Job responsibilities
JOB
PURPOSE/SUMMARY
To
provide a qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychology service to adult
patients, across all sites and sectors of care by:
a) Providing highly specialist
psychological assessment and therapy,
b) Offering advice and consultation on
patients psychological and neuropsychological care to non-psychologist
colleagues and to other non-professional carers,
c) Using research skills for audit,
policy and service development and leading on research projects within the
area served by the team/service
d) Working autonomously in the execution
of these duties and within professional guidelines and the overall framework
of the Psychology Teams, Department and Trust policies and procedures.
.
PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
Clinical:
1. To provide specialist psychological
assessments of patients 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
patients, family members and others involved in the patients care.
2. To formulate, develop and implement
plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patients
psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the
patients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy,
across the full range of care settings.
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 patients whose
problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological
advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing
directly to patients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
7. To contribute directly and indirectly
to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit
of people under the medical services, across settings and agencies serving
the patient group.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk
management for individual patients and to provide advice to other professions
on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management, with
particular reference to deliberate self-harm.
9. To act as care co-ordinator, where
appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care
plans under enhanced CPA (or its equivalent in the acute physical health care
setting) including patients, their carers referring agents and others
involved in the network of care.
10. To communicate in a skilled and
sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and
treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor progress during
the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
Teaching,
training, and supervision
1. To receive regular clinical
professional supervision from a more senior clinical/counselling psychologist
and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues
2. To gain additional highly specialist
experience and skills relevant to clinical/counselling psychology and the
service (as agreed with the Lead Psychologist and Head of Department) up to
two sessions per week.
3. To develop skills in the area of
professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide
supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work as appropriate.
4. To provide professional and clinical
supervision of doctoral trainee and graduate/ assistant psychologists.
5. To contribute to the pre- and
post-qualification teaching of clinical, health and/or counselling
psychology, as appropriate.
6. To provide advice, consultation and
training to staff working with the patient group across a range of agencies
and settings, where appropriate.
Management,
recruitment, policy and service development
1. To contribute to the development,
evaluation and monitoring of the team, specialty and department operational
policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in
research, service evaluation and audit.
2. To advise both the service and the
Lead Psychologist on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or
organisational matters need addressing.
3. To manage the workloads of assistant
graduate psychologists and doctoral trainee clinical psychologists, within
the framework of the team/specialty and Department policies and procedures.
4. To be involved, as appropriate, in
the short listing and interviewing of assistant / graduate psychologists.
Research
and service evaluation
1. To utilise theory, evidence-based
literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work
and work with other team members.
2. To undertake, as a major component of
the post, appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff
undertaking research, and to disseminate appropriate material via
presentation and publication.
3. To lead on research projects within
the area served by the team/service.
4. To undertake project management,
including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the
service to help develop service provision.
5. To provide appropriate research
supervision of doctoral trainees and graduate assistant psychologists.
SPECIAL
WORKING CONDITIONS
i) PHYSICAL EFFORT:
The
following physical skills are needed in this clinical post:
a) highly-developed skills in psychometric
assessment. This involves manipulating of complex test materials, attention
to detail for precise and accurate placement of test materials and timing and
recording of patients responses, acute observational and sensory skills to
assess and record a patients behaviour and make comparisons with
standardised test norms. It includes the ability to co-ordinate all of these
activities whilst establishing rapport with a patient, maintaining their
interest and motivation to carry out the assessment. Assessment sessions may
be up to 2-3hrs in length. In addition the post requires:
b)
keyboard skills
In
this post the psychologist is engaged in clinical work for more than 50% of
the time. In clinical sessions with patients the post-holder is required to
sit in restricted positions for lengthy clinical assessments or
psychotherapeutic sessions (up to 3-4hrs).
b)
Test equipment weighing c. 3 kilos has to be lifted and moved short distances
in the majority of clinical sessions. There are requirements to move case
notes/test equipment between clinic locations. This involves moving loads of
c 8 kilos twice per week.
ii) MENTAL EFFORT:
This
post requires the psychologist to work with distressed and emotionally
distraught patients. Over 50% of the post is in clinical work with patients.
Psychotherapeutic work with distressed patients requires intense listening
and concentration over long periods of time, the psychologist actively
attending to what is said, making complex clinical judgements concerning the
relevance of what is said and making decisions about how to respond to the
patient in line with best evidence based practice.
iii) EMOTIONAL EFFORT:
Psychologists,
by the nature of their work, deal with highly distressing material. They work
for much of their time in emotionally demanding environments. This clinical
post deals with this type of material for the majority of clinical sessions
i.e. over 50% of the time. Some patients will have histories of severe
emotional, physical or sexual abuse and some will be severely depressed and
suicidal. Others will have experienced traumatic incidents. There may also be
conversations around issues about dying and the end of life. The work of the
psychologist involves listening to the patients/relatives account of their
experiences, carrying out a detailed assessment of their psychological
problems and working psychotherapeutically with them to help them overcome
and deal with their problems.
iv) WORKING CONDITIONS:
In
this post there will be some exposure to patients who are intimidating and/or
physically aggressive. The Department has a system of panic alarms which can
be used and a departmental policy and procedure for dealing with aggressive
or violent patients. The Department works closely with mental health services
when required.
