The closing date is 07 January 2026
Are you an experienced mental health professional looking for a new challenge? Would you like to add military mental healthcare to your career portfolio? We are looking for someone with vision, substantial clinical experience and drive who can adapt to a new organisational culture whilst still adhering to the highest standards of professional practice.
Your experience of assessing and managing risk will help to keep our serving military personnel safe whilst your clinical skills and knowledge will support timely and efficient service delivery. Experience of working with military populations would be welcome but it is by no means a pre-requisite for application. Your commitment and enthusiasm are more important!
We are seeking to recruit a mental health practitioner for 37.5 hours per week, to join a military Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) and Defence Mental Health Network (DMHN). DCMHs are multi-disciplinary teams comprising military and civilian staff: psychiatrists, mental health nurses, social workers, mental health practitioners and psychologists. The job is challenging and varied. Whilst there are similarities with NHS roles, to make the most of this opportunity you will need to be willing to embrace a different organisational culture, take on significant responsibility for risk management and apply your clinical skills in new and interesting ways.
Employee benefits include:
* NHS Pension
* Free parking
* Access to gym
* Learning and development opportunities
Main duties of the job
As the successful post holder, you will provide a rapid, timely and high-quality mental health service to all patients referred to the Department of Community Mental Health (DCMH) and Defence Mental Health Network (DMHN) for assessment and treatment of mental health problems and implementing changes as and when vital.
You will need to be experienced, enthusiastic and committed to service delivery and improvement.
Being able to cope well under pressure, be flexible and assertive and have the ability to communicate at all levels. Functioning as a member of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), whilst working autonomously.
The post holder will provide flexible and individualised care packages to meet the mental health (MH) needs of military personnel with mental health problems.
About us
Our success depends on our people, our Whole Force regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, working together seamlessly to deliver for us.
Our civil servants are a central part of this Whole Force, developing strategy, making policy, supporting ministerial decision-making and Parliamentary processes. In fact, with over 2,000 different roles working across 650 sites around the world, now really is an excellent time to join one of the largest, most exciting departments in government.
The Ministry of Defence is committed to attracting and retaining people from across the full range of backgrounds and enabling flexible ways of working as the norm. We offer maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 13 weeks of statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 2 weeks full pay.
In return, you can expect a department that helps you learn and develop that recognises your expertise and contribution, both as an individual and part of a team.
If you've ever wanted to do more, see more, go further or be better, we have roles in more professions and vocations than ever before. Let's see where your future will take you, together.
Duties and responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:
* Receiving, appraising, and advising on the direct referrals for mental health problems from relevant General Practitioners/Medical Officers (GP/MO).
* Providing initial assessment and formulation of the mental health and treatment needs for referred patients, planning, implementing, and evaluating care with a high level of autonomy.
* Delivering up to date, evidence-based interventions for mental health problems based on guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Treatment Agency (NTA), which can include individual, group and tele-therapy.
* Ability to carry out comprehensive mental health assessments and make decisions about ways to positively manage risk.
* Ability to devise creative and effective care packages of support for adult mental health, communicating effectively with clients/patients and professionals, both orally and in writing.
* Effective time management skills with the ability to work under pressure, planning own workload.
* Ability to work flexibly in response to the developing needs of the service.
Please see full Job Description and Person Specification for role requirements in further detail.
To be eligible to be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.