Job Description

Are you a Mental Health Nurse, Registered Nurse, Allied Health Professional or Social Worker? If so, we would love to hear from you.



The Specialised Care Home and Enhanced Dementia Service provides psychosocial interventions at times of crisis, as alternatives to admission to our later life dementia wards. The team work in two parts, we support individuals and carers in their own homes, and those which reside in care homes.



We sit along side the Later Life Community Mental Health team which we have good working relationships with, as well as sharing a pool of experienced later life medics. The team is made up of nurses, a social worker, occupational therapists and support workers.



What we can offer you



Along with mandatory supervision and appraisal, we encourage both professional and personal development. We are a friendly and passionate team and pride ourselves on the support we offer our colleagues. We fully encourage open discussion and learning environments for all members of the team.

In addition, we offer:

Paid mileage for clinical visits



Support with career progression



Opportunities and support for career development



Encouragement and opportunities to contribute to service improvement



Comprehensive induction period



Regular review of caseloads



Morning multidisciplinary support meetings



Access to learning materials



Community working hours



Team building and away day events



Team social eve



The Specialised Care Home and Enhanced Dementia Service is a specialist team aimed at providing a safe and supportive alternative to a psychiatric hospital admission for adults with a diagnosis of dementia. We work with individuals, families and carers who are experiencing increasing difficulties due to behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. We also support individuals who have a long standing functional mental health illness, which may be complicated by their dementia diagnosis.



The team provides a range of psychosocial interventions utilising key models and formulations, non-pharmacological approaches/ interventions, and when indicated we provide pharmacological interventions.



The main duties of the role will be providing a robust assessment including assessment of risk, identifying needs and formulating care plans to meet identified needs/ mitigate risk.



As a team we work alongside other services to plan, deliver and review effective "wrap around" interventions to manage risk and prevent hospital admission.



Please note that the South Gloucestershire Specialised Care Home and Enhanced Dementia Service covers a large geographical area so applicants must have a valid driving licence and access to own transport. It is not possible to carry out the requirements of this role by using public transport.



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.



In a wide range of situations and locations, undertake the full range of activities required to deliver comprehensive mental health assessment, for service users, who may be distressed and in crisis. This will include:



The use of standardised assessment tools



Identification of history, strengths and aspirations



Assessment of mental state



Identification of impact of culture and diversity



Assessment of functional needs



Identification and assessment of the needs of family and carer



Identification and evaluation of risk



Consideration and assessment of physical health



Identification of complicating factors



Identifying and ensuring specialist involvement where required.



Identifying the interventions and treatments required to enable positive change.



Identify Social Care needs



Identify Safeguarding and public protection needs



Assessment of mental capacity under the Mental Capacity A



To be responsible for developing delivering and reviewing comprehensive and complex treatment programmes using appropriate frameworks in line with evidence-based practice, including strategies to manage risk for service users with complex needs and carers, bringing in other resources as required.



To plan, deliver and evaluate defined, specialist therapeutic interventions as indicated in the assessment process, in line with personal plans, including to service users who maybe on other caseloads. This might include:



Individual or group therapeutic intervention



Psychosocial interventions



Motivational and coping enhancement strategies.



Medication management



Interventions under the Mental Health Act,



To deliver a range of defined activities/interventions to improve the carer's ability to support the service user and to enable them in their relationship with the service user.



To develop and maintain good partnership working with other services throughout all treatment episodes, including regular liaison within Primary Health Care Team, inpatient and intensive services, day services, voluntary sector and with nominated carers/advocates.



In collaboration with service users and carers, to be responsible for facilitating the development of comprehensive crisis plans, rapid access plans, advance statements etc, involving other agencies such as primary care etc where appropriate.



To personally build and lead others to build, hope inspiring relationships with service users, which acknowledge the personal journey of each person, and focus on strengths and aspirations to allow the creation of meaningful personal plans.



To be responsible for maintaining own workload, as well as planning the workload of others, on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that time is prioritised effectively, utilising electronic resources such as diaries/scheduling.



To be responsible for the protection of individuals from abuse and harm in line with local safeguarding policies and procedures, including working with others in the planning development and review of protection plans.



Coordinating and undertaking protective interventions which may be required in the protection of others, as outline in the protection plan, taking individual action where indicated.



Personally leading others to collaboratively and sensitively work with individuals, with a range of mental health needs to develop skills to manage their own health, in accordance with their personal plan, by actively promoting and using approaches which are affirming, build on strengths, identify past positive experience and success, and use small steps to move towards the person's goal.



Undertake active clinical leadership and supervision within the team, covering for the manager and colleagues as required.



To maintain the single health and social care record, ensuring both paper and electronic records are kept up to date in accordance with professional and organisational standards.



Report and record within agreed timeframes, all activity relating to information reporting and performance requirements.



To participate in management, caseload and clinical supervision in accordance with trust policy.



To provide mentoring/ training for others in relevant practice areas, according to professional requirements, taking a collaborative approach to practice development and evidence-based care. Specifically this means providing a safe and effective learning environment for the mentoring and supervising of students, participating in their learning objectives and assessments.



Demonstrate responsibility for developing own practice in line with professional qualifications and for contributing to the development of others, by making use of and providing, effective feedback, supervision, coaching and appraisal.



To adhere to professional codes of conduct ensuring required skills and competencies required are maintained.



Monitor and maintain health, safety and security of self and others, undertaking assessments and taking appropriate action where required. Develop own knowledge and practice, and contribute to the development of others, making use of available feedback, supervision and appraisal to identify appropriate areas of development for this work role, taking responsibility for accessing identified learning and training opportunities.



Lead, maintain and participate in practices which enable effective team working.



To participate in local arrangements where required to manage unexpected staff absences.



This post is open to newly qualified social workers. In line with AWP trust policy all newly qualified social workers (NQSW) will be recruited initially at Band 5 level, regardless of advertised role banding. All NQSW's are expected to successfully complete their ASYE within 2 years of employment, unless there are exceptional circumstances in which case it may be extended for a further 2 years.



If you have been appointed to an advertised Band 6 role this will be an automatic progression, following confirmation of your successful ASYE completion. If you have been appointed to a Band 5 post you will then be eligible to apply for a subsequent Band 6 vacancy upon successful ASYE completion.