Health Care Assistant -Physical Health in SMI - Oxford Oxford, England
Job description
Are you passionate about supporting individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) and understand the importance of the physical health of those with SMI?
As part of a small, specialist team that covers Oxfordshire, you will be part of a specialist team that focuses on physical health assessment and will be assessing the physical health of individuals with SMI. Working both autonomously as well as part of the team, you will be providing home assessment visits as well as supporting and running physical health assessment clinics within our base.
Alongside measuring parameters such as blood pressure and pulse, this will also include more advanced assessment skills and interventions such as phlebotomy and recording electrocardiograms (ECG’s) and offering smoking cessation advice. The role requires excellent timekeeping, organisation and communication skills as well as a passion and understanding of physical health.
Working within the specialist Physical Health in SMI team, you will be responsible for managing your own caseload of patients. You will be both assessing the physical health of those with SMI and documenting your findings within the patient record for those under your care.
With training, you will be expected to identify abnormal results and escalate as appropriate. Following your initial assessment, the role also requires you to support individuals in accessing relevant services to support their physical health.
This will include liaising with both the internal multi-disciplinary team, as well as with external organisations such as smoking cessation services and locally commissioned providers of physical health support.
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust provides physical, mental health and social care for people of all ages across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Swindon, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset.
Our services are delivered at community bases, hospitals, clinics and people’s homes, delivering care as close to home as possible
Our vision is that no matter who you are or where you are, you will tell us that you receive: “Outstanding care delivered by an outstanding team”
Our values are: “Caring, safe and excellent”
At Oxford Health we offer a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing. These include:
- Excellent opportunities for career progression
- Access to tailored individual and Trust wide learning and development
- 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days with continuous service
- NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
- Competitive pension scheme
- Lease car scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Staff accommodation (please note waiting lists may apply)
- Staff networking and support groups hosted by our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion team
A standalone team, support the various community mental health teams throughout the county supporting individuals on a locality basis. Although the team is spread geographically, we maintain a close relationship as a team and support each other on a daily basis as well as through bespoke training and supervision opportunities both internal and external. We offer a supportive environment as well as excellent training opportunities and future professional development into the nursing profession.
The Physical Health in SMI team provide a Monday to Friday (0900-1700) service that supports the community mental health teams across Oxfordshire.
Although operating from a home base, applicants must have a valid driving licence and have access to a vehicle for work. A large part of the role is assessing and supporting individuals in their home and working across primary and secondary care. Candidates will be provided with their own computer device and so must have a good level of computer skills to review data and to document on the patient record.
Effective team working and excellent communication skills are essential as successful candidates will be working in teams alongside doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, nurse associates and student nurses. In addition, with their understanding of the importance of physical health for those with SMI, the team also provide education on health and well-being for both patients and their carers as well as supporting the health care professionals across the community MH services.
