Gdas Health Care Assistant

**About GDAS**

The aim of the Gwent wide Adult Drug and Alcohol Service is to engage drug and/or alcohol users in a continuum of service provision in order to reduce substance related harm and improve functioning in all domains of the service users lives. This includes engaging and assessing service users, brief interventions and harm reduction, outreach, training, case management and aftercare, health promotion, detoxification programmes, needle exchange, maintenance and relapse prevention prescribing and wellbeing services.

We serve the population of Gwent (including those who are homeless) within the five local authority areas. The service is provided for adult drug and/or alcohol users aged 18 and over and are provided in a non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, professional manner demonstrating courtesy and respect for all individuals.

We are seeking empathic and dedicated individuals with experiences from a range of sectors to join us. We welcome people with experience of working not just in substance misuse - but in housing, mental health, primary care, secondary care, youth services, probation and other sectors that have transferable skills. We welcome individuals with their own lived experience of drug and alcohol use and/or mental health and from those who have supported others with lived experience.

**GDAS Values**

GDAS is delivered in consortium with 3 of Wales largest substance misuse providers; Kaleidoscope, Barod and G4S.

The uniqueness of our shared experience is reflected in the following aims for the life of the new contract for the benefit of Gwent communities:

- To share our individual specialisms and best practice to enhance our integrated service delivery.
- To commit to and drive innovation in order to ensure we are constantly improving our treatment offer.
- To embrace a culture of candour, using lessons learnt as an opportunity to reflect on and improve our systems.
- To embrace the principles of the Healthier Wales Strategy, collaborating with our social care partners and service users to create a seamless whole system approach that focuses on improving health and wellbeing
- To recognise and respond to the movement of individuals across open access and criminal justice pathways by using our knowledge of both Gwent and national criminal justice strategic direction and priorities

**Role Purpose**:
The post holder will report to the Clinical Team Leader. They will have working knowledge and experience of drug and alcohol detoxification and treatment programmes with an understanding of both clinical and psychosocial aspects of care.

The post holder will be responsible for supporting the delivery of community based medical support services that provides a community detoxification service and access to medical prescribing for the treatment of drug and alcohol dependence. They will work closely and in partnership with the other elements of GDAS.

The primary purpose of creating this role is to have within the team experienced clinical practitioners whose emphasis would be centred on Pharmacological treatment with a bias towards clinical rather than psychosocial needs.

This role will look at aspects of treatment such as dosing, testing frequency, and provide support to the current nursing team. The role may include covering Doctors/ Nurse clinics when required and supporting routine health checks.

This role will work collaboratively with the nurses as well as providing support to the doctors who are the prescribers. The role will have its own case load which will draw primarily from the existing case load of non-complex clients who have already engaged in the service. This will be an opportunity for the clinical practitioner to concentrate on health aspects and effective engagement in the pharmacological treatment offered by the service.

The Healthcare Assistant will need to enjoy having face-to-face contact with people who have recognised that their use of substances has become problematic. They will have excellent communication skills, be flexible and be able to work closely with other staff and very efficiently within a small team. They should have a non-judgmental approach to people who have substance misuse problems and be able to provide a welcoming and accessible approach to existing and potential service users.

This role will work collaboratively with the nurses as well as providing support to the doctors who are the prescribers.

**Main Duties & Responsibilities**:
The Healthcare Assistant will:

- Administer methadone to clients accessing prescribing services, adhering strictly to dispensing procedures/SOPs.
- Supervise medication consumption by individuals accessing our prescribing services.
- Ensure administrative responsibilities, such as completing the daily dispensing log, are maintained according to leg and organisational requirements.
- Maintain an awareness of personal responsibilities in relation to medication administration.
- Perform other dispensary tasks a