Job summary
We are seeking an experienced Practitioner Psychologist or CBT therapist with a passion for perinatal care to work in our perinatal trauma and loss team (PTLT). The post holder will spend 1 day with our psychology led Perinatal Trauma and Loss Team (0.2 WTE). PTLT provides specialist psychological support and treatment to women and pregnant people, those who have experienced pregnancy or birth, their families and support network who are affected by severe tokophobia, perinatal trauma or baby loss.
The post holder will join an experienced and friendly team of psychological therapists who provide a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for service users under the care of the Perinatal Mental Health Service and PTLT. A key aspect of this role is to provide highly specialist psychological care to parents (and their infants) experiencing moderate to severe mental health difficulties. An ability to assess and manage risk in this context is therefore crucial.
Alongside their psychology and psychotherapy colleagues they will also work to enhance the work of the MDT by embedding a wider framework of psychologically informed care that can recognise and respond to psychological needs of both parents and infants arising within a perinatal context in a timely and effective manner.
The post holder will have a proven interest in working with parents and their infants and knowledge of infant and adult mental health.
Main duties of the job
This post offers an opportunity to join the PTLT and be involved in service developments in line with the NHS Long Term Plan. The opening is for a Band 8a (0.2 WTE) Highly Specialist Team Clinical or Counselling Psychologist or CBT Therapist.
If appointed, you will join a passionate and experienced MDT and support the provision of our community based specialist psychology and psychotherapy services for women who are pregnant, postnatal, or have experienced a loss and are presenting with a wide range of complex and severe mental health problems, as well as systemic support for their partners. The role involves helping to formalise referral pathways, delivering evidence based assessment and treatments as well as attending MDT meetings and close liaison and consultation with other professionals involved in a service user's network of care.
There will be opportunities for attending specialist training and forums, providing supervision and consultation as well as developing an area of specialist interest and one's own style of working.
There will be a strong focus on supporting the continued development of a psychologically informed trauma focus of care within maternity services as well as opportunities to provide supervision, training, and utilise research skills for audits, service evaluation, and service development.
About us
We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.
We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.
This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.
We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.
We offer flexible working, career development and a variety ofbenefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.
About our locations:
Springfield University Hospital, Tooting
Our largest, 19-ward site is in Springfield Village, created following our £150m investment into two new world class mental health facilities. A 32-acre public park, shops and cafes are coming soon. Close to shops, cafes and Tooting Bec on the Northern Line plus Earlsfield and Tooting rail stations and bus routes.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy in the treatment of mental health conditions as recommended by NICE guidelines.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. 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.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals, as appropriate, to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients presenting with mental health needs related to trauma and loss.
7. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
9. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.
10. To work jointly with psychological therapists based in community teams, to plan and hand over the psychological assessment and treatment of patients that may continue after discharge from the Maternal Mental Health Service.
Job description
Job responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy in the treatment of mental health conditions as recommended by NICE guidelines.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. 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.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals, as appropriate, to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients presenting with mental health needs related to trauma and loss.
7. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
9. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.
10. To work jointly with psychological therapists based in community teams, to plan and hand over the psychological assessment and treatment of patients that may continue after discharge from the Maternal Mental Health Service.
Person Specification
Training & Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and (for Clinical Psychologists) neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology ; or alternative training outside of the UK that is recognised by the Health & Care Professions Council leading to registration in the UK as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist
- Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (Practitioner Psychologist, domain : Clinical Psychologist or Counselling Psychologist ) or oAccredited practitioner of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy [CBT] by the British Association of Behavioural Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP)
Desirable
- Post qualification training in applied research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
- Post qualification training in EMDR
- Accredited practitioner of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy [CBT] by the British Association of Behavioural Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP)
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
- Experience of working with people who experience severe, complex and long-term mental health problems
- Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision while working as a specialist clinical or counselling psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Head of Psychology & Psychotherapies
Desirable
- Post qualification experience of working in a specialist perinatal mental health service
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
- Experience of the application of clinical or counselling psychology in different cultural contexts
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnosis, people experiencing psychosis, with personality disorder, substance misuse, learning disability, neurological dysfunction and additional disabilities)
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- Knowledge of recent policy and legislation in relation to people with severe and enduring mental health problems specifically and concerning mental health in general
Person Specification
Training & Qualifications
Essential
- Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and (for Clinical Psychologists) neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology ; or alternative training outside of the UK that is recognised by the Health & Care Professions Council leading to registration in the UK as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist
- Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council (Practitioner Psychologist, domain : Clinical Psychologist or Counselling Psychologist ) or oAccredited practitioner of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy [CBT] by the British Association of Behavioural Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP)
Desirable
- Post qualification training in applied research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
- Post qualification training in EMDR
- Accredited practitioner of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy [CBT] by the British Association of Behavioural Cognitive Psychotherapy (BABCP)
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
- Experience of working with people who experience severe, complex and long-term mental health problems
- Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision while working as a specialist clinical or counselling psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Head of Psychology & Psychotherapies
Desirable
- Post qualification experience of working in a specialist perinatal mental health service
- Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
- Experience of the application of clinical or counselling psychology in different cultural contexts
Knowledge & Skills
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration
- Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnosis, people experiencing psychosis, with personality disorder, substance misuse, learning disability, neurological dysfunction and additional disabilities)
- High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies
- Knowledge of recent policy and legislation in relation to people with severe and enduring mental health problems specifically and concerning mental health in general
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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).
