Consultant in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
City of Edinburgh CAMHS Team

Reference: CG2548

NHS Lothian is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best.

To this end, NHS Lothian welcomes applications from all sections of society.

Applications are welcome for the above Permanent, full time (40 hours per week) post based in Pennywell All Care Centre/Lauriston Building, Edinburgh.

Post Summary

• In collaboration with multidisciplinary team to provide a mental health service for children (0-18 age range) with mental health problems referred to Tier 3 services.
• To provide clinical supervision to higher and core trainees To participate in audit of the clinical services for which you work.
• To play a role in the implementation of Lothian’s Joint Strategy for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and the CAMHS development strategy.
• To provide reciprocal cover for medical colleagues during periods of annual, professional, or short-term sick leave.
• To undertake duties as an Approved Medical Practitioner under the terms of the Mental Health Care and Treatment (Scotland) Act 2003 To undertake duties for the wider service in accordance with agreed job plan
• Other duties arising from time to time in consultation with the Clinical Director and Clinical Service Manager.

Edinburgh Outpatient Teams
Our city is served by two outpatient teams, North and South Edinburgh and the successful applicant would be principally working with one of these. Our South Edinburgh CAMHS Outpatient Team are located at Lauriston Building in the centre of Edinburgh and our North Edinburgh CAMHS Outpatient Team are located at the purpose built Pennywell All Care Centre in the heart of the North Edinburgh community. Both have excellent public transport links, well established teams with dedicated clinical and meeting space.

Our Edinburgh teams function as truly multidisciplinary teams, the other senior clinicians are Clinical Psychologist Lead, Advanced Practitioner (nursing) and Occupational Therapy Team Lead. They provide a supportive and contained working environment with a positive ethos of cooperation. There are initiatives to reduce waiting times and we have made considerable progress with our mental health wait times. The teams organise regular CPD events and have a sociable and supportive culture. 

Our North Edinburgh community has a general population of 262,763 and 15% are aged 17 and under (39705).  Our South Edinburgh community has a general population of 268177 and 18% are aged 17 and under (47776).  Although a wealthy city, some areas experience significant disadvantage. To support and address heath inequalities, there are strong links with Social Work, Education, local GPs and the 3rd sector. We are developing these further with our new Tier 2 teams and with changes in our referral processes.

Referrals to the service are routinely triaged by an experienced small group of clinicians and then prioritised appropriately.  The presentations of the children and young people vary from mood, psychosis, eating and neurodevelopmental disorders. There is a weekly multidisciplinary team meeting where the expertise of the team is used to manage cases.  Care and treatment plans are formulation based. A number of therapies are provided including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Supportive Therapy, Pharmacotherapy and Family Work. Some clinicians have skills in disorder-based therapies such as Family Based Therapy for eating disorders. We have also developed Art Therapy and now have Speech and Language Therapists within our teams.

To support the model of stepped care and provide closer support to those children and young people who require a higher degree of intervention, intensive treatment or multi-professional risk management, the clinicians in our Edinburgh teams have direct access to the full range of NHS Lothian’s extensive CAMHS services in Tier 4 inpatient, Tier 4 outpatient including Unscheduled care and Specialist outpatient teams. 

For an informal discussion please contact:
Dr Nicky Cannon 0131 537 6364 or 07872421917
nicky.cannon@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk
Lisa Canale - CAMHS Clinical Service Manager
lisa.canale@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk

We cannot accept CV’s as a form of application and only a completed online application form will be accepted. Personal information will not be sent with the application for short listing. The application form will be identified by the candidate number only to ensure that all applicants are treated equally. 

Closing Date: 07/01/2023

***PLEASE NOTE: We cannot accept late applications so please ensure your application is submitted early***

Interview Date: 02/02/2023