Clinical Psychologist

Job responsibilities

As a lead specialist, responsible for assessment and treatment of own specialist caseload of clients with variety of complex problems including complex trauma, dissociation, psychosis and other severe mental health problems.

As a lead specialist, responsible for providing, developing and managing highly specialist psychological interventions to clients and for communicating psychological formulations and treatment plans to carers and professional colleagues.

Responsible for planning, organising and auditing and developing policy and strategies for the delivery of a specialist psychology service within the multidisciplinary team.

The post holder would be expected to develop specialist responsibilities and provide leadership from a psychological perspective on a specific area of expertise that balances their experience, interests, and needs of the service.

Responsible for providing professional support, guidance and clinical supervision to other clinical psychology staff (clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists, MHWP, CAPS, undergraduate placement students) in the psychiatric liaison team and in other parts of the service as required by their level of experience.

Responsible for the planning, delivery and clinical supervision of a specialist clinical training placement for trainees on the postgraduate Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology from the University of Plymouth.

Responsible for providing specialist consultation, advice and clinical supervision to other non-psychology staff within the service, on psychological understanding, interventions and evaluations.

Responsible for developing and delivering teaching on psychological work and care for trainee clinical psychologists and qualified members of clinical psychology and other professions in Livewell Southwest.

Responsible for initiating and maintaining research and development projects relevant to furthering both clinical knowledge and service evaluation and delivery.

Responsible for working within the Guidelines for Professional Practice of the Health & Care Professions Council and the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology or ACP-UK, and for adhering to policies and procedures of Livewell Southwest.

Responsible for participating in an annual appraisal with the SORT or CMHT Consultant Clinical Psychologist plus a team manager.

Responsible for continuing professional development (CPD) in line with the annual appraisal Professional Development Plan PDP, the Knowledge and Skills Framework KSF and the HCPC requirements for CPD.

Responsible for keeping aware of and being knowledgeable about current developments within the profession of clinical psychology.

Responsible for keeping up to date with legislation, national directives, policies and NICE guidelines in relation to the work.

To possess and practice a very high level of communication and relationship skills in situations where emotional distress, and risk of self-harm and of life-threatening behaviour can be expected.

To engage clients with complex presentations in a therapeutic alliance and maintain this through periods of doubt and relapse.

To work with, and support others to work with, clients with complex trauma, emotional disorders and psychosis for whom psychological expertise is required in order to provide appropriate assessment, testing, rehabilitation and/or maintain placement, contributing to the liaison with commissioners and funding managers to provide feedback and advice on such clients progress and ongoing needs.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models, highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group and available resources.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients cognitive, behavioural and emotional sequelae of trauma for Psychiatric Liaison clients.

To be able to complete the most appropriate formal psychometric assessments with complex clients.

To be able to communicate complex psychological formulations and treatment plans to the client and to appropriate professional colleagues and to family members or carers, as appropriate, so that they are understood.

As part of the psychiatric liaison assessment process, to develop a psychological formulation of a clients problems that enables a healthy, holistic discussion of treatment options.

To prepare and provide complex medico-legal reports and reports for housing and employing bodies.

To have knowledge of and skill within several psychological models of understanding and managing behaviour, including, for example, cognitive behaviour therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and systemic therapy.

Through consultation or case discussion with MDT colleagues, to be able to add both an understanding of psychosocial factors and offer advice as to an appropriate intervention for clients referred to the services but not on psychologists caseload. In this way support the implementation of a Trauma-Informed model throughout our services.

Create and monitor effective and efficient referral criteria and pathways to Clinical Psychology from all services.

To be able to manage the emotional impact of working, often one-to-one, with people who can be in crisis and who can show high levels of arousal and can be actively self-harming or suicidal.

To ensure receipt of clinical and personal supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines for all clinical psychologists.

To be responsible for promoting the need to plan and develop specialist psychology services within the psychiatric liaison service.

Through membership of the psychology specialty, to be responsible for contributing to the planning and development of specialist psychology services across the service.

As a member of the psychiatric liaison service to be responsible for promoting the need to plan and develop the multidisciplinary response to clinical demands and expectations on it.

To attend the Psychology meetings and other relevant meetings regularly.

To be responsible for providing clinical supervision and professional support and guidance as required to Clinical Psychologists, CAPS, MHWP and trainee clinical psychologists within the service who are less experienced.

