Job overview

We are seeking to recruit a 0.5 WTE (18.75 hours per week) Band 6 Dietitian for a 2-year fixed term contract to join an expanding small and enthusiastic multidisciplinary team providing intensive support for autistic people accessing NSFT mental health services across Norfolk and Waveney.

You will be qualified Dietitian registered with the HCPC with at least 2 years clinical experience. Within this service you will be working clinically with a small caseload of autistic service users who are struggling with their mental health and presenting frequently within our urgent and emergency care pathways. 

The overarching aim of the Autism Intensive Support (AIS) team are to reduce the number of and length of stay for autistic people in acute inpatient settings. The AIS team provide an intensive recovery-oriented approach, which is trauma-informed and autism-friendly to autistic service users directly and undertake consultation, supervision, and training of NSFT colleagues to improve the confidence and skill of mainstream mental health community and ward staff to deliver autism informed care.  

The AIS team are based at the Weaver’s Centre at Hellesdon Hospital, alongside the central locality crisis and home treatment team. 

Main duties of the job

To work as part of a multidisciplinary intensive support team to deliver short-term, targeted dietetic input to stabilise nutritional intake, prevent deterioration, and support individuals to remain in the community.

To manage a small caseload, assess and treat nutritional presentations which may include highly restricted diets, sensory-based food avoidance, disordered eating, malnutrition and obesity.

Provide consultation and signposting advice to the MDT, other mental health teams and the wider health and social care community.

This is a new team working with a small cohort of service users and we will be evaluating its impact. This will include feeding back to our commissioners in terms of clinical and social recovery outcomes for the service users. We will also be measuring the impact of the interventions in terms of service utilisation data.

This post will suit someone who has a passion for working with autistic people, is excited about the prospect of doing something new and different and has confidence in handling data and producing reports. You will be working with specialist staff, within a growing multidisciplinary team, including a clinical nurse specialist, consultant clinical psychologist, psychological therapist and clinical psychologist, and other Allied Health Professionals. 

You would be well supported and supervised by experienced Specialist Dietitians working in mental health and eating disorders. You will also benefit from AHP leadership support. 

Working for our organisation

Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.

Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established nursing networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.

Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.