Mental Health, Justice Health and Alcohol and Drug Services (MHJHADS) provide support to people via inpatient and outpatient settings, community health centres, 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 primary 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 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 routine supervision, contribute to the multidisciplinary team processes, undertake professional development and professional supervision including the provision of supervision to staff at level RN1, Enrolled Nurses and students, and participate in quality initiatives. 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

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

1. As a member of a multidisciplinary team, provide assessment, care and relapse prevention planning, and evidence-based interventions to consumers presenting with complex and moderate-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
2. 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.
3. Exercise independent clinical judgement on routine matters and perform novel, complex or critical tasks with decreasing professional supervision.
4. Work collaboratively with the Team Manager to work within the governance structures and policy frameworks relevant to this position, including the completion of routine key performance indicators.
5. Develop and maintain collaborative cross-agency relationships. Provide supervision to and support of EN’s and nursing students.
6. Actively contribute to the implementation of clinical governance activities, quality improvement projects, divisional safety and quality initiatives, and health promotion.
7. Complete clinical and administrative data collection and evaluation to a high standard and undertake other administrative tasks upon request.
8. Undertake other duties appropriate to this level of classification which contribute to the operation of the organisation.

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to the following.

• Practices independently/autonomously.
• Assumes accountability and responsibility for own actions and delegation of care to nursing students, ENs and other healthcare workers.
• Apply evidence-based guidelines to achieve positive care outcomes for clients, is an active participant within their multidisciplinary work unit, and provides leadership in clinical decision making, to give and/or coordinate care to clients.
• Accountable for the delivery of safe clinical practice and professional advice.
• Identify, select, implement, and evaluate nursing interventions that have less predictable outcomes.
• Able to function in more complex situations while providing support and direction to RNs, ENs and other healthcare workers.
• Understand and apply obligations for risk identification and safe practice within the clinical practice environment.
• Adhere to established guidelines, protocols, procedures, standards, policies, and legislation.
• Ability to manage confidential and sensitive information whilst working towards achieving positive outcomes for people who access the service.
• Ability to respond to and prioritise competing and often urgent requests in a calm and efficient manner while also maintaining high work standards and accuracy.

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

Essential

• Tertiary qualifications in Nursing
• Registered or eligible for registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
• Hold a current driver’s licence

Desirable

• Post Graduate qualifications in relevant field

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to the following.

Essential

• Minimum of 4 years post registration experience in relevant field.

Desirable

• Prior experience working in community mental health will be highly desirable
• Sound understanding of adult community mental health services.
• Proficient user of the Digital Health Record and/or other Information Technology systems
• Experience or knowledge of the CHS Exceptional Care Framework, Clinical Governance Framework, Partnering With Consumers Framework and all other related frameworks.
• Have an understanding of how the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) indicators align with this role.

Appointment to this position is conditional on being granted and retaining appropriate clearances.

• Pre-employment National Police Check.
• Comply with Canberra Health Services Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination policy.
• Comply with CHS credentialing and scope of clinical practice requirements for allied health professionals.

All employees are required to:

• Adhere to the Canberra Health Services Values and the ACT Public Service Code of Conduct
• Act in accordance and comply with all relevant Safety and Quality policies and procedures.
• Comply with all relevant clinical and/or competency standards.

CHS is leading the drive to digitally transform health service delivery in Australia through the implementation of a territory wide Digital Health Record. Computer literacy skills are required which are relevant to this role as you will be responsible for completing required documentation and becoming a proficient user of the Digital Health Record and/or other Information Technology systems; once proficient, you will need to remain current with changes, updates, and contingencies.

These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your resumé and experience.

1. Under routine supervision, demonstrated ability to undertake relevant mental health assessment, collaborative care and relapse prevention planning, and evidence-based interventions to people with complex, moderate to severe mental health conditions and demonstrated good judgement about when to escalate a deterioration in a client’s condition.
2. Demonstrated ability to manage a caseload of people with complex mental health conditions, within and whilst utilising the multi-disciplinary team, and responding to unexpected clinical and operational demands that demonstrates good time management and problem solving.
3. Effective communication skills, an understanding of and willingness to participate in, research, quality improvement activities and clinical supervision. An ability or willingness to use electronic health records.
4. Demonstrated sound understanding of legislative and policy frameworks relevant to this position.
5. Demonstrates understanding of, and adherence to, safety and quality standards, work, health and safety (WH&S) and the positive patient experience. Displays behaviour consistent with CHS’s values of reliable, progressive, respectful and kind.

The following work environment description outlines the inherent requirements of the role and indicates how frequently each of these requirements would need to be performed. Please note that the ACT Public Service is committed to providing reasonable adjustments and ensuring all individuals have equal opportunities in the workplace.

Administrative	Frequency
Telephone use	Frequently
General computer use	Frequently
Extensive keying/data entry	Frequently
Graphical/analytical based	Occasionally
Sitting at a desk	Frequently
Standing for long periods	Occasionally

Travel	Frequency
Frequent travel – multiple work sites	Frequently
Frequent travel – driving	Frequently

Physical demands	Frequency
Distance walking (large buildings or inter-building transit)	Occasionally
Working outdoors	Occasionally

Psychosocial demands	Frequency
Distressed People e.g. Emergency or grief situations	Frequently
Aggressive & Uncooperative People e.g. drug / alcohol, dementia, mental illness	Frequently
Unpredictable People e.g. Dementia, mental illness, head injuries	Frequently
Restraining e.g. involvement in physical containment of clients/consumers	Never
Exposure to Distressing Situations e.g. Child abuse, viewing dead / mutilated bodies; verbal abuse; domestic violence; suicide	Occasionally

Specific hazards	Frequency
Working at heights	Never
Exposure to extreme temperatures	Occasionally
Operation of heavy machinery e.g. forklift	Never
Confined spaces	Never
Excessive noise	Never
Low lighting	Occasionally
Handling of dangerous goods/equipment e.g. gases; liquids; biological.	Never
Slippery or uneven surfaces	Occasionally

Manual handling	Frequency
Lifting 0 – 9kg	Occasionally
Lifting 10 – 15kg	Occasionally
Lifting 16kg+	Never
Climbing	Never
Running	Occasionally
Reaching	Occasionally
Kneeling	Occasionally
Foot and leg movement	Frequently
Hand, arm and grasping movements	Frequently
Bending/squatting	Occasionally
Bend/Lean Forward from Waist/Trunk twisting	Never
Push/pull	Occasionally
Sequential repetitive movements in a short amount of time	Occasionally