The Mental Health Liaison Team

The Mental Health Liaison Team provides a comprehensive service to patients/service users, carers, and clinical colleagues based within The Great Western Hospital.

The Team is made up of Specialist Practitioners who are skilled in assessing the mental health needs of people being treated for physical health problems and symptoms.

The Role Involves

• Offering an assessment service to older adults usually aged over 65 years old, although this is not definitive as it will be specific to the patient's individual needs, with a range of undifferentiated mental health and psychological problems, and psychiatric illnesses, including dementia.
• Utilising physical health knowledge in order to support formulation and treatment.
• Providing a mental health consultation liaison and advice service.
• Assisting and supporting general hospital colleagues in making decisions about treatment and care in complex situations.
• Providing formal and informal education and clinical supervision to registered and unregistered staff.
• Representing mental health services within the General Hospital.
• Providing a communication structure between the general hospital, secondary mental health services, primary care, and non-statutory services, as a means of ensuring the highest possible standards of patient care.

Liaison and Consultation

• Be responsible for the full assessment of care needs of patients presenting with a range of undifferentiated mental health and psychological problems. As a result of this assessment, you will be responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of programmes of care, without direct supervision.
• Provide a comprehensive consultation-liaison service to clinical teams, assisting them to formulate appropriate plans of care and make decisions in cases where patients may be exhibiting complex needs and/or challenging behaviours.
• Initiate and participate in the teaching and educational programmes of all grades of nursing and non-nursing staff. You will also provide teaching and develop learning opportunities for pre and post-registration nursing students.
• When appropriate, maintain a small caseload of patients, providing a broad range of treatments and clinical interventions, as appropriate to the individual’s needs.
• Be responsible for participating in specific clinical projects and undertake all the necessary work to complete these, including facilitating meetings, liaising, and/or negotiating with other staff.
• Participate fully in appropriate quality assurance initiatives, with the emphasis on developing patient/service user-focused services.
• Promote a positive attitude and encourage a supportive culture in relation to mental health and psychiatric illness across the general hospital.