Specialist Mental Health Dietitian - London, United Kingdom - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

5 days ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

Are you Dietitian who has a passion for providing excellence in the nutritional and dietetic care and who would like to specialise in mental health Dietetics? If yes, we would love to hear from you

In this role all service users have a mental health diagnosis.

And Nutrition and Dietetic Services provide dietary treatment to support the prevention and management of physical health conditions and to promote recovery of mental wellness.

Career Progression pathways and development opportunities:
We are committed to getting the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations.

We offer ongoing training and development in all areas of mental health via regular supervision, annual appraisal and agreeing a personal development programme.

This includes attendance at internal and external courses, professional team meetings and shadowing of colleagues.

The post includes inpatient and outpatient clinic work with dietetic assessments and reviews offered both virtually and in-person. This role provides dietetic care to young people, adults and older adult service users.

The remit will include working in Southwark and Lambeth on inpatient wards, leading the outpatient dietetic clinic for these boroughs and providing a service to Greenvale Special Care Unit for older adults in the community.

There is opportunity to work on National and Specialist units within the trust in order to develop the post holders areas of interest and / or to carry out quality improvement projects and / or research.

Referrals are mostly for under-nutrition, underweight and re-feeding syndrome, including tube feeding and over-nutrition and metabolic syndrome linked to mental ill health and psychiatric medications, especially antipsychotics.

Also, food allergies / food intolerances, gut issues and specific food likes and dislikes resulting in fewer foods eaten with risk of nutritional deficiencies are common.

The post requires the ability to work safely, effectively, and cordially with individuals and groups.

To be flexible, to manage own caseload as well as to provide cover for colleagues in their absence and/or to cover vacancies along with the wider team.

Professionalism and excellent communication skills, including use of motivational interviewing techniques to help support behavioural change are key.

The team comprises 16 Dietitians and one Dietetic Administrator and is growing. The dietitians have specialised in mental health dietetics and/or eating disorders. We are a welcoming and friendly team, who are supportive of one another and our MDT colleagues.

We work collaboratively and innovatively, building upon the evidence base to advance dietetic practice within mental health, striving to always be at the fore front of mental health dietetics and to provide excellence in dietetic care.

Our dietetic offices are located at the Bethlem Royal Hospital and Maudsley Hospitals.

Our core values are in keeping with the trusts five commitments being:1. to be caring, kind and polite

2. to be prompt and value your time

3. to take time and listen to you

4. to be honest and direct with you

5. to do what I say I'm going to do

Flexible working:

The trust offers flexible working as part of our way of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage.

In this role you will be able to work Monday to Friday in the time frames from 7am to 7pm, giving you the very best of good work life balance.

The majority of time spent in this role requires in-person working on site.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities and requirements

Overall Job Purpose and responsibilities include:

To provide a kind, caring and responsive, evidence-based clinical nutrition and dietetics service to young people, adults and older adult service users, who have a mental health diagnosis, on inpatient wards, a special care unit and dietetic clinic in outpatients.

To be an integral part of the multidisciplinary team, representing and advocating for excellence in nutrition and dietetic care for all service users within the clinical remit.

Support the service by providing nutrition knowledge, dietary advice and training for staff from a variety of other disciplines, which is sound, evidence based and up to date.

Raise awareness, understanding and effective implementation of the trust nutrition policy.

To support the development, knowledge and use of the menus, which provide nutrition and hydration within the clinical remit together with the trust lead catering dietitian and trust stakeholders.

To deliver and develop together with dietetic colleagues a well-established weight management programme for service users living in the community.

To evaluate and develop dietetic care pathways, integrating, and adding to the latest evidence base, providing excellence, and advancing nutrition and dietetic care.

Personal Specification:
Essential Requirements