To be responsible for providing clinical supervision to non clinical psychology members of the service as appropriate.

To be responsible for planning and supervising the work of undergraduate psychology students on year long and short term placements.

To be responsible for the supervision of the work of Assistant Psychologists.

To be responsible for planning and providing a clinical training placement to trainees on the postgraduate Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology of the University of Plymouth. This clinical placement requires liaison with Human Resources to arrange appropriate DBS checks, honorary contracts and IT access as well as completion of Livewell Southwest and service inductions. It also requires a sensitive awareness to the impact on trainees of induction to being members of a large and complex organisation as the context for learning and practising their professional skills.

To teach on the postgraduate Doctoral Courses in Clinical Psychology at the University of Plymouth if required and on pre and post qualification professional courses for other disciplines represented within Livewell Southwest as required.

To ensure the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external Continuing Professional Development - CPD training and development programmes and courses.

To conduct and supervise research and audit and evaluation relevant to the provision of specialist psychological services for people accessing the psychiatric liaison service.

To initiate and implement project management techniques and tools in order to achieve completion of evaluations, audits, research and service developments.

To collaborate with University of Plymouth in setting up and conducting Doctoral level long-term research projects on psychiatric liaison, and providing teaching.

To use SPSS and other packages in the analysis of data and to write up the information in a meaningful format that is accessible and understood by the target audience.

To prepare and present information from audits, evaluations and research to professional audiences within and outside the organisation.

To prepare papers for publication based on audit, evaluation, research and development work.

To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with team members in the service and Clinical Psychology

To contribute to the maintenance and development of office systems and procedures within clinical psychology and the wider service.

To be able to use a range of software packages including Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and SPSS.

To be responsible for maintaining appropriate service statistics and records of work within the requirement of policies covering Care Programme Approach and its successor.

To ensure that electronic CPA (and its successor) and System One and other relevant computer data bases are kept up-to-date.

The post holder is required to comply with all relevant policies and procedures pertinent to their post. Current versions can be found on Healthnet or via your manager. The areas listed below are those on which Livewell currently places particular emphasis. Failure to follow correct policies and procedures may result in disciplinary action.

Disposition

Essential

• Kindness.
• Enthusiasm for working in a Psychiatric Liaison service.
• Ability to work under pressure and set priorities.
• Ability to deal with patients and carers who may be distressed, angry, confrontational or violent.
• Ability to work within teams and motivate others.
• Ability to sit for prolonged periods during assessments, patient interviews, case conferences.
• Ability to cope with frequent exposure to highly distressing and emotional situations.
• Warmth, empathy & integrity.
• Ability to work autonomously & as part of a team.
• Ability to contain and work with organisational stress and ability to hold the stress of others.

Desirable

• Lived experience of mental health difficulties.

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS.
• Registered as a clinical psychologist with the HCPC.
• Fully competent as a clinical psychologist supplemented by short specialist courses and further specialist training.
• Evidence of examination results and course attendances.

Desirable

• Other related academic qualifications to Masters or Doctoral level.
• Membership of the ACP-UK.
• Group work skills.
• Advanced keyboard skills.
• Specialist skills in a specific therapeutic approach.
• Clinical supervision training for doctoral trainees

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Ability to analyse and interpret highly complex situations involving a range of options to make a decision about an appropriate course of action or solution to a problem.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management with adult service users.
• Skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families and professionals both within and outside the NHS.
• Doctoral level of research design and methodology as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies for complex problems (e.g. personality disorder, behaviours that challenge).

Desirable

• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Skills in the psychological assessment and management of neurological problems; including dementia.
• Knowledge of legislation and national standards and guidelines that relate this client group.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working as a psychologist with adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties.
• Experience of teaching, training and providing professional and/or clinical supervision.
• Experience of assessing and treating clients in the full range of care settings.
• Experience of working within multidisciplinary services for adult clients.
• Experience of offering consultation and advice to staff groups supporting vulnerable clients.

Desirable

• Post-qualification experience of two years or more.
• Record of having published in peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.
• Experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist in a psychiatric liaison service.
• Experience of working with clients with complex trauma.
• Post qualification training in CAT, Schema Therapy, DBT or CBT.

Other

Essential

• Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentation in public, professional and academic settings.
• Works to professional guidelines.
• Is accountable for own professional actions and capable of interpreting broad occupational policies.

Desirable

• Driving licence and car owner.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).