Band 6 Student Liaison Service Practitioner - Bristol

at  Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

The new Student Mental Health Liaison Service aims to improve pathways between university services and local NHS services. It will provide support for students with moderate to severe complex mental health issues.
This role involves you supporting the day to day running of the Student Liaison Service (SLS). The purpose of this role within SLS will be to offer support conversations with the universities, to ensure that students that are of concern are able to access the right mental health provision.
You will provide students with evidence based interventions to support students that experience difficulties with complex emotional needs, personality disorders and associated difficulties.
The team will be inclusive, recovery focused, highly motivated and will hold the needs of the student population at the centre of all that they do. The role involves working with both Bristol University, The University of the West of England, secondary care teams and primary care teams. As well as working alongside our voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE) partner organisations, to deliver Psychoeducation.
The post holder will support the development of the new service and bring creativity and innovative thinking. You will also support the service manager to develop and maintain care pathways and clinical governance. Day to day reviewing of referrals. Leading on assessments and post group reviews. Working within the multi-disciplinary team to maintain service user safety.
To liaise and provide information, assessment and sign posting to university students who present with complex mental health needs.
To liaise with existing service providers within the universities, primary care, secondary care, acute and voluntary sector partners.
To foster strong collaborative and trusting working relationships with referrers whilst demonstrating clinical expertise.
Provide succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice).
Rio checking referrals.
Delivering evidence based interventions for students with severe or complex mental health needs including those with a Personality Disorder (e.g. SCM, DBT, MBT, etc) within The Student Liaison Service.
Assessing service suitability with service users and referrers.
Advice on interventions and treatments required to enable positive change.
Planning reviews and future steps with service users.
Encouraging the identification of strengths and resilience factors in students.
Assessment of or advice on the impact of culture and diversity.
Have responsibility for other duties as agreed with line manager.
All other aspects that are needed to ensure smooth running of the service.
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.
This role is focused on providing appropriate, effective interventions and treatments to students with complex and severe mental health needs enabling and assisting them to meet daily health, social care, academic and wellbeing needs, in line with personal recovery goals, and facilitating engagement with services.
Always working under the relevant overarching clinical framework. The post holder will be responsible for the ongoing assessment, planning delivery and review of activities and interventions against identified health, social care and wellbeing needs.
The role will also require undertaking and delivering specific health or social care assessments and intervention, as part of a group activity and on a one to one basis.
To undertake the full range of activities required to deliver ongoing comprehensive mental health assessment for students with severe and complex mental health needs. This will include:
The use of standardised assessment tools, i.e. the Cluster Allocation Support Tool (CAST), KGV
Recovery Star
History, strengths and aspirations
Mental state
Impact of culture and diversity
Functional needs
The needs of family and carer
Evaluation and managing of risk
Physical health
Complicating factors
The interventions and treatments required to enable positive change.
Social care needs
Safeguarding and public protection
Capacity under the Mental Capacity Act
Connect students to appropriate community and voluntary sector support working alongside the two universities.
Facilitate mental health and ‘strengths-based’ assessments and support students to ensure they are able to access appropriate services.
Promote understanding and confidence in the delivery of mental health care within the two universities and collaboration with all agencies involved in the care of students.
Provide information, ‘sign posting’ and support for students with complex mental health needs.
Foster strong collaborative and trusting working relationships with referrers, primary care, voluntary care and secondary care health professionals underpinned by an educative and solutions focused philosophy whilst providing credible clinical expertise.
Facilitate the development of safe and effective mental health care practice within the two universities.
Promote the importance of working with strengths and aspirations of the person referred.
Provide succinct formulations and recommendations (inclusive of risk management advice) to support patient safety planning.
Assess and advise on the impact of culture and diversity.
Give best practice advice and support students with complex mental health needs.
Advise and support on evaluating risk.
Support and advise within safeguarding and public protection procedures where the issues are complicated by mental health problems.
Provide a prompt response to all referrer’s following jointly agreed procedures and within agreed time frames.
Following assessment, provide short- term follow up of patients where appropriate.
Contribute evidence-based expertise to multi-disciplinary team processes.
Promote positive attitudes, mutual understanding and collaboration between non-mental health staff and mental health services, users, voluntary agencies, primary care and social services ensuring the appropriate sharing of information.
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.
Adhere to the relevant professional code 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.
Maintain appropriate health record, in accordance with professional and organisational standards.
Participate in clinical audit and service evaluation programmes as required.
Participate in local arrangements, where required, to manage unexpected staff absences

Please refer the Job description for details