Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner

**Wakefield**
As part of our community mental health transformation programme, we are excited to be able to implement Mental Health Practitioner roles across the Primary Care Network to support GPs and primary care to grow and improve the offer across primary care networks in Kirklees. These are new roles designated under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme for Primary Care (ARRS).

The Mental Health Practitioner roles are exciting new posts and working in primary care, you will bring your mental health expertise into the heart of local communities, working closely alongside primary care GP’s and a range multi-disciplinary team colleagues to provide a bio-psycho-social approach to assessment and interventions around mental health and well-being.

This is a new permanent role will be hosted by SWYPFT, the local specialist Mental Health Trust and embedded in Primary care.

It has been created to help us deliver our plans to transform our community mental health services, as part of the NHS Long Term Plan and working within our Primary Care Networks.

Our Mental Health transformation plans will mean the roll-out over the next three years of multi-disciplinary teams of experts working within the new Primary Care Networks and offering wraparound, holistic care to our service users and wider community.

As a Mental Health practitioner, you will work as a clinical leader within these teams working in partnership to bridge the gap between primary and secondary care services and make it easier for patients to obtain the help they need.

The roles are part of the wider National Community MH Transformation programme which represents major change to enhance locality based mental health provision with new mental health roles being developed to grow the capacity within primary care. You will be joining this developing workforce at an important time and there will be real opportunities to be part of shaping this wider service delivery alongside statutory, anchor organisations and VCSE partners.

If you are passionate about delivering innovative mental health care, working as part of a diverse primary care team, coaching and developing the wider staff team around mental health and being part of wider system change, then this could be just the post for you.

**About Wakefield’s Primary Care Network**
PCNs are groups of GP practices working closely together to provide integrated services to the local population, we have 7 PCN’s in Wakefield each covering between 45,000 and 68,000 patients. Many people in our communities are living with long term conditions such as diabetes and heart disease or suffer with mental health issues and may need to access their local health services more often. To meet these needs, GP practices are working together with community, mental health, social care, pharmacy, hospital and voluntary services in their local areas in groups of practices known as primary care networks (PCNs). PCNs build on existing primary care services and enable greater provision of proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care for people close to home.

**About Wakefield**
Wakefield is at the heart of Yorkshire, with a population of 336,000 based around Wakefield City, the Five Towns (Pontefract, Castleford, Knottingley, Featherstone and Normanton), and the towns and villages to the north west of the district. As well as vibrant urban centres, we have a rich open countryside, with four country parks and beautiful green spaces.

We have an increasingly diverse population and community pride and community links are strong. It's important to us that Wakefield continues to be a place where all communities and families can make the most of their opportunities - enjoy their lives and achieve their potential. This reflects proud local traditions - sport and heritage are important, as is culture and contemporary art. We are home not only to the internationally acclaimed Hepworth Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, but also to three professional rugby league clubs.

We have excellent travel links, sitting on the intersection of the M1 and M62 and with rail links on the East Coast mainline for London, North East and Scotland plus Transpennine services via Leeds.

As well as providing our own lovely surroundings, we are within easy travelling distance for the Peak District, the Dales, the North Yorkshire Moors and the East Coast.

International air links are close by at Leeds Bradford and Robin Hood (Doncaster Sheffield) airports.

**All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect patients. You will be asked to confirm your vaccination status prior to being appointed to this role.**

As a flexible employer encouraging a healthy work/life balance, we will consider Part-Time and flexible working opportunities for all our positions.

You’ll also have access to a wide range of wellbeing support b