SOUTH WESTERN DEANERY - South West Peninsula Deanery

POST:
TRAINER:
SUPERVISOR:
EMPLOYING TRUST:
OPMH Inpatient/Medical Management Torbay ST4-6
Dr David Somerfield
Dr David Somerfield, Consultant Psychiatrist and Co-Medical Director
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Inpatient work
Beech is a 14 bedded OPMH functional ward at Torbay Hospital, Torquay, Devon. The ward is the primary
admission unit for the whole of Torbay and South and West Devon and relates to 4 OPMH CMHTs. The ward
works closely with the all adult Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment team and the younger adult ward and
the all adult psychiatric liaison service on the same site. The low number of beds for the local population means
there is the challenge of rapid assessment and management of mental illness and working closely with the
community teams and home treatment to facilitate discharges as safely and as soon as possible. The ward has
support from a CT1 or GPVTS.
The post holder will gain supervised experience of the assessment and management of acute and complex
psychiatric illness in older people, risk management, recovery orientated practice, working across health/social
care/third sector boundaries and the use of the Mental Health Act in this population.
Recovery based practice
The ward has a strong recovery ethos with patients contributing and taking control of planning their care with a
weekly ‘Planning My Recovery’ meeting rather than attending traditional ward rounds. Patients are
encouraged to attend and contribute throughout the whole meeting to review how they have been over the
week and in their care planning for the forthcoming week with a small representation from the
multidisciplinary team. Care plans are reviewed ‘live’ on RiO and they are given a copy of their agreed care
plans and other pertinent information e.g. medicines information at the meeting.
OPMH Community, liaison and/or Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment additional experience is also available
if this is required as part of identified developmental need.
Educational
There is a monthly 3 hour post graduate educational meeting and weekly teaching sessions organised by and
with the local trainees
Medical Management
There are opportunities to undertake supervised management projects, shadow senior managers and attend
key quality and financial governance, commissioning and other meetings to help gain an understanding of
medical, service and budgetary management. Torbay has a nationally renowned healthcare system and the
post holder will be encouraged to spend time in different parts of the local healthcare system to understand its
philosophy and key components.
Project opportunities
Torbay has just been awarded £255,000 from the Prime Ministers Dementia Challenge Fund for the
development and implementation of an innovative dementia care home education package and the post
holder will be welcome to participate and help lead the project with the guidance of the educational
supervisor.
We are currently planning and writing the script for the fourth carer DVD. This film is for paid carers of people
with dementia in residential and hospital care and is a joint venture between several health and social care
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