Job overview
The Lambeth Perinatal Community Mental Health Service is a community team that specialises in perinatal psychiatry. The service offers preconception advice appointments (by the consultant psychiatrist), detailed assessments, ongoing reviews of patients until the end of the first postnatal year and in selected cases until the end of the second postnatal year, partners/fathers assessments.
The ST will have the opportunity to work in perinatal psychiatry for three days per week, and liaison for one day per week in this post. The work will include assessment and management of women with moderate to severe mental illness who are pregnant or in the postpartum period (up to 12 months post-delivery). Referrals are accepted from GPs, IAPT, midwifery, obstetric, primary care, other psychiatric services, other health professionals and social services.
Due to the emotive and complex nature of the work the perinatal service has reflective practice, externally supervised, once monthly. We also have a complex case discussion/safeguarding supervision once monthly.
The service is primarily a community psychiatric service, with a component of obstetric liaison with reviews of patients on antenatal and postnatal ward when needed.
Main duties of the job
Overview
Time
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
AM
Referrals and zoning MDT meeting
Clinic
General liaison
Perinatal MDT meeting
Weekly team activity
Special Interest
Day
Referrals and zoning MDT meeting
Clinic
PM
Admin
General liaison
Obstetric liaison
Supervision
admin
Working for our organisation
The perinatal MDT comprises of band 6 and 7 nurses, perinatal psychiatrists, a clinical psychologist, an OT, perinatal nursery nurses and administrators. We work closely with the Parent Infant Psychotherapy service and when needed work jointly with CMHTs. The focus of the perinatal service can be defined as the “Perinatal Frame of Mind” which is the ability to think about the mother’s needs, the infant’s needs, and the mother-infant relationship as three distinct areas of interest for health and wellbeing.
The service works closely, and often jointly, with maternity departments, primarily at St Thomas’s Hospital, but can joint work with other specialist maternity teams if patients under our care deliver in a different hospital. We meet fortnightly with the specialist midwifery team at St Thomas’s Hospital (Tower Team Midwives) to discuss complex cases under our joint care. We are no longer based in St Thomas’s Hospital as we have a wider role in the community but maintain an obstetric in-reach role and a close working relationship with Psychiatric Liaison at GSTT.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The post includes two session of general liaison psychiatry.
Skills development focuses on:
·Detailed assessment of patients in the perinatal period
·Prescribing in pregnancy and breast feeding
·Observation of the development of early relationships i.e. mother infant relationship
·Psychiatric formulation
·Management of complex cases with multiple agencies involved and an emphasis on the safeguarding of the baby and older children.
· Joint working with maternity, parent infant psychotherapy, health visiting, other psychiatric services
·Liaison with allied professionals including maternity, health visiting, primary and secondary care psychology services, safeguarding agencies, third sector organisations.
·Chairing pre-birth planning meetings that involve the patient, her partner or nearest person to them, relevant professionals, to identify the key issues and formulate a clear plan to be shared will all involved
·Training and teaching (regular midwifery training in perinatal mental health)
Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
1. S12 Approved
Desirable criteria
2. Perinatal Experience