Overview

The Crisis Response and Home Treatment Team offers an alternative to the 9-5 working pattern. The team is a pan Borough service working across the four Boroughs. The team offers urgent mental health assessments and has an extensive home treatment offer supporting complex young people in the community.

Role

As a Mental Health Practitioner, you will provide high standards of evidence-based, client-centred care to children and young people with mental health problems within the THRIVE Framework for service delivery. You will provide interventions, advice, consultation and supervision to colleagues and external partner agencies in line with THRIVE and clinical competency. As the post is identified within the CYPMH strategy, the role is expected to continue to develop in line with national and local initiatives.

Organisation context

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. We 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.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate the care of service users by carrying out assessment planning, implementation and evaluation of their care under the guidelines of the Care Programme Approach, under the supervision of the line manager.
• Ensure the service user’s care plan is developed to meet the assessed need and that unqualified staff are delivering care as laid down in the care plan.
• Liaise with family members, carers and significant others when completing assessments and developing care plans.
• Develop a risk management plan for service users, taking note of contributions from other team members, and ensure significant people are aware of and acting on the plan.
• Direct unqualified staff to ensure delivery of a high standard of care.
• Participate in setting standards for care based on evidence and research findings.
• Participate in systematic monitoring and evaluation of service users under supervision guidance.
• Communicate with mult-disciplinary team to convey relevant information affecting the service user’s care, with supervisor guidance.
• Use verbal and non-verbal communication skills to impart sensitive information and check understanding where barriers exist (distress, psychiatric symptoms or language).
• Share information regarding care in reviews and multidisciplinary meetings with internal or external colleagues as appropriate.
• Have knowledge of the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and other relevant legislation; support service users and carers when the Mental Health Act is used to admit the service user to hospital; communicate rights and outcomes effectively and document them.
• Provide and coordinate a range of therapeutic activities for service users and monitor their effectiveness.
• Ensure safe administration of medication in line with Trust policies and Nursing & Midwifery Council regulations.
• Document all relevant information about a service user’s care and treatment accurately in the health record; supervise and monitor entries by unqualified staff.
• Provide reports (written and verbal) under supervision.
• Contribute to teaching sessions to pass on knowledge and skills.
• Use skills to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive and ensure unqualified staff receive appropriate support after incidents.
• Document all incidents or near misses per Trust policy and follow up actions as required.
• Actively participate in service user reviews to ensure needs are met and inform clinical decisions with relevant information.
• Develop care plans that enable service users to achieve and maintain optimal health and independence to remain in the community in their chosen setting.
• Respond pro-actively in crisis situations and implement immediate plans with supervision and guidance as appropriate.
• Assist in the assessment and supervision of nursing and other students.
• Assess and monitor the physical and mental health of service users, seeking medical advice as appropriate.
• Participate in team meetings to positively influence team working and the development of research-based practice.

Professional

• Maintain own professional registration and PREP requirements.
• Serve as an effective link between mental health services and primary care, advising professionals in other fields.
• Develop effective working relationships with professionals outside the Trust to enhance care delivery.
• Participate as a supervisor and supervisee in the divisional performance management/supervision framework; work towards personal development plan goals.
• Maintain and develop knowledge and skills within own area of work.
• Attend courses and conferences as appropriate and share knowledge gained.
• Be professionally accountable for actions as a registered practitioner and adhere to Trust policies and procedures by unqualified staff.
• Undertake mandatory training as identified by the Trust and ensure actions align with training.
• Keep up to date with developments in professional practice and suggest changes to senior staff as appropriate.
• Report adverse incidents per Trust policy and ensure junior staff follow the policy and report incidents.
• Seek advice and further training as appropriate before carrying out duties.
• Actively participate in the preceptorship process, working with supervision to develop skills and expertise.

This advert closes on Tuesday 7 Oct 2025