Psychologist/Specialist Counsellor/Psychotherapist in Cancer Services

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. To provide specialist psychological care for people affected by cancer including those on remote monitoring, inpatient hospital treatment and in recovery.

2. To allocate up to 70% of time to direct clinical work.

3. To offer comprehensive psychosocial assessment, with attention to background vulnerabilities and complexities, factors that impact on treatment (e.g. adherence), relationship to care and risk, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources, including self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patients care.

4. To develop a formulation of patients psychosocial distress & adjustment, and a collaboratively agreed plan of care, and convey this understanding in a clear and practical way to the wider MDT, supporting all staff to provide effective, compassionate, and psychologically-minded care.

5. To work from a broader person-centred, psychological adjustment perspective, drawing flexibly on skills in multiple therapeutic models of psychological care, to deliver a broad range of inputs, from one-off bedside Provide specialist clinical input to inpatients and outpatients within cancer services, who are experiencing significant psychological distress.

6. To be responsible for implementing a range of therapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

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

8. To work with partners, family members and carers affected by the patients illness and treatment, providing specialist psychological care.

9. To work collaboratively and flexibly within the wider cancer service, in coordination with the psychology team, and relating directly to internal and external services and resources to coordinate psychological care for patients and carers, in line with best clinical practice and patient choices.

10. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all patients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the patient group.

11. To provide clinical care through phone, video clinic and other channels as clinically appropriate and operationally necessary.

12. To keep written records of patient contact in line with the service protocols.

13. To communicate effectively with service users and other professionals.

14. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the cancer psychology service at GWH, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

15. To contribute to team development and enhance team functioning.

16. To undertake specific projects as agreed with the Lead Clinician.

17. To maintain an up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of relevant local and national networks and services.

18. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

19. To attend and contribute to the regular professional meetings of the cancer psychology team, the Department of Clinical Health Psychology and other relevant meetings as required.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral-level qualification in clinical or counselling psychology
• Current HCPC registration, OR accredited postgraduate counselling/psychotherapy training
• Registration with UKCP or BACP

Desirable

• 1st class degree
• Post-graduate education: a) clinically relevant to psycho-oncology b) in clinical supervision c) in research or quality improvement

Experience

Essential

• Experience of clinical practice in at least two psychological models relevant to psycho-oncology
• Experience of working with a variety of patient groups, across the whole life course
• Experience of clinical work in a multicultural context

Desirable

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of people with cancer, across a range of care settings, including outpatient and inpatient settings

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Great Western Hospital

Marlborough Road

Swindon

SN3 6BB

Employer's website

https://www.gwh.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)