West London Arts Therapist

Job description

Job responsibilities

job Title:West London Arts Therapist

Team/Directorate:Family Support Service

Salary range/pay band:£38,782 - £47,374(salary based on 37.5 hours)

Reports to:Lead Therapist

Direct reports:N/A

Hours:30 - 37.5 hours per week

Location:Shooting Star House (base) and community-based work in West London.

Job holder:New role

Part 1: Job Profile

a) Main purpose of job

The post holder will provide high quality Music, Art or Dramatherapy to appropriate life-limited children and families accessing Shooting Star Childrens Hospices (SSCH), including the Specialist Bereavement Service.

This is a new, community-based Arts Therapy post for West London and has been created to enhance access, enabling those not previously able to utilise services to receive needed interventions.

Therapy work addresses the psychological challenges associated with life-limiting conditions issues of loss and grief, including the sudden and unexpected death of a child. The post holder will have a diverse caseload, and provide assessment, individual and group therapy programs with designated children and/or family members, alongside providing advice, workshops, signposting, supervision and support to families, staff, schools and other professionals.

b) Scope of job

As part of our Family Support Service, psychological therapy assessments are offered to life-limited children, young people, siblings (including adult siblings), parents and grandparents. Assessments are often offered to bereaved siblings, parents and grandparents. Depending on the outcome of the assessment, where appropriate, series of sessions/support are put in place.

Therapy sessions are predominantly offered to children, provided both individually, in groups and workshops. Programs may consist of dyadic or family sessions. Parent consultations can be offered to provide psychoeducation to those not accessing therapy.

Risk assessments, consultations, assessments and sessions for children and families may take place virtually or in-person. The post-holder will travel to hubs, family homes and hospitals (predominantly in West London). This includes the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Westminster, and theRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Equipment will be provided to enhance the provision of therapy within the community.

The post holder will be working closely with the West London Family Support Worker(s), and West London Counsellors to seek ways to work in the heart of communities, build networks, understand need and help shape services appropriately.

The post holder contributes to the continual multi-disciplinary assessment of families needs, as well as the provision of support, signposting, information sharing, developing resources and groups and events for children and families.

The postholder is responsible for ensuring and enhancing the quality, safety and effectiveness of psychological support offered to SSCH children and families. This involves continually developing professional knowledge and skills to respond to evolving needs within childrens palliative care.

The post holder will be given key objectives as part of an annual appraisal, with initiatives to lead

and develop in line with SSCH strategy, updating the leadership team appropriately.

Part 2: Main duties and key responsibilities

a) To plan and implement individual, joint, family and group therapy sessions safely and effectively

To plan and implement arts therapy sessions safely and effectively:

To risk assess, identify clinical need, and determine the appropriateness of arts therapy interventions for children and family members referred for therapeutic support.

Complete comprehensive assessments of children and families referred for therapy. To risk assess, identify clinical need, and determine the appropriateness of a therapy intervention.

Provide individual, family and group therapy, working within the defined parameters of the various SSCH therapy agreements and guidelines.

Utilise creativity and the arts to support a child and family in accessing therapeutic support that meets their psychological need, and to offer opportunity for development and growth.

Create safe and conducive spaces to work within different settings to enable the therapy process.

Provide urgent psychological care to individuals experiencing acute symptoms, creating safety plans that include signposting, communication with appropriate professionals, individualised strategies and safeguarding utilising the SSCH mental health escalation pathway.

Identify suicidal ideation and assess risk (in collaboration with appropriate members of the team), escalating where necessary in line with the SSCH mental health escalation pathway.

Demonstrate safe clinical practice in all aspects of your work with families.

To work collaboratively with the child, family and local professionals to carefully consider the aims of therapy programs and to continually review work, identifying outcomes.

Ensure accurate and contemporaneous notes and records of all contacts are recorded within the electronic notes system.

Ensure the respect, dignity and rights to privacy of children and their families as far as possible, whilst following safeguarding guidelines.

Utilise outcome and evaluation tools throughout clinical interventions to assess, record and measure impact; to continually review aims and approach.

