Job summary
As a Mental Health Practitioner (MHP) within Lancaster Medical Practice (LMP) you will play an important role supporting patients with mild to moderate mental health problems. You will provide support to people suffering from various mental health conditions.

Main duties of the job
The work involves helping the patient to access the most appropriate services, to recover from their illness or to come to terms with it in order to lead a positive life. The role of the MHP will be part of the Advanced Clinical Team with the Multi-Professional Clinical Team (MPCT) and you will work closely with GPs, ACPs and other healthcare professionals.

About us
Lancaster Medical Practice is a large, at-scale GP provider delivering General Medical Services to c68,000 patients in Lancaster and surrounding villages. Formed in April 2017 from our successful legacy practices, Lancaster Medical Practice has continued to evolve to become the strong, high performing Practice it is today, receiving a rating of Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission in August 2018.

We deliver our services from seven locations throughout the city of Lancaster and its surrounding area and are continuing to develop ourselves to improve what we do for our patients, staff and the local community. We are a progressive, modern organisation with patient-centred General Practice at our core. When joining #teamlmp you are joining an organisation with a wide variety of clinical and non-clinical roles but who all work together to provide the best care we can to our patients. LMP is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All successful candidates will be subject to a criminal records check with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). All staff are expected to behave in such a way that supports this commitment and will be responsible for safeguarding the interests of children and adults who they come into contact with during their work.

We are unable to support candidates requiring a skilled worker visa as the Practice is only able to support clinical posts at this time.

Key Duties/Responsibilities

• Assessing and talking to patients about their problems and discussing the best way to plan and deliver their care within a time limited structure.
• Ensuring the correct administration of medication and monitoring the results of treatment including reviewing and making recommendations in respect of antidepressants and other commonly used medications.
• Carrying out mental health reviews for patients with a mental health condition or personality disorders.
• Seeing patients on the day and for follow up in connection with their mental health concerns.
• Telephone Triage of acute mental health problems.
• Responding to distressed patients in a non threatening manner and attempting to understand the source of distress and building relationships with patients to encourage trust, whilst listening to and interpreting their needs and concerns.
• Applying 'de-escalation' techniques to help people manage their emotions and behaviour
• Maintaining patient records and producing care plans and risk assessments, including assessment of the physical health of patients.
• Working with patient's families and carers, helping to educate them and the patient about their mental health problems.
• Identifying whether and when patients are at risk of harming themselves or others.

Please also refer to the attached job description and person specification.

Person Specification

Qualifications
Essential

• Core professional qualification
• Membership of a professional body
• Continual Professional Development and CPD evidence / portfolio

Desirable

• Qualifications in therapeutic interventions
• Prescribing Qualification

Experience
Essential

• Previous experience that demonstrates good attention to detail.
• Experience of working in a confidential environment.
• Experience of working with adults in a Mental Health setting.
• Experience of providing brief effective treatment to adults.
• Experience of implementing protocols and clinical guidelines.
• Experience of quality initiatives such as clinical benchmarking.
• Experience in producing and analysing audits.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision.

Desirable

• Previous experience of working in General Practice, NHS or Healthcare setting.
• Experience of working with voluntary agencies.
• Experience of delivering staff training.
• Evidence of innovation in practice.

Skills/Knowledge
Essential

• Knowledge of community care.
• Understanding of common mental health problems and their management in Primary Care.
• Understanding the application of confidentiality in Primary Care.
• Awareness of stepped care approaches.
• Good general computer skills, including the ability to use Microsoft Office, email and the internet.
• Evidence of excellent administration and organisational skills.
• An excellent standard of grammar and spelling in the English language.
• A conscientious approach and commitment to working in an adaptable and flexible manner.
• The ability to work effectively when busy and multi-task when required.
• The ability to deal with personal information sensitively and respect people's right to confidentiality.
• Able to work collaboratively with other staff.
• Ability to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients.
• Time management.
• Clinical Leadership skills.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to work without direct supervision and determine own workload priorities.
• Ability to show empathy along with excellent observational skills.
• Self-directed practitioner.
• Ability to use own judgement, resourcefulness, common sense and local knowledge to respond to the needs of the patient.
• The ability to respond positively to changes both within the practice and at ICB level.
• Making effective use of training to update knowledge and skills for both practice and service need.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).