Job overview

This is a key role to work within the Mental Health, Drug & Alcohol Misuse Team - maintaining and overseeing high standards of care for women with mental health problems and those who misuse substances through pregnancy and into the postnatal period. You will have relevant knowledge and skills, which you will use to assist in the care of this vulnerable group of clients.

 You will be part of the team providing a link between the maternity service and multi-agency services and professions involved in mental health and drug misuse.  This will include a range of health education, support and special care advice relating to these specific issues. You will work in partnership with the named Community Midwife, the lead Specialist Midwife for Perinatal Mental Health, Drug & Alcohol Misuse and the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Team.

You will work closely with women and their families to plan and co-ordinate their care based on their individual needs. Along with the Lead Specialist Midwife you will support your colleagues through training and guidance to enable them to provide holistic care that optimises emotional wellbeing as well as physical health

Main duties of the job

•  Sign-post women to appropriate local services to address their mental health needs.
• Be a point of contact to provide additional midwifery support to women with mental illness and those misusing drugs / alcohol.
•  Participate in multidisciplinary birth planning meetings for women with severe mental illness.
•  Contribute to the safeguarding of families who are a risk of harm due to maternal mental illness.
•  Provide advice and support to colleagues caring for women with mental illness during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum.
• Sign-post women to appropriate local services who disclose drug use or alcohol dependency.
•  Participate in multidisciplinary birth planning meetings for women who are misusing drugs and / or alcohol.
• Work with colleagues to ensure there is routine screening and early identification of women with or at risk of perinatal illness, and those who are misusing drugs / alcohol.  Ensure that women and families are given information in a sensitive way.
• Act as an advocate for women to ensure they get the specialist mental health care they need.
•  Able to input information and effectively use the maternity clinical systems and adhere to Trust information governance policies and keep contemporaneous records within the team systems.
• Demonstrate a working knowledge of safeguarding issues and promote effective use of the Trust Safeguarding policy.

Working for our organisation

Our ambition is to deliver excellent local and specialist services, to improve the health and well being of our patients, and provide a vibrant place for staff to develop, innovate and build careers.

We aim to make the most of our skills and experiences so we can become the best we can be. As one organisation we will recruit the finest and retain more specialist staff due to more employment opportunities across our Trust.