To ensure equity of service supporting throughput and effective management of waiting lists through effective risk assessment, safe and innovative practice.

Initiate and participate in effective communication with the other teams within care; to ensure the wider team is informed of any relevant changes in the family or childs needs or circumstances.

To grow effective inter-agency collaboration with schools, GPs, social care and other external professionals.

Produce written reports to a high standard, when requested.

Manage own time and prioritise workload, providing a flexibility in the service delivery that is responsive to families individual and changing needs.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• The post holder will hold an Arts Therapy MA qualification

Desirable

• Additional training in other specialised areas of psychological practice, eg EMDR or DBT.
• Qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy.

Experience

Essential

• Post-qualification experience of working as an arts therapist in a health or social care environment, as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Significant experience of working with children and young people, including those with disabilities.
• Experience of working with issues of loss and grief in children and adults.
• Experience of working with children, young people and adults who have experienced chronic or acute trauma.
• Experience of working with a diverse caseload.
• Experience of working closely with parents/carers, providing clinical expertise and suggesting specific approaches/strategies and psychoeducation.
• Examples of quality improvement/service development that has enhanced the quality and accessibility of therapies.
• Experience of delivering therapeutic groups.
• Experience in the use of standardized assessment tools with children, young people and adults.
• Experience of representing therapies within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients psychological care and treatment.
• Experience of delivering teaching and training.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision.
• Experience of conducting assessments/consultations on a virtual platform.

Desirable

• Experience of working with family systems in dyadic or family therapy sessions.
• Experience of the application
• of therapy in different cultural contexts
• Experience of delivering therapeutic groups focused on loss and grief.
• Experience of conducting risk assessments, consultations and sessions on a virtual platform.
• Experience of providing supervision to professionals and non-professionals, including critical incident debriefs.
• Experience of working with children, young people and their families affected by life-limiting illness in a palliative care environment.
• Experience of working within a hospice setting, Pediatric Intensive Care or Neonatal Unit.
• Experience of working with clients who have experienced anticipated or unanticipated death in infants/children.
• Experience of conducting sessions together with interpreters.
• Experience in conducting research that has enhanced an area of practice/knowledge.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Well-developed knowledge of grief and loss and how this presents following the death of a child.
• Sense of fun, playfulness and creativity that engages children in exploring the arts.
• Flexibility in approach, tailoring the intervention to the needs of the client (both virtually and in-person).
• Skill in providing consultation and advice, concerning communicating with children and young people of different ages and abilities, about death and dying.
• Ability to be responsive to urgent referrals, drawing on specialist knowledge to provide immediate support or advice.
• Ability to contribute professional expertise in multi-disciplinary case discussion.
• Ability to understand and provide culturally competent therapy.
• Ability to communicate effectively in writing, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside SSCH.
• Ability to respond to urgent referrals, drawing on specialist knowledge to provide immediate risk assessment, risk management, support or advice in regard to mental health and safeguarding concern.
• Understanding of appropriate professional boundaries.
• Knowledge and skill in good safeguarding practice, including referral to social care and collaborative safety planning.
• Expertise in creating effective individualized safety plans with children, young people and adults.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.

Desirable

• Formal training in supervision
• Skill in utilising a psychosocial MDT, working collaboratively within a holistic framework.
• Awareness of relevant research concerning childrens psychological therapies in childrens palliative care.

Other

Essential

• Ability to recognise and manage ones own stress/wellbeing, ensuring self-care and support is sought where required, to be able to work with highly emotive material that forms part of this work.
• Open to change, development, innovation and enhancement of care services.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers & staff.
• Works well in a team and on own initiative.
• Flexible and willing to undertake varied responsibilities as part of a team.
• Able to build good relationships with others (including staff, volunteers, children and families known to SSCH).
• Organised, methodical and able to multi-task.
• Car owner/driver with full UK drivers licence, with appropriate personal and business use insurance.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Shooting Star Children’s Hospices

Address

The Avenue

Hampton

TW12 3RA

Employer's website

https://www.shootingstar.org.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)