Consultant in Psychiatry of Intellectual Disabilities

We are seeking to appoint a substantive Consultant Psychiatrist within the Croydon Mental Health Learning Disabilities Team for 5 PAs per week. The is a new post; created to meet local service needs. This is one of two consultant posts in the team.

Croydon MHLD is part of the operational directorate of Psychological Medicine and Older Adults at the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust - the largest mental health trust in the UK.

The post holder will have a designated office in Monks Orchard House at Bethlem Royal Hospital, with access to a trust networked computer and dedicated administrative staff. A laptop for remote working and trust mobile phone will be provided.

Croydon MHLD is a specialist community mental health team for adults with a confirmed diagnosis of learning disability. It has a total caseload ranging between 115 and 125 patients. The service delivers patient contact in multiple modalities, including outpatient clinics, remote virtual consultations as well as community and home visits. The team has strong links with local children and adult mental health services as well as Croydon University Hospital.

Key Responsibilities

• To provide expert assessment of mental health in people with learning disabilities.
• To provide patients, referrers and carers with diagnostic and management advice;
• To promote and develop best practice in the management of adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems, locally, regionally and nationally;
• To make contemporaneous clinical notes on the electronic patient record system employed by the Trust and adhere to Trust/service requirements
• To lead the MDT in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating treatment options, including liaison with the patient, carers and the wider multi-disciplinary team;
• To appropriately escalate patients ‘at risk’ to the Dynamic Support Register, which is led by the local Integrated Care Board.
• To facilitate admission and discharge pathways of patients with learning disabilities who require mental health admission, either into adult mental health wards or into specialist inpatient services, working with the MDT, patients, carers, referrers and commissioners to ensure effective processes and good communication;
• To facilitate liaison with relevant external agencies as appropriate, including with mainstream community mental health services and other specialist services,
• To participate in on-going education, training and research.
• To undertake mandatory training, annual job planning and annual NHS Appraisal as required by the Trust.

MHLD works in partnership with the Community Learning Disability Team (CLDT), an integrated health and social care team within Croydon Health Services, where there is joint up working on a foundation of strong inter-team relationships with clinical psychology, behaviour specialists, community nursing, acute liaison nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists.

Where necessary, MHLD services admit to general adult mental health inpatient wards, in line with ‘Valuing People’, and work to support adult mental health in achieving the purposeful and appropriate hospital admissions, excellence in aspects of care related to intellectual disability, and well-coordinated discharge pathways to ensure safe transition to community and ongoing management which minimises the risk of re-admission to hospital.

Team Composition

• Consultant Psychiatrist 0.8 WTE
• Consultant Psychiatrist 0.6 WTE (this post)
• 1 WTE Core Trainee (CT1 – 3)
• 2 WTE Community Psychiatric Nurses (Band 6)
• 1 WTE Team Leader (Band 7)
• 2 WTE Administrators (Band 4)
• 1 WTE Peer Support Worker (IST) - Croydon University Health
• 1 WTE Transforming Care Nurse (IST) – Croydon University Hospital
• For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Dr Saadia Arshad Job title: Associate Medical Director Email address: Saadia.Arshad@slam.nhs.uk