Mental Health Nurse Consultancy service

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Alex is available for mental health nurse consultancy services on all aspects of the care and treatment of children, adolescents and young adults (up to 25) who have complex and enduring mental health needs. 

This could be for a child, or a young adult, who is receiving care from a service such as a care agency, hospital, residential home or independent living service. 

Often this would be an option for when there are a number of challenges in being able to deliver safe, effective care to the child or young person- who might be having difficulties "engaging" with treatment or presenting with high levels of risk of harm. 

Alex is experienced in risk management and is also an expert witness in mental health nursing, which involves advising the Courts on the standards of care  in relation to clinical negligence claims. 

Alex will review current care plans and safety plans etc. and advise on enhancing them. This is ideally done collaboratively with the client and their carers or family, as collaborative risk management plans hold more benefit than safety plans completed in isolation to the wider network. 

Alex has spent the past couple of years working as an Expert Witness in mental health nursing. Her role includes assisting the Courts in reaching conclusions in clinical negligence cases whereby the standards of psychiatric care are under a high level of legal scrutiny. Drawing upon her experience in this unique field, Alex is available for teaching sessions on the importance of robust documentation and defensible practice, whilst knowing firsthand the pressures faced by frontline mental health professionals. She is also avauilable to speak at events and conferences. 

Alex offers reflective supervision as means of facilitating a space for professionals to reflect upon their practice. This is a confidential service and agreements would be made on frequency and the specifics of how the supervisee would like the sessions to work. Alex also offers group reflective supervision. This might be as a one-off, in response to a serious incident or as an ongoing provision for staff who are caring for a child or young adult with complex mental health needs. 

Alex is able to support with relations between services, particularly when there are serious challenges being faced and a high-risk client is involved with these teams. Alex brings all of her experience of networking and coordinating care, her systemic practice skills, her awareness of system structure in the health and social care sector, her highly proficient skills in communicating and her strong nursing values to the mix. Alex is very knowledgeable on national clinical guidelines and standards in mental health, based on her experience in the medico-legal field.