MHAS is a nurse led team operating over two sites providing a 24/7 service at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH) and an out of hours service at Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE).
The team provides a specialist mental health assessment for individuals in crisis who need to be seen urgently. Not all crisis referrals involve mental health problems which require specialist psychiatric help. Direction to other more appropriate agencies can follow assessment.
As a member of the team you will undertake assessments of members of the public in crisis who self-present or are brought in by the Police. On the basis of these assessments you will determine the best route to support for the individual which could be a hospital admission, being seen by the Intensive Home Treatment Team, referral onto their sector community team or sign posting to third sector services.
Part of this role is to offer appropriate mental health related advice, which will include solution focussed therapy and coping strategy enhancement as well as other more general lifestyle advice.
In addition to undertaking face to face assessments, you will also offer telephone advice to GPs, undertake telephone triage assessments of individuals with the police who may have acute mental health problems, and provide telephone support to a wide range of mental health service users across Edinburgh.
Initially you will be working on a shift with up to two other nurses. Once you have gained sufficient experience, you will also be working alone as the only MHAS nurse out of hours at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh A&E Department. MHAS is a 24 hour service, and there is an expectation that you will work core shifts covering days, nights, weekends and public holidays.
