Clinical Support Worker London
Job description
Effra ward is just one of 6 secure wards at River House. Other wards include a female ward, a service for forensic patients with personality disorder, an intensive care ward for men, an acute male ward, and a second male rehabilitation ward. The forensic mental health service at SLaM also includes a male low secure unit at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, a non-secure stepdown service at Lambeth Hospital, four community forensic mental health teams, criminal justice liaison teams and a personality disorder service at HMP Brixton. Furthermore, secure beds are co-commissioned across the whole of South London, via a commissioning vanguard including Oxleas Foundation NHS Trust and South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust, such that patients can move across different secure hospital sites.
Working under the direct supervision and guidance of senior nursing staff to support the delivery of quality nursing care, contributing to the physical, psychological, social, recreational and spiritual care in a recovery-focused way through therapeutic engagement and activities, and taking steps to address any issues that arise, ensuring your engagement with service users is honest, open and transparent at all times.
Recognising and valuing service users as individuals and treating them with dignity and respect, ensuring care provided respects equality and diversity.
Participate in the mental and physical health assessment of service users escalating any concerns to senior staff. Monitoring and recording clinical observations such as physical observations and vital signs and escalating as appropriate.
Implementing principles of ‘recovery’: encouraging / support service users with healthy lifestyles, participate in community meetings and other therapeutic activities.
Apply the lone working policy whilst escorting service users for their community rehabilitation leave in line with Trust policies, under guidance and supervision of senior colleagues.
Undertake 1:1 engagement and observations with service users under the direct supervision of the Nurse in charge.
Implement safe practice through mandatory training and completion of relevant competencies and additional training.
Our Forensic Offender Health pathway provides care and treatment for individuals with complex mental health needs and some with complex personality needs, who may also pose a risk to the public. Our aim is to provide patient focused care through on-going assessment; treatment which covers a series of interventions to support the patients through recovery and safe transition back into the community. Risk assessment and management is therefore paramount.
The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) forensic services work in collaboration with the South London Partnership (SLP). The SLP is a partnership between Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, (Oxleas) South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, (SLaM), and South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG). The partnership brings together clinical expertise, experience, and innovation, aiming to improve quality, use resources most effectively, and deliver best practice consistently to all patients.
The SLP provides a single point of access for referrals with the aim to provide care closer to patients’ homes, families and communities across South London; with patients benefiting from improved recovery and rehabilitation in the least restrictive setting clinically appropriate.
The Healthcare Support Worker is the ‘entry-level’ clinical role in a ward or other clinical setting. The job is designed to introduce staff, who have little or no experience of caring work but who demonstrate the values of the organisation, in a clinical environment.
Healthcare Support Workers provide hands on personalised care to service users, always under supervision, and with the support of more senior staff.
The job is designed to help the post holder gain some clinical experience, under close and supportive supervision and to ensure our service users and carers receive care from people with the right values.
Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:
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. For this role, we offer career pathways to RMN level. In addition, we offer ongoing training and development for a future career in mental health nursing.
