Clinical Co-ordinator, Social Worker, Senior Medical

Location of Post

Mental Health Services, Community Healthcare Sligo/Leitrim

There is currently one permanent whole-time vacancy available. The base location is First Floor, Nazareth House, CAMHS Service, Church Hill, Sligo.

A panel may be formed as a result of this campaign for Clinical Co-ordinator, CAMHS from which current and future, permanent and specified purpose vacancies of full or part-time duration may be filled.

Informal Enquiries

Dr. Nneka Kalu

Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist.

CAMHS CHO1

Nazareth House,

Church Hill, Sligo.

Tel: 071 9113960

NNeka.Kalu@hse.ie

Details of Service

The Sláintecare Report (2017) and Sláintecare Implementation Strategy (2018) signal a new direction for the delivery of health and social care services in Ireland with the potential to create a far more sustainable, equitable, cost effective system and one that delivers better value for patients and service users. At its core, the strategy focuses on establishing programmes of work to move to a community-led model, providing local populations with access to a comprehensive range of non-acute services at every stage of their lives. This will enable our healthcare system to provide care closer to home for patients and service users, to be more responsive to needs and deliver better outcomes, with a strong focus on prevention and population health improvement.

Sláintecare positions Community Healthcare Networks (CHNs) as the ‘fundamental unit of organisation for the delivery of services’ in the community. CHNs are geographically-based units delivering services to an average population of 50,000. The implementation of CHNs will see a co-ordinated multi-disciplinary approach to care provision, providing better outcomes for people requiring services and supports both within and across networks.

The development of CHNs is a critical step in transforming our healthcare system and will enable real change that will be experienced by all who use our services and work in the HSE.

Following on from the “Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs) – Report and Recommendations of the Integrated Service Area Review Group” (October 2014) 9 Community Healthcare Organisations (CHO) were established.

The Health Service National Service Plan outlines the resource and performance accountability framework within which resources will be provided in. It set out the means by which the National Divisions, Hospital Groups and Community Healthcare Organisations (CHOs), are held to account for their performance in relation to access to services, the quality and safety of those services within the financial resources available and effectively harnessing the efforts of the overall workforce.

The CHO Delivery Plans are prepared consistent with this framework and in line with related national policies, frameworks, performance targets, standards & resources. It sets out the type and volume of services which will be provided directly or through a range of agencies funded by us, and the actions which we will take to deliver on the goals of the HSE Corporate Plan.

Each CHO has a Head of Mental Health Services and the Mental Health Services are organised on a geographical basis, with Community Mental Health Teams providing most of the support to people in local areas (typically one or two teams for approximately 50,000 population).

There are community mental health teams specifically for people under 18 and those over 65, as well as those with particular needs such as intellectual disabilities, with the majority or teams providing supports to the rest of the population. There are also in-patients units, typically attached to general hospitals, and there is usually one unit for approximately 300,000 population.

The community mental health teams work closely with the in-patient units. Community Mental Health Teams are multi-disciplinary and are the main instrument in delivering community based mental health supports.

CAMHS provides specialist multidisciplinary assessment and intervention for children and young people under 18 years presenting with moderate to severe mental health difficulties. The Clinical Co-ordinator post will support the safe and effective functioning of the CAMHS team through coordinated referral management, waiting-list oversight, multidisciplinary liaison, clinical governance processes and service-development activity.

Since 2017 the HSE has in place as part of its National Service Planning ‘Area leads for Engagement and Recovery in all 9 CHOs and it now wishes to expand this service to the national Forensic service and its outreach services.

This is a key operational and clinical coordination post within CAMHS, supporting referral management, waiting-list oversight, multidisciplinary team working, governance processes and service development across the relevant service area.