Band 4 Associate Practitioner - Integrated Access Partnership

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an empathetic and motivated Associate Practitioner to join the multi award-winning Integrated Access Partnership (IAP).

As part of our multidisciplinary team, you will assist with providing mental health triage, assessment and support to individuals experiencing mental health crisis. Using your communication and engagement skills, you will help us deliver the right care at the right time, improving outcomes for service users.

This rotational role involves:

• Telephone triage, assessment and support
• Support with face-to-face crisis assessments
• Emotional support and short-term interventions
• Supporting service users to access appropriate services
• Liaising with professionals across health, emergency services and the third sector

We are looking for someone with:

• Significant experience of working in a mental health setting
• Knowledge of mental health frameworks and recovery principles
• Strong interpersonal and communication abilities within a mental health setting
• A compassionate, person-centred approach
• Flexible and adaptable to change

Main duties of the job

This is a rotational post within the IAP, with opportunities to work across all bases, including; the Ambulance Service clinical hub (SWAST, Bradley Stoke, Bristol), NHS 111 Mental Health Clinical Assessment Service (Brisdoc, Whitchurch, Bristol), Urgent Assessment Centre (AWP, Southmead, Bristol) and on our Rapid Engagement Vehicles providing face to face mental health support in the community.

Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, helping to assess and support individuals experiencing mental health crisis is incredibly rewarding. You will be working alongside emergency and urgent care services and will be assessing people of all ages, whatever their mental health difficulty at the first point of contact. The majority of this work is telephone based but there will be the opportunity for face to face engagement in the community.

Our aim is to provide direct access to mental health services, providing a timely response, which improves the outcome and experience for service users. 

The IAP are an innovative team who strive to provide compassionate and person centred care to those accessing our service.

If you are eager and have the skills and experience to work with people experiencing mental health crisis and emotional distress, we would love to hear from you.

We offer strong supervision and support, training and development, induction and appraisal and the chance to be part of a fantastic multi award winning service.

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. 

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To provide focused, person-centred assessment and support to people experiencing an acute mental health crisis. You will identify and assess a person’s needs, enabling appropriate support, signposting and onward referral to services where required, under indirect supervision of a registered colleague. This will be remote and face-to-face assessments across the model. You will work alongside registered healthcare professionals to provide recovery and solution-focused care which:

• Prioritises service-users’ and carers’ needs and preferences, and their respect, privacy and dignity.
• Prioritises patient safety, and functions in accordance with local and national safeguarding, risk management and suicide prevention processes.
• Promotes and develops personal strengths, enabling and empowering people and their families to manage their mental health issues in as non-restrictive a way as possible.
• Recognises mental health recovery as a holistic process, encompassing individuals’ physical, psychological, emotional, financial and social wellbeing

You will:

• Promote and champion the rights, values, responsibilities and diversity of people.
• Promote and maintain effective communication with people in order to build and sustain positive working relationships with individuals, families and carers, team members and other agencies. This may include accessing translation and interpreting services.
• Contribute to the planning, implementation and review of care packages, where applicable, including implementing specific parts of an individual care plan.
• Working autonomously within relevant practice boundaries, under indirect supervision of registered clinicians.
• Conduct comprehensive assessments of mental health needs and clinical risks.
• Maintain accurate, confidential records of patient activity, contributing to a range of written documents as appropriate, including reports, referrals and letters.
• Enable people to understand and manage their mental health needs in line with their care plan and relapse prevention strategies. This may include enabling people to manage their own domestic and personal resources, housing needs, and enabling people to access learning / training, or work opportunities.
• Support individuals in developing and maintaining their identity and personal relationships, including potentially difficult relationships.
• Support people with mental health needs to engage with their own health care, in accordance with their care plan.
• Act to protect individuals from abuse and harm in line with local and National policies and procedures (e.g. Safeguarding, Risk Management, Suicide Prevention).
• Work proactively with carers and families, identifying carers’ needs and signposting to appropriate services or agencies.
• Proactively develop your knowledge and practice, making use of both clinical and management supervision and available learning opportunities.
• Promote, monitor and maintain health, safety and security in the workplace.
• Our comprehensive onboarding package, ongoing training and supervision supports your development in this highly rewarding frontline role.

If you are considering relocating to the region we can offer up to £8,000 relocation expenses (subject to terms and conditions). Living in the South West gives you access to vibrant cities, beautiful countryside and great beaches. We have some great schools and it is a lovely place to raise a family.