First Contact Mental Health GP

Assessing patients experiencing mental health

concerns in a primary care setting. This will be face to face in clinic or via

telephone consultation but will not include home visits

Making professional, autonomous decisions in

relation to presenting problems, whether self-referred or referred from other

health care workers within the organisation

Assessing the mental health care needs of patients

with undifferentiated and undiagnosed problems

Onward referral to secondary care eg CMHT and/or

voluntary sector organisations such as the Recovery Education Centre and Access

Wellbeing Hub

Developing care plans for health in consultation

with patients and in line with current practice disease management protocols

Providing advice, guidance and health education

Recording clear and contemporaneous consultation

notes to agreed standards

This post is intended to be a portfolio

undertaking for a GP with a special interest in mental health. You will not see

physical health concerns during these clinics and will instead only see

patients for mental health appointments. The emphasis will be on first contact

mental health and patients making initial presentations for emerging mental

health concerns. Appointments will be longer than the standard 15 minutes to

allow for in-depth and holistic conversations regarding mental health

presentations.

You will see patients presenting with depression,

low mood, stress, anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive

disorder, personality disorder and/or addiction issues. Within appointments you

will ascertain the best treatment or escalation plan which may include

prescribing or onward referral to secondary care/voluntary sector services.

You will not see patients with learning

disabilities or patients seeking ADHD/Autism Assessments. Patients with

Autism/ADHD may be seen within these clinics for mental health comorbidities

but will not be seen specifically for Autism/ADHD related problems. Patients

requiring an annual serious mental illness health check are seen in a

specialist clinic and this post is not expected to undertake these

appointments.

Central Bournemouth PCN is comprised of four GP practices with approx 50k registered patients.

This post will be based at our PCN Hub at East Way Clinic where you will join a multi-disciplinary team of colleagues providing clinical and holistic services to patients within our network.

Qualifications

Experience