Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**Job title**: Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

**Service**: Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service

**Responsible to**: Deputy Operational Manager

**Contract**: Permanent

**Salary**: Agenda for Change £27,055 - £32,934

**Pension**: Eligible employees will be auto-enrolled in a defined contribution scheme.

**Hours and days**: 35 hours per week (1.0 WTE), or pro-rata hours from 21 hours per week (0.6 WTE). There will be a requirement to work until 8pm on one weekday per week (2pm-8pm).

**Holidays**: 28 days’ annual leave per year plus statutory holidays pro rata and up to 3 discretionary leave days at Christmas.

**Location**: Predominantly based in GP surgeries (exact locations TBC but applicants’ preferences for working area will be taken into account at appointment, where feasible), working as part of an extended Primary Care Mental Health team in a local area with support from Northpoint Wellbeing.

**Start date**: As soon as possible.

**Accountability and reporting**:The post-holder is ultimately accountable to the Board of Northpoint, through the Director of Northpoint.

**Purpose of the role**:To deliver community mental health support, symptom management, triage and care navigation to clients through Primary Care Networks in Leeds.

Northpoint Wellbeing is part of a relatively new primary care mental health service (Leeds Mental Wellbeing Service), commissioned by Leeds CCG. This exciting partnership, launched in November 2019, delivers an integrated service offering mental health support for people with common mental health problems. Together, our partnership helps thousands of people in Leeds to increase their resilience and live their best lives within their community.

The service comprises:
This role is an exciting opportunity for mental health/wellbeing practitioner to work within primary care (GP surgeries and community health centres) to provide symptom management, triage and care navigation to patients referred by their GPs.

Predominantly working as part of an integrated team, the post-holder will provide telephone triage and face-to-face assessment and decision-making support to ensure that patients with common mental health needs gain access to the most appropriate pathway and intervention.

The post-holder will be required to carry out assessment and formulation of mental health needs in order to assist patients towards increased self-management of anxiety and depression symptoms and better tolerance of distress. The role will also involve identifying opportunities to support individuals with their mental health by helping them to access appropriate community support, encourage behavioural and lifestyle changes, and enable and empower patients to become actively involved in their own wellbeing.

The role combines the skills of triage/assessment/care navigation/psychological support. Key to the role will be the ability to utilise psychological formulation (i.e. construct meaning out of mental distress) and build trusting relationships quickly whilst motivating individuals to make sustained changes.

**OVERVIEW OF RESPONSIBILITIES**

**Referrals, triage & assessment**
- Accept referrals of patients with chronic and/or mild to moderate common mental health problems (predominantly anxiety, depression, and OCD) via agreed protocols within the GP Practice.
- Use SystmOne/EMIS patient management system (after training) to record referrals, assessments and outcomes.
- Identify and manage cases where complexity and/or severity are present, including triaging referrals and signposting to appropriate mental health and crisis support.
- Use therapeutic skills where appropriate to help patients to contain and manage acute emotional distress, where it does not pose a risk.
- Complete a comprehensive and holistic assessment of need for those referred to the service within an agreed timeframe, in order to determine the most appropriate help and support.
- Develop an understanding of the particular issues presented, including any complicating social factors (physical health, employment, housing, substance misuse etc), the patient’s sense of what support would be helpful and realistic, and the patient’s readiness to engage with connecting services.
- Offer consultation, advice and decision support to primary care colleagues.

**Caseload management & interventions**
- Work with a caseload of individuals with chronic mental health needs, (offering between 25 and 30 appointments per week at 30-50 minutes per appointment).
- Manage a full caseload and reach agreed activity levels set within the service and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.
- Use a range of techniques and interventions to support patients with mental health needs to self-manage their symptoms, and encourage behavioural and lifestyle change, while working within boundaries of professional training and competence.
- Respond to unpredictable situations of risk and manage these in a s