Senior Practitioner - Criminal Justice Mental Health Service

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled practitioner with an interest and/or experience in the criminal justice system to be an integral part of both a court liaison and diversion team and a police custody suite assessment team. You will be working with both adults and young people, within what is a very interesting and rewarding area of care that is continuing to develop further.

As a front-line service, each day can be different in what can be a busy and unpredictable environment.

We are looking for a skilled and confident individual who has experience of complex assessments (including assessment of risk), decision making and who is adept at building relationships with service users and professional partners.

The successful applicant will work across the service in order to help identify individuals who present with vulnerabilities that may include mental health issues, neurodevelopmental disorders, substance misuse and who may present with a degree of risk.

The service ethos is to proactively intervene at the earliest possible opportunity in the Criminal Justice system pathway, so that those in need of support receive appropriate care and treatment in a timely fashion.

Some weekend working and shift work is involved in the role.

South London and Maudsley Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for providing NHS care and treatment for people with wide ranging vulnerabilities.

Locally, we deliver mental health services for people living in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; and substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Lambeth, Greenwich and Wandsworth.

• Proactive screening of cases in police custody or at court.
• On-the-day triaging and assessment - including full mental state examinations, risk assessment and gathering of background history for individuals presenting with a wide variety of established or suspected needs. These can include anxiety, challenging behaviour, serious mental illness, personality disorder, learning disorders, social communication and language difficulties, substance misuse and associated social issues within police custody.
• Assisting detainees who present with urgent and non-urgent clinical issues that may include onward referrals for a Mental Health Act assessment.
• Providing advice, information and support to custody/court personnel.
• Provision of written assessment summaries to police, court and other relevant agencies.
• Liaising with CAMHS, YOT practitioners or other relevant agencies for young people.
• Recording data for regular auditing and evaluation.
• Act as a positive role model for junior staff and custody partners in their day to day practice and the supervision and professional development of junior staff.
• Enhancing and developing relationships within Criminal Justice Services and building strong links between Health, Social Services and the Criminal Justice System.
• A deputy function for the Operational Lead when needed.

We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. This could include being a specialist practitioner at Crown Court, being an operational team lead in a Liaison and Diversion service or developing your career elsewhere in our organisation.

Within SLaM there are plenty of opportunities to progress your career and we support your development through a number of programmes.

For further details / informal visits contact:
Carl Hellawell
, Team Leader, Email: , Tel: .

Tracey Lewis, Offender Health Service and Business Development Manager, Offender Health, Email: , Tel: .