Dietitian

at  Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

To provide specialist clinical Dietetic and nutritional expertise for highly complex patients across
a diverse and challenging mental healthcare setting. This will include working across the high,
medium, low secure division, including the Specialist Learning Disabilities services (Ashworth
hospital, Rowan View, Rathbone and Whalley). To support the Principal Dietitian and contribute
to the development and delivery of Dietetic services, including the trust wide Nutrition and
Hydration and Obesity Strategy
Strategy, Hospital Food Standards, and other health promotion activities linked with CQUIN and
research. Contribution to production and review of relevant trust wide policies, procedures and
guidelines and strategic planning and directions. To deliver regular training across all sites to all
medical and catering staff. The role will involve liaising regularly with other healthcare
professionals including nursing staff, doctors, Allied Health Professionals and visiting consultants.
Professionally accountable for their own caseload. To deliver regular clinics and ward
visits and group education sessions. To work autonomously making clinical decisions in a
variety of secure mental health settings within a broad professional standards (Health
Professions Council and Professional bodies)
To complete and implement full dietary plans for the service user using the appropriate
anthropometric, biochemical and medical screening and advice to identify their
nutritional requirements. To ensure that the advice is tailored to the service users
individual needs.
To give expert advice around MUST in conjunction with appropriate care-planning.
To make clinical and responsive decisions working across all the Secure services.
To use advanced communication skills to motivate and negotiate with patients to comply
with treatment programs and use empathy, reassurance and analysis to uncover social or
psychological factors which may affect compliance in order to facilitate long term lifestyle
changes.
To provide nutritional expertise at multidisciplinary meetings including Patient Care Team
meetings, case conferences and in discharge planning. (This includes advice on methods
of feeding, e.g., naso-gastric tube feeding, enteral sip feed supplements.) To educate and
support the care-team about the patients’ diets and recommend appropriate remedial
measures to correct nutritional deficiencies and achieve therapeutic goals.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.