Specialist DIabetes Clinical Psychologist-Surrey Downs H&C

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

1. To be responsible for providing a comprehensive, specialist assessment service for patients referred by Diabetes team members. This input will be based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care.

2. To identify the nature, severity and complexity of the client's problems and to communicate this information in a skilled and sensitive manner to client, referrer and other health professionals involved in the client's care

3. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options, considering a range of theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes and medical factors that have shaped the individual, family or group. Decision making will also consider knowledge about the provision of and involve liaising with other local specialist services.

4. To advise clients, family members and others involved in the client's care on the appropriate management of difficulties and arrange referral to other services if needed.

5. Implement a range of psychological interventions with individuals, couples and families, continually adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing on different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provision hypotheses and employing methods based upon evidence of treatment efficacy.

6. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the efficiency of all aspects of the Clinical Psychology Service within the Surrey Downs team including assessment, treatment and discharge of patients.

7. Where patients present with multiple needs e.g. patients with severe mental health problems and persistent pain, to liaise with other local specialist services eg mental health services to enable effective case management, and to offer specialist advice, consultation and guidance to other health professionals concerning the management of such cases.

8. To develop educational materials for use with the Diabetes team to inform clients on psychological aspects of diabetes.

9. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.

10. To ensure that all members of the team at the Diabetes Centre have access to a framework for understanding the range of psychosocial difficulties that clients present with through the dissemination of psychological research and theory.

11. To undertake risk assessment with clients and provide advice to other health professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management

General

1. To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, HCPC and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust.

2. To maintain up to date knowledge of developments in the speciality of diabetes and Clinical Health Psychology and national and local policies related to the delivery of diabetes and Clinical Health Psychology Services

3. To ensure the development and the maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in continuing professional development in consultation with the post holder's professional and service managers.

4. To be responsible for the development and articulation of best practices in psychology within the Diabetes Service, by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.

5. To contribute to work to raise awareness of good psychological practice in the care of medical patients within the Trust and, in conjunction with the Trust professional Lead for Clinical Psychology, to advise on further service developments in line with these principles where appropriate.

6. Through active participation in professional special interest groups, contribute to work to develop the profession of Clinical Health Psychology and its contribution to the effective care of medical patients.

Organisational

1. To work towards achieving the objectives and goals of Surrey Downs Health and Care.

2. Assist in the development, evaluation and monitoring of operational policies and procedures for the Clinical Psychology Service to Diabetes Services.

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

4. To regularly liaise with the service manager in order to ensure that the service runs effectively, safely and efficiently

5. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the service provided at the Diabetes centre as a whole through deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation, audit and team organisation

6. To contribute where appropriate to the development of psychological aspects of care of people with diabetes at a local, regional and national level through involvement in teaching, training and service review.

Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for more details.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.

Desirable

• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.

Experience

Essential

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist for a considerable period with a significant amount at a highly specialist level with people with physical health problems
• Experience of psychological assessment, intervention and management working with a wide range of clinical presentations with complex, long-term co-morbid physical and mental health conditions including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment.
• Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.

Desirable

• Experience in working with people with diabetes

Skills

Essential

• Well-developed knowledge of the psychology of adjustment to illness, role of distress in interfering with treatment and recovery, adherence to and decision-making about treatment, and lifestyle changes to improve and maintain health.
• Highly skilled in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Highly developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and 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 design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical

Desirable

• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies with complex client groups (eg people with long-term physical and mental health problems)

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

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Leatherhead Community Hospital

Poplar Road

Leatherhead

KT22 8SD

Employer's website

https://www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/work-for-us (Opens in a new tab)