Mental Health, Justice Health and Alcohol and Drug Services (MHJHADS) provides support to people via inpatient and outpatient settings, community health centers, justice health facilities and other community settings, including people’s homes.  These services include:

• Adult Acute Mental Health Services
• Adult Community Mental Health Services
• Alcohol & Drug Services
• Justice Health Services
• Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

Adult Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS) includes:

Intake services:

• Access Mental Health Service
• Home Assessment & Acute Response Team (HAART)

Community Recovery Services:

• Gungahlin
• Belconnen
• City
• Woden
• Tuggeranong

Community Specialty Services:

• Assertive Community Outreach Service (ACOS)
• Older Persons Community Mental Health Team
• Mental Health Link
• Therapies
• Neuropsychology

This position is primarily located within the Community Recovery Services (CRS) but staff may be required to work across all of Adult Community Mental Health Services to meet operational demands.  CRS teams operate across the Australian Capital Territory, adhering to the Adult Community Mental Health Model of Care.

CRS are a multi-disciplinary team of Nurses, Allied Health Professionals, Psychiatry Registrars and Consultant Psychiatrists, and Administration Service Officers.

CRS provide a recovery-focused, strengths-based approach to clinical case management to improve wellbeing and enhance functioning in the community for adults who:

• Are experiencing complex mental illness/disorder or psychological distress which is associated with significant functional impairment and/or significant risks
• May be subject to a Psychiatric Treatment Order under the Mental Health Act 2015
• Have multidisciplinary treatment needs that cannot be met elsewhere in the community or less intensive service
• Require regular service contact over a medium to longer-term episode of care.

The successful applicant will be responsible for a caseload of clients with support from an allocated psychiatrist and the multidisciplinary team they work in as well as high quality governance structures/supports.  The applicant will also be required to fulfill the role of Mental Health Officer, executing processes under the MH Act.  The successful applicant will deliver face to face care and treatment to clients over a sustained period to enable the person to improve in social and other areas of functioning, require less hospital admissions and engage more actively in treatment. The participation of the people who use the service, including families and carers, is encouraged in all aspects of a person’s care and you will work in partnership with a range of government and non-government service providers to ensure the best possible outcomes for clients.

At this level, the successful applicant will provide high quality interventions and achieve sound outcomes for people under limited supervision, contribute to the multidisciplinary team processes, undertake professional development and professional supervision including the provision of supervision to staff at level RN1 & RN2, Enrolled Nurses and students, and participate in quality initiatives and strategic planning. The successful applicant will undertake Clozapine training and support the team to deliver the teams Clozapine Clinic.

Where this is a temporary position, it may lead to extension or permanency.

Selection may be appointed using the written application alone.

Key Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following.

• As a member of a multidisciplinary team, provide advanced assessment, care and relapse prevention planning, and evidence-based interventions to consumers presenting with complex and high-risk mental health conditions to enable the person to improve in social and other areas of functioning, require less hospital admissions and engage more actively in treatment.  Be a Mental Health Officer.
• Whilst upholding privacy and consent laws, work collaboratively with the persons family, carers, government and non-government sector, and GPs with the aim of recovery and stepping down care to a less intensive level of care.
• Exercise advanced independent clinical reasoning and judgement on routine matters and perform complex or critical tasks, generating innovative solutions to problems whilst producing a range of options.
• Work collaboratively with the Team Manager and Medical Officers to promote and work within the governance structures and policy frameworks relevant to this position and influence others to do the same, including the completion of routine key performance indicators.
• Develop and maintain collaborative cross-agency relationships and attend meetings and committees within the focus of your team. Provide supervision to and support of EN, RN1 and RN2 colleagues as well as students.
• Actively contribute to the implementation of clinical governance activities, quality improvement projects, divisional safety and quality initiatives, research programs, and health promotion.
• Complete clinical and administrative data collection and evaluation to a high standard and undertake other administrative tasks upon request.
• Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.