Nexventur is working closely with a leading children’s hospital in Melbourne that has been providing outstanding care for the children’s of Victoria and their families for the past 150 years. The hospital is a major specialists paediatric hospital in Victoria and care extends to children from Tasmania, New South Wales, across Australia and overseas.

With a passionate, highly skilled and committed staff campus wide of close to 4,000, they provide a full range of clinical services, tertiary care and health promotion and prevention programs for children and young people.

The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System recommended family therapy be increasingly used in Level 5 tertiary Infant, Child and Family Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Services and the successful applicants will be a key part of implementing this recommendation.

These are new ongoing positions to introduce dedicated family therapists into each of the three case managed community teams. These vital roles will provide family therapy to infants, children and young people and their families who are receiving treatment, care and support in one of the three teams. While the Mental Health Service already employs a small number of family therapists, this is the first time that dedicated family therapists are introduced into the case managed teams to provide family therapy.

The Mental Health Service is also recruiting for a Discipline Senior in Family Therapy that would provide discipline specific clinical supervision. The Family Therapist will be a highly valued member of the team and will form close working relationships with Team Coordinator and the new Discipline Senior for Family Therapy.

The Mental Health Service is undergoing an exciting transformation and expansion as we implement the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. The transformation will allow the Mental Health Service to help more infants and children and their families and implement contemporary models of care that best meet the needs of the families we serve and support them to use their collective strengths for recovery and hope.

Mental Health is a Level 5 tertiary Infant, Child and Family Area Mental Health and Wellbeing Service and comprises community and hospital-based services. This includes an Intake and Assessment Team based at Parkville and three interdisciplinary outpatient teams located at Travancore, Sunshine and Hoppers Crossing. The Community teams are led by a partnership between a Team Coordinator and a Consultant Psychiatrist, with the Team Coordinator responsible for the operational functioning of the team, and the Consultant Psychiatrist accountable for driving high quality clinical care across the Team.

Flexible work options will be made available, as well as a range of other staff wellbeing initiatives and learning and development opportunities. Sponsorship and relocation packages are available to the right candidates.

This role may require professional registration with the Australian Health Practitioner Agency (AHPRA)  https://www.ahpra.gov.au/

Role and responsibilities

• Provide leadership through modelling a high standard of professional and interpersonal skills, attitudes and behaviours
• Purposeful and expert clinical skills in delivering family therapy
• Purposefully and expertly engage children, young people and their families in recovery focused care
• Provision of single-session family consultation
• Participate in secondary-consultation both internally (with other MDT staff) and externally as appropriate
• Provide brief and longer term interventions to support families in their role as carers
• Run team reflective practice sessions where appropriate
• Provide supervision to junior members of the team
• Participate in the running of group sessions for families, as well as parenting programs where necessary
• Provide crisis appointments for families in crisis when it is clear that the family dynamic a core factor in crisis presentation
• Undertake and/or support continuous quality improvement and evaluation activities (as required for learning innovations for best practice care)
• Undertake discipline specific functions and work collaboratively with other clinical disciplines within the team to provide high quality inter-disciplinary care. This may involve shared care of cases with more junior staff for modelling and guidance.
• Complete mandatory client contacts, outcome measures and report activity levels (statistics) to support team/s meeting KPI obligations
• Complete accurate, timely and professional clinical record keeping and documentation.
• To maintain accurate records of client contact through EMR and record contact hours through RAPID
• Actively participate in all forms of supervision (operational, professional and clinical)
• Work within legal and ethical obligations for excellent family focussed care.
• Work with colleagues to advance mental health promotion and prevention in the region
• Demonstrate awareness and understanding of the principles of a family-focused and recovery-oriented clinical practice that is underlined by the experience and involvement of service users
• Demonstrate a commitment to culturally safe and sensitive service provision

Qualifications and experience

• Masters of Clinical Family Therapy and clinical membership of the Australian Association of Family Therapy
• Current Registration as an Occupational Therapist, Psychologist or Registered Nurse with the applicable Health Practitioner Board or a qualified Social Worker or Speech Pathologist. For Psychologists, this means clinical psychology. neuropsychologists and educational and developmental psychologists with a Masters in Family Therapy also considered.
• Eligibility for Membership in Victoria with the appropriate Professional Body
• Experience in providing quality clinical/professional supervision to staff and students
• Depending on discipline, required years of experience in accordance with the EBA will apply
• For Psychology Applicants only:
• APAC approved masters level postgraduate training in clinical psychology
• Continuously satisfy the PBA continuing professional development standards
• Uphold the PBA Code of Ethics
• For Nurse applicants only:
• Holds a post graduate diploma in psychiatric/mental health nursing qualification or having completed a specialist undergraduate psychiatric nursing program
• For Social Work applicants only:
• Eligibility for membership of AASW
• Meet AASW accreditation standards for Continuing Professional Education
• Uphold the AASW Code of Ethics
• For Occupational Therapist applicants only:
• Uphold the OTA Code of Ethics
• For Speech Pathologist applicants only:
• Meet the requirements of Professional Self Regulation program
• Uphold the SPA Code of Ethics
• Desirable:
• Demonstrated skills, knowledge and behaviours in successfully leading change initiatives
• Completion of the Developmental Psychiatry Course (DPC) and/or post graduate training in relevant area
• For Psychology applicants only:
• Hold current Board Approval as a Supervisor (“postgraduate student” and “registrar program”) with the Psychology Board of Australia
• Other requirements:
• Employees are required to undertake a National Criminal Record Check and a Working with Children Check prior to commencing employment
• Employees are required to maintain a valid Working with Children’s Check throughout their employment
• A current, full driver’s licence for the State of Victoria which is appropriate for the type of vehicle being driven, and comply with any restrictions on their licence (e.g. wearing glasses) while undertaking hospital duties (If applicable)
• Employees are required to maintain compliance with the hospita's “Staff Immunisation - Prevention of Vaccine Preventable Diseases” procedure.

Selection Criteria

• Demonstrated clinical skills and significant experience in the provision of family therapy for infants, children and young people and their families
• Demonstrated ability to practice autonomously, as well as within an interdisciplinary team
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to maximise service coordination and cooperation as well as capacity building with community agencies
• Demonstrated interest or experience in quality improvement and program evaluation
• A commitment and evidence of evidence based practice and continuing professional development including an ability to find and apply evidence in decision-making
• Highly developed written and verbal communication skills and inter-personal skills
• Demonstrated awareness and understanding of legal obligations when working in a CAMHS context in Victoria
• A flexible and adaptable approach to functioning in a team environment that enhances the team’s high performance