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Job description

JOB SUMMARY:
You will have an excellent understanding of the issues impacting women alongside relevant knowledge and skills, which you will use to manage, develop and care for pregnant and new mothers with complex mental health needs, in particular tokophobia, birth-related and complex trauma and perinatal loss

You will be responsible for providing psychological support and care to a defined group of women, in partnership with Maternity, Mental Health and (or) Health Visiting and the wider RTS team. You will work closely with women and their families to formulate treatment plans and co-ordinate their care based on their individual needs

You will provide a link between the maternity service and other services involved in mental health care for women, including the local primary care therapy service (IAPT) and the Specialist Perinatal Community Mental Health Team. You will ensure that relevant pathways, policies and processes for women with, or at risk of, mental illness are implemented and audited. This will involve working with a range of professionals, services, and agencies. You will be an innovative practitioner and an effective change agent, promoting evidence-based practice

You will support your colleagues through coordinating and providing training/awareness raising and guidance in maternal mental health for key partner agencies and other providers, to enable them to deliver holistic care that optimises emotional wellbeing alongside mental and physical health

Do you have empathy and passion to support women experiencing birth fear, trauma, and perinatal loss? Do you have experience of working within perinatal services or an interest in perinatal mental health or willingness to learn more about working within this field? Are you looking for flexibility that involves remote working, as well as face to face? We are looking for a CBT THERAPIST 3 days per week to cover a 12-month period within a team of like-minded, compassionate and enthusiastic people who are keen to make a difference to women and their families to join our new and innovative Maternal Mental Health Service.

Lancashire and South Cumbria Reproductive Trauma Service are recruiting

The NHS Long Term Plan commitment for perinatal mental health includes new Maternal Mental Health Services (MMHS). These services aim to integrate maternity, reproductive health and psychological therapy, offering mental health assessment and intervention for women experiencing mental health difficulties arising from, or related to, the maternity experience (e.g., PTSD following birth trauma, perinatal loss or severe fear of childbirth/tokophobia). There is also an emphasis on how these services can contribute to providing staff support within maternity, which is crucial to the delivery of trauma and psychologically informed care.

Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board is currently undertaking scoping work in 2021/2022 with objectives including community engagement and coproduction, mapping current provision and gaps for mental health in maternity across L&SC, establishing baseline data, and creating a service model to fit needs of local communities. This work complements ongoing expansion of Specialist Perinatal Community Mental Health Services including increasing access to a wider range of psychological therapies for women and families in the perinatal period. This work will also be in line with objectives relating to the Maternity Transformation programme by promoting safe, personalised care and having shared ambitions to address health inequalities.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Clinical

• Support, assist and advise women with, or at risk of, perinatal mental illness and their families to supplement the care provided by their midwives/health visitors where necessary, for example working with women and their midwives to develop individual treatment plans, and making onward referrals to additional services as required.
• Provide specialist psychological assessments for women with difficulties associated with loss and trauma who present with moderate-severe and complex mental health symptoms. Assessments will be completed using information gathered during initial discussions (including relevant measurement tools) with woman, other professionals involved in their care and observations from family members (with consent)
• Regularly attend and contribute to clinical discussions at perinatal mental health MDT meetings
• Provide care in a variety of settings, such as home, children’s centres or other community settings working independently or in collaboration with Psychological Therapists and (or) Clinical Psychologists or other care providers.
• Liaise with mental health teams, other providers and partner agencies to ensure that women accessing the service are receiving active and effective care.
• Deliver evidence based psychological interventions to individuals in line with clinical guidance whilst adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining several provisional hypotheses
• Develop, promote and support the facilitation of groupwork within the service
• Be responsible for implementing psychological interventions (therapy) for individuals, and groups,
• Offer fathers and partners access to trauma focussed screening assessments and signpost to other services where appropriate
• Maintain accurate and comprehensive records of patients’ assessments, treatment plans and outcome measures – utilising both mental health and maternity electronic records to ensure continuity and accuracy of information.
• Undertake risk assessment and risk management plans for individual women and their families providing advice to other professions on psychological aspects the assessments/plans.
• Ensure up to date with appropriate safeguarding training, procedures and escalation process and pathways.
• Prepare for and attend regular clinical supervision to ensure all clinical work is discussed and treatment plans agreed as appropriate.
• Remain up to date with relevant research, guidelines, literature, policy and legislation relating to maternity and perinatal mental health implementing this within your clinical practice
• Maintain accreditation/registration with relevant professional body and/or organisations demonstrating evidence of competence and continuing development.

