Senior Mental Health Practitioner

Are you an experienced mental health practitioner looking for a new challenge? If so, we would love for you to join us in supporting children, young people and families known to Suffolk Youth Justice
Children involved in the Justice system have often experienced life events and circumstances which detrimentally affect their mental health; the prevalence of mental health need amongst Justice involved children tends to be higher than the general population, and early intervention is key. We are seeking a pro-active, passionate and experienced mental health practitioner to work within the West Suffolk Youth Justice team, to provide consultation, training and direct work to meet this need.
If you have the drive to provide excellent care, can demonstrate high quality clinical skills and are willing to go the extra mile to help make a difference to young people’s lives then we would love to hear from you.
Please see the attached recruitment letter for further information.
**Key Responsibilities**:

- Providing consultation to SYJS practitioners where mental health concerns are identified for children and young people open to the service. Consider young peoples’ presenting mental health needs and the most suitable response.
- Provide advice and guidance to the SYJS practitioner for working with a young person presenting with emotional wellbeing or mental health needs.
- Undertaking direct assessments with children, young people and their families. Determining appropriate treatment response plans, whether that be a time-limited intervention the post holder delivers (typically limited to 12 weeks) or consider the most suitable onwards service to meet the young person’s needs.
- Supporting the SYJS team through the provision of training and development opportunities.
- Delivering brief evidence-based interventions, informed by robust formulation of the child or young person’s presenting difficulties and needs.

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.
Key Service Aims
- To ensure that vulnerable children aged 0-18 years experiencing emotional or mental health problems have access to timely, integrated, high quality, support from a mental health professional and/or access to suitable referral pathways to specialist mental health assessment, treatment and support for them and their families.
- Assessment for those with mild-moderate mental health difficulties based upon an outline of concerns identified by Suffolk Youth Justice Service practitioner and in collaboration with the young person and their family/carer network.
- Signposting or referring on to appropriate services, or transfer to the appropriate mental health team or Forensic CAMHS for those young people whose mental health or forensic needs are more complex or can be better met elsewhere.
- Provide a face-to-face service for those who don’t meet criteria for other mental health services, for either individuals or family, provided they fit the remit of the role and are early and brief in intervention, typically no longer than a 12-session episode.