Consultant Psychiatrist in Intellectual Disability

Job summary

The Trust is seeking to recruit a fixed term locum consultant psychiatrist to work in Intellectual Disability, West Kent MHLD Team based at Britton House, Gillingham.

The MHLD service comprises two teams covering West and East Kent. The post holder will work within the West Kent MHLD Team. Within the teams each Consultant Psychiatrist is primarily focused on one smaller catchment area within it, in this case Medway. This catchment area includes the towns of Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham, Strood and Rainham.

The West Kent Team has psychiatrists, nurses, and psychologists as part of its tri-disciplinary team. The Mental Health of Learning Disability team works closely with the Community Learning Disability Team (CLDT) which is part of the Kent Community Health Foundation Trust (KCHFT) and which includes other professionals such occupational therapists and speech and language therapists.

MHLD Clinicians based at Britton House, Gillingham, are part of the West Kent MHLD Team and referrals hub. The Consultant for Medway will have approximately 50-60 patients in total under their Consultant responsibility. Some of these will be on the case list of the supporting doctor. There are approximately 2-3 new referrals from Medway per week on average. The Consultant will do 2-3 outpatient clinics weekly averaging about 12 patient contacts in total /weekly.

The operating hours are Monday - Friday 0900 - 1700.

The post-holder will carry no responsibility for inpatients.

Main duties of the job

• The Post holder will manage patients' care in the community and this will be in close liaison with other members of the MHLD team, colleagues from adult services, children and adolescents' teams, older persons services, other specialist mental health services and the community learning disability teams (CLDTS). Care will be delivered mainly through out-patient assessments and domiciliary visits.

  o The post holder will be expected to liaise with other Consultant colleagues in MHLD regarding cover during periods of leave or absences. Access to mentoring will be arranged following successful interview.

  o The postholder would be expected usually to attend the weekly West Kent Hub meeting at which new referrals and priority cases from across West Kent are discussed. The West Kent MHLD team receives approximately 10-11 referrals per week in total.

  o The postholder will directly assess some new referrals agreed to be most appropriate for a psychiatrist for initial assessment and also provide psychiatric advice and consultation as necessary to other team members regarding cases they have assessed and reviewed.

  o The postholder will contribute to the clinical leadership of the team.

  o The postholder will be involved in inpatient admissions of community patients whenever necessary including the use of the Mental Health Act.

About us

We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.

Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.

Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's working well together.