Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post is to work alongside another consultant. The caseload and clinical responsibility will be split equally between the two consultant psychiatrists. The consultant psychiatrist has the overall responsibility, to lead the overall care of the patient and their baby and family, integrating biological, psychological and social aspects of assessment, investigations and treatment. The post holder will work alongside the multidisciplinary team including co- consultant psychiatrist, psychologist (adult and developmental), nurses, nursery nurses, occupational therapist, social worker, team manager, operational team in PMOA and administrative staff. The post holder will also work alongside the local and more national community perinatal mental health teams, maternity services, general psychiatric liaison, other secondary mental health services, local authority and partner agencies. The MBU provides both local and national services to mothers who have a range of psychiatric disorder, diagnosed during pregnancy, or the postpartum period, up to the infant being approximately one year old. The community psychiatrists also see some women are seen for preconception advice, when they have past history of moderate to severe mental illness and want to conceive and require possible advice on their risk of relapse, their care, their medication plan and the potential impact on the developing foetus. Women in the community perinatal teams are screened in the antenatal period in the maternity hospitals and those with a moderate to severe mental illness are assessed, and treated throughout pregnancy and the post-natal period. 

Women admitted to the MBU are either in the last trimester of pregnancy or post partum up the baby being 12 months old. Women have a range of moderate-severe mental health and psychiatric difficulties, from mood disorders, severe mental illness, psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders including obsessive compulsive disorder, personality disorders. There may be comorbidities including the need to assess neurodiversity, a growing area. There may be risk to themselves or to others including the baby, which the consultant will need to lead the assessment of. There may be bonding and parenting difficulties for the index mothers/ parents. The unit supports the entire family unit and the diversity of parenting. The women are from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds. Average length of stay is about 8 weeks and can vary.   

Following assessment new patients are allocated to the Consultant; where patients are reviewed by the consultant and relevant members of the multidisciplinary team. Patients can access specialist input from psychiatrists, perinatal psychological therapies, developmental psychology, couple and family work, nursing and nursery nurse, occupational therapy activities, ward based social workers. The postholder may be required to see patients on other wards, in the community, other hospitals, or in the home environment, as part of the inpatient admission. 

The team has an 0.5 session senior resident doctor and a full-time resident doctor, who will be clinically supervised by the consultants. The post holder must have an educational supervisor portfolio to be considered for educational supervision of other residents in the trust, and will provide clinical advice to the resident doctors as required.    

The post holder will regularly update their knowledge and skills in the use of psychotropic medication during pregnancy and breast feeding. The post holder will also have good psychological therapy skills to support the work on the unit. They will also contribute to, and when needed lead, multiagency working and the importance of safeguarding issues related to the unborn child and the baby.  The postholder will be required to undertake including Mental Health Act assessments on the MBU and in the community. There will also be attendance at Mental Health Act Tribunal and attendance at Family Courts as needed. The post holder will also work alongside colleagues in the community perinatal mental health services across the South London Partnership and more nationally, facilitating admissions and discharges from the inpatient MBU.

The post holder must be approved or eligible for approval under the section 12(2) of the Mental Health Act. The post holder is accountable and professionally responsible to the Clinical Lead in Perinatal Psychiatry and the Clinical Director.

There is a linked Parent Infant Psychotherapy Service in SLaM which is also part of the Psychological Medicine and Older Adults (PMOA) Directorate.

The post holder will be expected to have a significant role in teaching multidisciplinary staff across primary and secondary health care services as well as social care. 

The post-holder will have an office space in the Mother and Baby Unit, share with the other consultant. The post is supported by the team administrators based at the Mother and Baby Unit. The MBU is networked to the Trust Intranet with IT support from the central services of the Trust. The post-holder will have his or her own computer and will have administrative support.

The post-holder will be expected to participate in the National Units Consultant on-call out of hours rota. They will be asked to participate in the perinatal consultant day rota (working hours Mon- Fri 9-5 pm) for telephone advice 1 day per week.

The post holder and co- consultant provide Responsible Clinician and con consultant cover when the other is on annual leave.  

The post holder will also be expected to cover community consultant colleagues. The detailed job plan will be developed, agreed and regularly reviewed, including ad hoc should there be a significant workload change, with Dr Livia Martucci Perinatal Community Services Clinical Lead, and Dr David Okai, Associate Clinical Director, PMOA.