Job overview
The Westminster Older Adults and Health Ageing Community Mental Health Team is a dynamic multidisciplinary service providing mental health support to older adults in Westminster with functional disorders and dementia. It is co-located with the Westminster City Council mental health team, offering a holistic approach to care. The team is also involved in the CNWL Open Dialogue project, which promotes person-centred recovery-oriented care.
The team operates using a case management, intervention-led and recovery-focused model, offering multidisciplinary assessments and interventions for service users with complex needs, as well as their families and carers. Regular multidisciplinary meetings facilitate case discussions, initial assessments, and reflective practice. A key feature of the service is the integrated older adults home treatment team, which delivers intensive support, crisis management, admission prevention, and helps ensure timely hospital discharges. The CMHT and HTT teams collaborate closely, offering a responsive and flexible service to meet the needs of service users. Coordination with older adults’ inpatient services allows smooth transitions of care.
The service promotes a friendly, respectful work environment where staff receive professional development, including supervision and appraisals. Involvement of service users and carers is a core element of the service's design and delivery.
Main duties of the job
As part of the management team, the postholder would provide older adults clinical leadership in the community mental health team. The postholder would lead on clinical practice, standards and pathways; providing clinical and managerial leadership to support the team manager, as well as supporting with organisational and practice development and quality improvement strategies. The role would also involve providing specialist advice, assessment, formulation and delivery of brief interventions for older adults with complex mental health conditions and dementia, who may be new or known previously to secondary care mental health services.
Working together with other older adult clinical leads in the service, this role provides the opportunity to develop older adults care pathways in the community, focusing on integrating with community services and delivering a more holistic and joined up care for older adults with multiple complex co-morbidities including frailty, functional mental health needs and/or dementia. Furthermore, it would involve supporting workforce development, particularly community mental health nursing and allied health professionals ensuring that staff develop the skills and strategies required for their roles in the Community Mental Health Team and Home Treatment Team (HTT).
Working for our organisation
1. Flexible shift working opportunities for a healthier work-life balance
2. Commitment from the team to develop you by offering coaching and in-house development sessions such as, Leadership programmes, non-medical prescribing, CBT-P training and much more
3. Free access to our Staff and Wellbeing service to ensure that you are always looking after yourself
4. Commitment to career mapping to ensure continuous professional development including opportunities within the Trust
5. Shadowing opportunities including HTT, Psych Liaison and many more
6. Local Reflective Practice forums run by one of the senior leads
7. An opportunity to work with a friendly, dynamic, passionate and diverse team who are committed to looking after each other as well as their patients
8. Excellent staff benefits: our benefit packages are amongst the best in London and include: childcare vouchers, health and wellbeing services, season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, blue light card, discounts at Nando's and Superdrug, mobile phone contracts and much more!
9. Award-winning Staff Networks
10. Hidden Gem & annual award ceremonies
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
**Please see full job description for further information**
Clinical
11. To provide clinical leadership for staff within the service, particularly in the community mental health team.
12. To assist the team manager in developing a model of working with service users with complexneeds, ensuring that services are provided to the highest possible standard.
13. To deputise for the team manager as needed.
14. To lead on the day to day operational and clinical management of the service, including duty and triage functions.
15. Participate in and lead meetings as appropriate.
16. The postholder would be expected to show demonstrable and comprehensive experience of working with older adults/ those with complex physical and mental health needs including functional and organic illness, an ability to work flexibly and collaboratively across local environments and strong interpersonal skills.
17. The postholder will be expected to have well developed clinical skills of their own in order to enable them to practice at a high standard, appropriately guide and supervise staff at all levels.
18. To provide advice and support other practitioners with the assessment and management of servicer users’ needs and risks, including cases of a high degree of complexity from a mental health and physical health perspective.
19. To provide expert advice and consultation in professional matters relating to the postholder’s discipline, and to ensure that expert information and advice is available for the other disciplines in the team.
20. To provide managerial and clinical supervision for staff.
21. To manage a small caseload as needed, including providing access and /or deliver a broad range of psychosocial interventions for individual patients, carry out robust risk assessments and care planning.
22. To work within the relevant legislative frameworks (e.g. Mental Health Act (1983) Mental Capacity Act (2005), Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, Care Act 2014 etc).
23. To ensure that the team works within the relevant frameworks and policies for safeguarding vulnerable adults.
24. To ensure that services within the multidisciplinary team are well co-ordinated in order they are responsive and attuned to the needs of service users, carers and families.
25. To demonstrate a high level of clinical competence both in relation to supervision of staff and direct face to face contact with service users.
26. To ensure that the service works in co-ordination with community services including other secondary mental health services, social services, third sector providers and Acute In-Patient services.
27. To ensure effective liaison with other relevant agencies.
28. To maintain and develop administrative procedures regarding the recording of case records.
29. To ensure that service users are involved in the development of the team and local services.
Vaccination
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
30. Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.
31. Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the
32. Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.