Job overview

The Mental Health Liaison Team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users, carers and clinical colleagues based within the Great Western Hospital.

This involves:

• Offering an assessment service to patients presenting with a range of undifferentiated mental health and psychological problems, and psychiatric illnesses.
• Providing a mental health consultation liaison and advice service.
  Delivering a range of nursing and psychosocial interventions to individual patients and their families, as appropriate.
• Assisting and supporting general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations.
• Providing formal and informal education and clinical supervision to registered and unregistered staff.
• Representing mental health services within the general hospital.
• Providing a communication structure between the general hospital, secondary mental health services, primary care and non-statutory services, as a means of ensuring the highest possible standards of patient care.

Main duties of the job

• Utilise a range of clinical skills appropriate to the individual patient's needs and the clinical setting in which they are being cared for.
• Undertake specialist psychosocial assessments with patients presenting following an episode of self-harm.
• Prompt referral on to secondary mental health services, social services and voluntary groups, as appropriate.
• Flexible, needs-based follow-up of individuals who require assessment following an earlier attendance after an episode of self-harm.
• Concise, effective liaison and feedback to clinical staff within the general hospital regarding advice on appropriate management strategies for individuals referred.
• Utilise a range of follow-up options and sources of help and support for patients, as appropriate.
• Effective liaison and communication with patients, relatives, carers, primary health care and secondary mental health services.
• Role model clinical excellence and high standards of nursing practice to other staff.
• Demonstrate and apply a sound understanding of the legal and ethical issues in caring for people with mental health problems. In particular, demonstrate a sound understanding of the application of the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act and their use within a non-mental health setting.

Working for our organisation

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.  

AWP is committed to support and create a positive research and evidence-based environment and culture, which can have a beneficial impact on everyone who works for the organisation and the care we provide to those who use our services.

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.