract and retain a diverse, talented and committed workforce, who are caring and compassionate, and therefore able to meet the demands of the modern NHS now and in the future. In return we can offer a dynamic working environment in which to build a career.