This new role of Specialist Mental Health Practitioner for Primary Care is fundamental to the development and leadership of innovative new teams and integrated mental health services based within Primary Care.
The role promotes and provides early assessment, treatment and improved access to evidence-based interventions supporting people contacting primary care for help with their mental health needs.
The Specialist Mental Health Practitioner role will help people over 18 years old, who are accessing support through primary care, to define achievable goals and access local community resources and receive an assessment of their mental health and care needs.
Areas of focus will include:
Those with mental health needs that do not meet the access criteria for IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies provided through Vita Health) and do not meet the access criteria for secondary care.
People with serious or significant mental illness (SMI) who are not under secondary care mental health services and require this.
Those diagnosed with, or presenting with traits of, personality disorder who will benefit from being signposted to services who can best meet their needs
Older adults with complex presenting issues.
First contact with primary care.
Facilitate mental health and ‘strengths-based’ support conversations in Primary Care and support the Primary Care Team in accessing appropriate level of services
Promote understanding and confidence in the delivery of mental health care and collaboration with all agencies involved in the care of service users.
We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust): a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care.
We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset.
Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
1. Contribute to delivering and co-developing the primary care mental health service model. This includes care pathways for the provision of integrated physical and mental health care in a designated Primary Care Network within the Division.
2. Be the point of contact for patients that are directed from primary care via an agreed route, promote early assessment / treatment, and ensure robust relationships and links with other community-based services.
3. Work closely with and become a part of the primary care team, including recovery navigators, to support adults (18+) with mental health needs, whose mental health needs can be best met within primary care and whose difficulties are best understood within a biopsychosocial model.
4. Work closely with colleagues in specialist community mental health services to ensure smooth transitions between teams and services and facilitate an ‘easy in, easy out’ approach to improve access to evidence-based interventions.
5. Connect people to appropriate community and voluntary sector support working alongside your colleagues within the MINT Team.
6. Facilitate mental health and ‘strengths-based’ support conversations in Primary Care and support the Primary Care Team in accessing appropriate level of services.
7. Build and facilitate closer links between Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and Community
Mental Health Teams (CMHTs), Social Care teams, community services and a wide range of voluntary sector organisations, to achieve seamless transitions and support for people with mental health challenges.
8. Promote understanding and confidence in the delivery of mental health care and collaboration with all agencies involved in the care of service users
9. Provide targeted formal and informal learning opportunities for all staff within the primary care teams to develop their knowledge and capabilities within the mental health component of holistic care
10. Provide information, ‘sign posting’ and support for service users and their relatives/carers with mental health needs
11. Foster strong collaborative and trusting working relationships with the referring agent/Primary Care Health Professionals underpinned by an educative and solutions focused philosophy whilst providing credible clinical expertise
12. Facilitate the development of safe and effective mental health care practice within the primary care setting.
13. Where required, train and supervise AWP junior staff in line with own role
14. Promote the importance of working with strengths and aspirations of the person referred.
15. Provide succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice) to support patient safety planning.
16. Assess and advise on the impact of culture and diversity alongside colleagues from Primary Care.
17. Give best practice advice and support in a broad range of conditions for people with both functional and organic mental health needs.
18. Promote the needs of family and carer/s, including various support networks and third sector agencies.
19. Advise and support on evaluating risk from a positive risk-taking perspective.
20. Support and advice within safeguarding and public protection procedures where the issues are complicated by mental health problems, alongside Primary Care colleagues.
21. Provide a prompt response to all contacts following jointly agreed procedures and within agreed time frames.
22. Ensure, where needed, that people experience a seamless transfer into AWP provider/treatment services via trusted assessment processes.
23. Following assessment, provide short- term follow up of patients where appropriate.
24. Contribute evidence-based expertise to multi-disciplinary team processes.
25. Promote positive attitudes, mutual understanding and collaboration between non-mental health staff and mental health services, users, carers, voluntary agencies, primary care and social services
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