Company: NHS
Location: Eastbourne
Posted: May 8th, 2026
We have an exciting opportunity for an SAS psychiatrist to join the Eastbourne Crisis and Home Resolution Team (CRHTT) and the Haven in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
The Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) provides a 7 day per week service to people experiencing an acute psychiatric crisis. The team provides an alternative to acute hospital treatment by offering intensive community-based interventions and gatekeeping all potential hospital admissions. Where a hospital admission does occur, CRHTT can assist in shortening the inpatient stay by facilitating supportive discharge back to the community.
The post also provides medical input to the Haven. The Haven is a 4-chaired, nurse-led, community-based mental health crisis service designed to provide rapid assessment (up to 24hrs) and short-term support for individuals experiencing acute mental health distress.
Both CRHTT and the Haven are based within the Department of Psychiatry in Eastbourne, on the site of Eastbourne District General Hospital.
Provide specialist psychiatric assessment, treatment and aftercare services to patients in crisis, aged 18 and above, who have been referred to CRHTT.
Participate in a daily CRHTT meeting.
Perform urgent assessments of new referrals to CRHTT, diagnosing and formulating crisis management plans and risk assessments.
Provide follow up appointments with patients under CRHTT care to review treatment plans. The post-holder will offer advice on treatment and risk management to other team members.
Provide clinical leadership to any resident doctors within the team.
Participate in planning and developing local Mental Health Services in line with the CDS aims and to contribute constructively to improving the standards of mental health care offered by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Have s12(2) approval and participate when needed in Mental Health Act assessments of patients on the team's caseload.
Take a clinical leadership role in the team.
Ensure regular medical reviews of patients with extended stays at the Haven.
Ensure Haven patients who have been identified by the nursing team as needing medical input are assessed and treated appropriately.
The post-holder will not normally be expected to be approved as a Responsible Clinician.
The post-holder will provide high-quality psychiatric care as part of the Eastbourne Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) and The Haven to support the clinical delivery of the service. This vacancy has arisen due to the previous post-holder moving to another post within the NHS, and the Trust sees this as a valuable opportunity for a Specialty Doctor to contribute meaningfully to the team's ongoing development.
This post adds to the medical establishment of the team providing a minimum of one whole time equivalent (WTE) consultant psychiatrist and one WTE SAS grade doctor for Eastbourne CRHT and Haven.
The post-holder will have a 9 PAs of direct clinical contact and a minimum of 1 PA of SPA time.
CRHTT typically receives around 25 new referrals weekly, including assessments for service users who are referred by their GP via the agreed 4-hour urgent referral pathway. CRHTT provide a gatekeeping function for all adult acute inpatient requests to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, ensuring that the least restrictive principles of care and treatment are achieved.
CRHTTs have a zoning system in place. This Red, Amber and Green (RAG) system is used to reflect assessed risk and associated intensity of CRHTT contact. All patients will be in the Red Zone for the first 72 hours and seen by qualified and senior staff. Those patients who are considered complex either by individual clinicians and/or raised during the handover are to be escalated immediately to medical staff.
The post-holder is expected to be present for weekly MDT meetings and weekly complex case discussions. They will also be available at short notice to review patients, respond to emergencies and provide advice to other team members. The consultant psychiatrist will be expected to undertake home visits to assess and follow up patients as part of their role. They will not carry their own case load or be required to act as care co-ordinator or key worker.
The post-holder is expected to collaborate with the wider MDT in overseeing risk assessment and formulation; approving key management decisions (e.g. discharge, medication changes, escalation to inpatient care); and ensuring that risk management plans are appropriate and effective.
The post-holder will assess and treat Haven patients who have been identified by the nursing team as needing medical input. As the Haven is a nurse-led unit, it is expected that the post-holder will work collaboratively with the nursing team.
In addition, the post-holder will be expected to review any Extended Length of Stay Patients who have been in the Haven for over 24 hours and provide the necessary physical health assessment, VTE assessment and a formal drug chart.
The post-holder will work closely with other Sussex Partnership teams, including:
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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