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Lambeth Home Treatment Team is a crisis service that provides assessment and intensive treatment to clients in their own home as an alternative to psychiatric admission. It provides 24hr, 7 day a week, crisis assessment and intensive home treatment to patients with the aim of preventing in-patient admission where possible or if admission is required facilitating earlier discharge.

The post holder will provide community/home environment-based support to service users with mental health needs who are in crisis, to promote their recovery. It will also involve supporting the carers of service users receiving home treatment. The role will involve working with clients who have a wide range of mental health problems in a culturally diverse borough. The postholder will work within the multi-professional team in implementing, evaluating, and delivering high quality care and treatment to service users and carers.

Communications and Working Relationships:

• Multi-disciplinary Team - daily
• Service Users and Carers - daily
• Management Team - as required
• Head of Profession – as required
• Inpatient, Liaison and Community Teams - regularly
• GP (General Practitioners) - regularly
• Children and Families Services - as required
• Other agencies - as required

A Registered Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist with an established clinical background that has successfully completed a period of academic education and clinical supervision to be competent against the relevant competency requirements for a Home Treatment Team Practitioner. The post holder may be required to work across different Trust sites according to the needs of the Home Treatment Service Line.

The Trust Home Treatment Teams provide 24hr, 7-day a week, crisis assessment and intensive home treatment to patients with the aim of preventing in- patient admission where possible or if admission is required, facilitating earlier discharge.

The post holder will work as a Registered Mental Health, Social Worker or Occupational Therapist, who, acting within their own professional boundaries, will provide care for presenting service users from initial history taking, clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of care.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. Currently, provide inpatient care for approximately 5,300 people each year and treat more than 45,000 patients in the community in Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; as well as substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.

Clinical

• To contribute to the ongoing assessment process, including risk, of service users in line with policy standards
• To assess capacity and provide safe treatment and care to those who may lack capacity.
• Report on the patient’s changing condition and response to therapeutic interventions and contribute to care plan changes as appropriate.
• To operate within the legal requirements of the Mental Health Act and all relevant policy and legislation.
• Escalate the needs of service users presenting with complex long-term conditions (e.g. diabetes, asthma)
• Maintain relevant clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge, critically appraise and apply information in practice
• Promote and deliver evidence-based care for service users with mental health conditions in their own homes.
• To carry out physical observations in accordance with Trust and local policy, liaising with medical and senior nursing staff as appropriate.
• To administer medication with knowledge of its purpose, contraindications and side effects, relating that information to service users in a way they will understand.
• Support service users to adopt recovery strategies that promote their wellbeing, healthy lifestyle, independence and self-care.
• Actively promote health education that may include providing alternative materials to support service users and carers in making decisions regarding their care and treatment
• To provide relevant support to carers and families in relation to their rights as carers and their involvement in the care of the service user when they are under the care of the team.
• Apply infection control measures within practice according to local and national policies.
• To adhere to lone working practices
• Effectively co-ordinate a shift.

Communication

• Communicates the patient’s health status using appropriate terminology, format, and technology
• Use good communication skills to provide accurate information to service users and their families and carers in a sensitive and professional manner which respects equality and diversity.
• Use and demonstrate sensitive communication strategies to ensure that service users are fully informed and consent to care/ treatment.
• Act as an advocate for service users.
• Maintain accurate and contemporaneous records of health assessment, implementation and evaluation of management and therapeutic interventions.
• Effective liaison with all parts of the service including daily communication with those responsible for gatekeeping, bed management and accurate data collection.

Service development

• To participate in service evaluations, benchmarking, research and audit activities, and to contribute to implementation of service modernisation and improvement projects.

Legal, professional and Educational

• Maintain a safe environment for all staff and visitors, taking reasonable care to avoid injury. Co-operate with the Trust to meet statutory requirements.
• Provide statements regarding untoward incidents, as requested by line manager.
• To work in accordance with the professional Code of Conduct and Trust policy and ensure that standards of practice are upheld
• To receive regular clinical supervision
• Maintain and develop own professional knowledge and competence by keeping informed of advances and research pertaining to mental health care.
• To provide clinical supervision of junior team colleagues and to develop supervision and mentorship skills.
• To participate in clinical governance initiatives as agreed by the directorate clinical governance committee