Specialist Mental Health Practitioner

We are currently looking for a Specialist Mental Health Nurse based at Clare Lodge to hold a specialist clinical caseload as part of the CPFT in-reach health services.

Clare Lodge is the only all girls Secure Welfare unit in the country and as such the Health Team provides national coverage. To take away the liberty of a child for their own safety is a significant welfare issue so young people are only admitted because of high-risk behaviours that have persisted over time despite exhausting every other community resource available to engage and support them.

Due to the complexity resulting from disrupted attachments and multiple complex traumas, young people received into secure care are known to have multiple unmet physical and mental health needs as well as significant difficulty forming relationships. Some of the complex needs may include ASD, ADHD and Learning Disabilities.

We recognise the highly specialist nature of the role and have a protected budget for specialist training and professional development alongside high quality and regular supervision.

The Specialist Mental Health Nurse will provide trauma informed risk assessments, standardised and specialist mental health assessment, intervention and safety planning for young people living at Clare Lodge.

The post holder will be confident in delivering group work and be able to assertively engage with young people on an individual basis who may have experienced disrupted engagement with health services in the community.

This job will involve considerable amounts of multiagency working with the wider professional network around the young person. It is expected that the post-holder can complete reports to a high standard as well as good quality referrals to external agencies to facilitate a safe transition for the young person into the community or alternative identified setting.

The Specialist Mental Health Nurse will be a Named Health Professional, in line with the Healthcare Standards for Children in Secure Care and will act as a complex care coordinator for the young person. The Specialist Mental Health Nurse will represent the young person’s views, develop, and lead on individual care planning.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.
- To provide trauma Informed mental health assessment and, where appropriate, treatment to young people within a psychology led in reach health team daily.
- Liaise and work with consultant psychiatrist and wider team to assess, monitor and treat identified mental health difficulties.
- Assertively engage young people through direct work on a weekly basis as part of the Named Health Professional Role, this will include complex care-coordination with multiagency partners with colleagues.
- Actively contribute and engage with the transition process with the young person and completing high quality referrals to national health and community resources to ensure that the young person receives consistent and uninterrupted health care.
- Where identified as appropriate and within an agreed framework, commit to offering follow up and outreach work to the young person once they have left Clare Lodge
- Deliver mental health interventions and support within the Attachment, Regulation and Competencies Trauma Informed Model.
- Provide comprehensive mental health and diagnostic assessments demonstrating the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of data from a variety of sources including, self
- report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi
- structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care,
- Deliver a range of evidence-based trauma informed interventions appropriate to the young person’s formulation.
- Act as Named Health Professional in line with National Health Care Standards for Young People in Secure Care.
- Support with standardised and specialist neuro-disability assessments for children in secure care including information gathering from health agencies who have previously worked with young person.
- To provide practical and emotional support to encourage parents and residential staff to take a proactive approach to the mental and emotional health needs of the young person.
- To provide practical and emotional support to encourage yo