Communication and Relationship Skills

• Provide specialist psychological information, advice and guidance to other professionals contributing directly to the woman’s formulation, diagnosis, and treatment plans.
• Communicate, in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of women and their families under your care, monitoring progress during both uni/multidisciplinary care.
• Provide advice, consultation and training to staff working across a range of agencies and settings, where and as appropriate.
• Ensure all communication, which may be complex, contentious or sensitive, is undertaken in a responsive and inclusive manner, focusing on improvement and ways to move forward.
• Monitor the impact of caseload/workload and communicate any associated risks to your line manager
• Ensure all communication is presented appropriately to the different recipients, according to levels of understanding, type of communication being imparted and possible barriers such as language, culture, understanding or physical or mental health conditions.

Leadership and Collaborative Practice

• Understand the impact of poor maternal mental health on infants and other family members, and the role that maternity/mental health services can play in mitigating this.
• Regularly liaise with Midwives, GPs, Health Visitors, Obstetricians, Community Mental Health Teams and other agencies in relation to the care of pregnant women and new mothers with specific mental health problems.
• Develop comprehensive care pathways for women and families affected by moderate-severe complex maternal mental health difficulties in active collaboration with specialist perinatal community mental health teams and other providers of health services (e.g. GPs, Health visitors, IAPT services, third sector organisations).
• Have up to date knowledge of local services available to pregnant women in relation to their mental health needs, ensuring women from diverse backgrounds are able to access the service and addresses their specific needs.
• Liaise with peer support staff/volunteers to request additional support for women and their families where needed.
• Develop and maintain knowledge of the impact of common psychiatric medications on women and babies during pregnancy and breastfeeding and have links to experts (specialist perinatal psychiatrists and pharmacists) to keep this knowledge up to date and seek additional information where required.

Improving Quality and Developing Practice

• Maintain knowledge of contemporary epidemiological, demographic, social, political and professional factors relevant to the specialist area of practice.
• Work with colleagues to ensure that there is routine screening and early identification of women with, or at risk of complex trauma, perinatal/maternal and neonatal loss or tokophobia.
• Work with colleagues to ensure that women and their families receive appropriate information about mental health difficulties in a sensitive and compassionate manner.
• Continually evaluate and develop own role and competencies to meet the evolving needs of patients and the service.
• Use a reflective, curious and questioning approach to practice, identifying potential opportunities for clinical or service changes.
• Maintain awareness and application of relevant research and evidence-based practice relating to the area of clinical expertise and profession practice.
• Facilitate and enable change at individual and team levels to improve practice and health outcomes, monitoring and evaluating the impact of resultant changes in practice.
• Continually assess, monitor and act on risks in own and others’ practice through risk assessment.
• Ensure the appropriate and effective use of resources to ensure both cost effectiveness and quality.
• Regularly attend and contribute to team meetings and link in with NWC Perinatal Mental Health Clinical Network

Developing Self and Others

• Contribute to professional development and clinical supervision of trainee’s and Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner/s as appropriate.
• Develop and provide patient education and information which is appropriate and responsive to individual needs and level of development.
• Ensure that colleagues are aware of care/referral pathways for women with mental health difficulties relating to trauma, tokophobia and perinatal loss and contribution to these, including the provision of information and support, and the prediction and detection of mental illness.
• Evaluate knowledge and practice, identifying learning opportunities and continuing development through appraisal and personal development planning.
• Ensure relevant research findings pertinent to perinatal mental health are integrated into the practices and policies of the service. Encourage and take an active role in the evaluation of new approaches to practice.
• Undertake other appropriate tasks to support the wider team’s work as agreed with line manager

This job description may be subject to change according to the varying needs of the service. Such changes will be made after discussion between the post holder and his/her manager