Mental Health Practitioner. Meet the Primary Care Workforce: Lin Irwin.

Meet Lin, a Mental Health Practitioner at the University Medical Centre in Canterbury, Kent. Lin moved from Secondary Care to Primary Care and feels really well supported by the multi-professional team at the practice.
Transcript:
I am Lin Irwin, a Primary Care Mental Health Practitioner for the student service at the University Medical Centre in Canterbury, Kent.
What is your career journey?
I started my training in 1995 at Canterbury Christ Church University and completed a 3-year diploma in Mental Health Nursing. Then I completed my degree and started working in an inpatient unit. After 4 years, I began working as a Community Psychiatric Nurse and then moved into Primary Care.
What motivated you to work in Primary Care?
Primary Care was a promotion and a new opportunity for me. I was working in Secondary Care mental health and Primary Care mental health was quite new at the time and this was an opportunity to come and establish a new service in Kent.
What does your role entail?
Mostly I do mental health assessment work, looking for symptoms of poor mental health and early intervention for more severe mental illnesses and I am very involved in helping people manage their symptoms and navigate mental health services. I also support GPs with prescribing and helping the patients with their treatment and any side effects. Ultimately we support the student population; we want them to stay in university and stay well so they can continue with their studies and ensure there is an accessible service for them.
How does your role benefit the practice and patients?
It is a specialist service, we are all experienced Mental Health Practitioners, so the students get a good mental health assessment and are able to navigate the right treatment path. We support the GPs, as we have more time to look after people, consider different options and see patients for longer to reach the right diagnosis.
How well supported are you at your practice?
I am really well supported. We work well as a multi-disciplinary team - the admin team, Partners, GPs, Nurses, we all support and look after each other.
What are your career plans in the future?
I have just started the Advanced Clinical Skills course, in preparation to do my Non-Medical Prescribing. This will be helpful for the service because our Psychiatrist doesn't work here full time, so to have another prescriber within the team will be great.
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