Advanced Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

We are looking to appoint a skilled and motivated Mental Health Practitioner to work in one of the four Primary Care Network (PCN) locations across Greenwich. This is a role appointed under the Additional Roles scheme designed to work closely with general practice (GP’s, Nurses, Clinical Pharmacists, Social Prescribers and other practice staff). This is a service that is rapidly developing. Greenwich PCNs now have a Mental Health Practitioner as a named clinician for the GP practices within that locality. Each Mental Health Practitioner works alongside a multi-disciplinary team within the developing Local Care Networks including GP’s, Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Pharmacists, Social Workers, Adult Social Care services, Trusted Partners, and the wider Voluntary Sector. This exciting opportunity allows for the successful post holder to be at the forefront of this dynamic new model of delivering mental health care within Primary Care. There will be a clear focus on prevention, early detection, and intervention.
The post holder will work with all relevant community partners to:
Improve the lives of people with mental ill health by minimising the impact of their condition through the delivery of an excellent, compassionate service to promote the recovery and well-being of patients and their carers/families.
Support the delivery of PCN DES contract priorities including supporting the improvement of physical health for people with serious mental illness (SMI).
Facilitate the interface between primary care and secondary mental health services to provide specialist advice and support, assessment, treatment, education, and solution-focused approaches to the local primary care teams, for patients and carers.
Offer expertise in networking and navigation to promote ease of access to a range of specialist mental health support services. This ensures that each person, once assessed, receives the best possible care in the right place at the right time and by the right supporting service.
Accept referrals direct from primary care via an agreed route, promote early assessment / treatment, and ensure robust relationships and links with other community-based services.
Be a dedicated support for primary care, providing timely advice to GP practice staff.
Work with adults (18+) whose mental health needs can be best met within primary care and whose difficulties are best understood within a biopsychosocial model.
Follow up on SMI patients.
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
We’re Kind
We’re Fair
We Listen
We Care
The post holder will contribute to delivering and co-developing the primary care mental health service model. This includes care pathways for the provision of integrated mental health care in a designated PCN within the Borough of Greenwich.
The post holder will be responsible for providing specialist mental health care and interventions to patients within the PCN. This includes using a high level of assessment to understand needs, treatment options, and refer appropriately onto teams across the health, voluntary sector and social care system to enhance the patient experience while going through the care pathway.
It is crucial that the post holders develop effective and close working relationships both within the PCN and with other providers of local mental health services. Post holders will work across GP Practices and Oxleas sites in Greenwich.