Mental Health Specialist Practitioner

The Mental Health Specialist Practitioner will provide specialist enhanced clinical assessment and support specifically to patients who have called the London Ambulance Service for Mental Health issues, or suspected Mental Health issues
- The post-holder will follow a six week rolling rota that will see them complete shifts within our Emergency Operations Centre undertaking telephone assessments on patients experiencing a mental health crisis as well as working alongside a paramedic on our Mental Health Joint Response Car.
- Working as an autonomous practitioner the post holder is expected to provide advanced assessment, clinical decisions and co-ordinated complex and challenging situations in regards to the management and treatment of this patient group. The Mental Health Specialist Practitioner will be deployed to as both a primary and an additional resource to mental health patients as well as conducting telephone assessments and provide remote advice to crews on-scene with mental health patients
- As a highly proficient Mental Health Practitioner they will provide mental state/ risk assessment of callers and be expected to practice with a positive risk taking framework. They will demonstrate advanced breadth of knowledge and critical thinking and provide expert second opinion in terms of diagnostics and management, where required. At times the role will be demanding and the Mental Health Specialist Practitioners will be expected to manage an autonomous workload.
- In addition, the Mental Health Specialist Practitioner will be expected to have a special interest area and will deliver training to a range of staff groups across the trust as well as promoting joint working with colleagues within other MH trusts
- The JD provides a general outline of the post but it is not intended to be a rigid final list of duties. Therefore, from time to time, it may be amended in consultation with the post holder to meet the service needs.

London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the biggest and busiest emergency ambulance service in the UK with over 5,500 staff who work across a wide range of roles. Our service operates over an area of approximately 620 square miles across London based in 70 ambulance stations.

As an integral part of the NHS in London, we work closely with hospitals and other healthcare professionals, as well as with other emergency services. We are also central to planning for, and responding to, large-scale events or major incidents in the capital.

Provide specialist mental health input as part of pre-hospital mental health care within the London Ambulance Service by:

- Rotating through the Emergency Operations Centre conducting telephone based assessments and face to face assessments as part of the Mental Health Joint Response Car.
- Ensuring that there is a parity of esteem for patients using the LAS for a Mental Health crisis.
- Maintaining consistently high CPI scores for clinical care as per audit procedure.
- Regular delivery of training sessions to LAS staff
- Developing strong local links with relevant Mental Health providers
- Supporting the Consultant Nurse and Paramedic Mental Health in the development of services.
- Being a visible leader and champion of evidence based mental health care.
- Establish and maintain collaborative working relationships across all Sectors/services in the organization, and external partners, e.g. EOC, Clinical Hub, A&E department leads, Other NHS providers, including Mental Health Providers and Service user groups
- Demonstrate expertise in acute mental health care in the pre-hospital setting.
- Operate as an autonomous practitioner responding at times as a sole resource
- Demonstrate clinical leadership and co-ordination to the management of patients in a Mental Health Crisis