Community Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist

The post holder will be the Responsible Clinician for patients in their caseload within the older adults Community Mental Health Team. There are allocated GP surgeries for each caseload within the service and these are allocated to ensure equity in terms of number of referrals. In line with New Ways of Working, the post holder will provide a consultative, supervisory and supportive role to the multidisciplinary team's work.

They will take an active part in the clinical work of the team and a lead role in the development of the service. The post holder will be expected to provide leadership to the Team whose role is to provide assessment, management and support to older adults with organic and functional mental disorders. Practitioners within the team will support access to services in a timely manner, as well as ensure arrangements are in place to enhance smooth pathways between primary care and secondary services.

The post holder will be enabled to work in a consultative manner, being accessible to team members, GP and primary care staff, patients and carers, for the provision of expert advice and interventions in a timely manner. The post holder will operate within multi-disciplinary integrated and co-located teams, which including Health staff and Social services staff. The post holder will be expected to be part of the allocation procedure within the team and be responsive and flexible to the needs of the team.

The model of care is broadly as below:

In the case of more complex memory referrals with higher level of risk or unsettled presentations then the process would be the same as above but the patient would be allocated a CPN. The CPN would then complete the follow up reviews for titration of memory medications and regular outpatient clinic appointment reviews with a medic would be offered.

For functional referrals, patients tend to be seen by medics and then followed up via outpatient clinic for as long as treatment and monitoring is required. Patients may also be allocated a CPN and can be discharged back to primary care if remaining settled on maintenance treatment.

Post diagnostic support is currently commissioned to be provided locally by the Alzheimers Society.

The post holder would be expected to work on Rio which is the Trusts electronic health record system, training for this will be provided on induction. The post holder would be required to record clinical activity accurately and comprehensively in a timely fashion. The post holder would undertake an annual appraisal, CPD and maintain professional registration with General Medical Council and abide by its professional codes of conduct. It is essential that the post holder has Mental Health Act Section 12(2) status which is integral to having Approved Clinician status. The post holder would participate in annual job plan review with the Clinical Director taking into account servicer configuration and delivery associated with modernisation. The post holder would work with local colleagues and managers ensuring efficient running of the services and also comply with the Trusts agreed policies, procedures, standing orders and financial instructions.

Please see job description for further details.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Registration

Desirable: - In good standing with GMC with respect to warning and conditions on practice

Qualifications and Training

Essential: - MbChb, MBBS or equivalent

Transport

Essential: - Holds valid UK driving licence and will use own car for work related travel OR provides evidence of proposed alternative

Clinical Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Academic Skills and Lifelong Learning