Healthcare Assistant-Mental Health

The Healthcare Assistant is a member of the wider nursing team and appointed to support registered nurses in the assessment, planning and delivery of care to patients.- The role of observing and engaging children and young people during their stay in the general paediatric ward or Emergency department. This is about a therapeutic intervention that aims to promote the physical and psychological well-being of the patient during the admission.

• To engage with our paediatric mental health patients in our Emergency Department and on our acute paediatric ward (Ifor) to co-create care plans, safety plans (with assistance of the Paediatric Mental Health Team-PMHT) and engage with paediatric mental health patients to stay safe and work towards their admission goals.
• To promote the physical and psychological well-being of our patients, during their admission.
• To oversee the patient’s mental state and risk during their admission.
• To support the acute paediatric ward in the daily management of environmental needs relevant to paediatric MH admissions.
• De-escalation skills and the ability to maintain professionalism and compassion in acute settings is essential in this role.

Clinical Responsibilities-

To support the registered nurse/clinician in the implementation of an agreed plan of care with the patient.

To participate in in-service training programmes as required.

To engage with patients and be prepared to initiative activities, promote appropriate structure to meet their basic emotional and physical needs.

To assist the patient to ensure they meet their dietary requirements.

To act, in collaboration with the registered nurse, as an allocated nurse to a patient.

Additional Duties:
The role will also entail supporting the PMHT more widely, across their acute pathway. This would mean participating fully in the expected role as an HCA, under the supervision of the Clinical Nurse Specialist.

Personal Responsibilities:
Accept regular supervision from a named supervisor and with that person, agree on as structured programme of supervision tailored to your work needs and those of the Acute Paediatric environment.

To undertake roles and responsibilities as outlined in the Knowledge Skills Framework

We have an excellent reputation for being innovative, responsive and flexible to the changing clinical needs of the local population. We are treating more patients than ever before and are dedicated to improving services to deliver the best for our patients.

Our mission
Helping local people live longer, healthier lives.

Our vision
Provide safe, personal, co-ordinated care for the community we serve.

Our goals
We have developed six key strategic goals to make sure we continue to support people to live longer, healthier lives.

• To secure the best possible health and wellbeing for all our community
• To integrate and coordinate care in person-centred teams
• To deliver consistent, high quality, safe services
• To support our patients and users in being active partners in their care
• To be recognised as a leader in the fields of medical and multi-professional education, and population-based clinical research
• To innovate and continuously improve the quality of our services to deliver the best outcomes for our local population
• To take responsibility for continually reviewing the patients mental state and risk, with regular handover to colleges within the multi-disciplinary team.
• To devise and amend care plans that are participative, therapeutic and enhance the patients experience in the General Hospital setting. This will be in consultation with the multi-disciplinary team and person-centred.
• To proactively manage distress, conflict and aggression through de-escalation and physical intervention.
• Supporting the General Paediatric Team in attending to the basic physical care needs of children and young people.
• Supporting the admission, transfer and discharge of patients within the Hospital in accordance with local guidelines and standards.
• To create and maintain good liaison with patient, families the multi-disciplinary team and other professionals involved in the care of the young person; giving advice and support as needed.
• To ensure that all incidents involving patients or staff are reported and recorded in accordance with agreed policies. To assist in investigations and recommend possible preventative measures.

To participate in maintaining a safe environment in accordance with the policies and procedures of the Unit and Whittington NHS Trust.

To meet the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act and the NMC Code of Conduct and Practice.

To participate in all mandatory trainings as designated by the Team and Trust.

To seek support if uncertain about delegated duties.