Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT Therapist)

Job responsibilities

Clinical:

Accept referrals via agreed protocols within the specialist perinatal service.

Assess clients for suitability for psychological interventions in line with the specialist perinatal psychological model of care.

Make decisions on suitability of new referrals, adhering to the departments referral protocols, and refer unsuitable clients on to the relevant service or back to the referral agent as necessary.

Formulate, implement and evaluate therapy programmes for women and birthing people in the perinatal period.

Use highly developed communication skills in working with people to understand their personal and often very sensitive difficulties, including bonding and attachment difficulties.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of women and birthing people in line with the service.

Educate and involve family members and others in treatment as necessary, conveying CBT and other psychological formulations with sensitivity in easily understood language, and all the while keeping the baby, couple and family in mind.

Adhere to an agreed activity contract relating to the number of client contacts offered, and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.

Attend multi-disciplinary meetings relating to referrals or clients in treatment, where appropriate.

Complete all requirements relating to data collection within the service.

Keep coherent records of all clinical activity in line with service protocols.

Work closely with other members of the multi-disciplinary team ensuring stepped formulation driven care is delivered to maintain a matched-care approach.

Assess and integrate issues surrounding the wider context of people's lives into the overall therapy process.

Carry out clinical audits of service performance, including service user surveys and evaluations, and help to collate and disseminate the results for feedback.

Liaise with other health and social care staff from a range of agencies in the care provided clients.

Provide specialist advice and consultation to other professionals / individuals / groups / committees across Parent-Infant Mental Health Services, Maternity, Health Visiting, Mental Health Trusts, Primary Care Trusts and other voluntary agencies regarding service matters relatedto the practice and delivery of specific agreed therapeutic modalities and service provision.

Training and Supervision:

Attend and fulfil all the requirements of the Specialist Perinatal Service approved supervision training and whole service training programme in perinatal mental health.

Contribute to the teaching and training of mental health professionals and other staff working in the service.

After completion of supervision training, supervise staff in the service.

Professional:

Ensure the maintenance of standards of practice according to the employer and any regulating, professional and accrediting bodies (e.g., BPS, UKCP, BABCP), and keep up to date on new recommendations/guidelines set by the Department of Health (e.g., NHS plan, National Service Framework, National Institute for Clinical Excellence).

Ensure that client confidentiality is protected at all times.

Be aware of and keep up to date with advances in the spheres of CBT and other psychological therapies in the perinatal period.

Ensure clear professional objectives are identified, discussed and reviewed with senior therapists on a regular basis as part of continuing professional development (CPD).

Attend clinical/managerial supervision on a regular basis as agreed with Manager and Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Participate in individual performance review and respond to agreed objectives.

Keep up to date all records in relation to CPD and ensure personal development plan maintains up to date specialist knowledge of latest theoretical and service delivery models/developments.

Attend relevant conferences / workshops relevant to perinatal and parent-infant mental health, in line with identified professional objectives.

Participate in service improvement by highlighting issues and implementing changes in practice.

Advisory / Liaison:

Provide an advisory service on matters related to the practice and delivery of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to individuals/groups/committees across the Mental Health Trust, Primary Care Trust and other voluntary agencies.

Promote and maintain links within the wider system to help co-ordinate the provision of an effective Psychological Therapies Service.

General:To contribute to the development of best practice within the service.

To maintain up-to-date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and procedures in relation to Perinatal and Parent-Infant Mental Health, Maternity, Health Visiting and Primary Care Services.

Qualifications

Essential

• Post Graduate Diploma, or equivalent Post Graduate level CBT Training certificate which confers eligibility for BABCP accreditation
• Has BABCP accreditation or able to achieve Provisional Accreditation within one year

Knowledge/ Experience

Essential

• Demonstrable experience of working in mental health services
• Ability to meet agreed/specified service targets
• Ability to manage own caseload and time
• Demonstrates high standards in written communication
• Able to write clear reports and letters to referrers
• Experience with routine outcome monitoring
• Experience of teaching and liaising with other professional groups
• Significant experience working as a psychological therapy practitioner and can demonstrates the competences as required
• Demonstrates an understanding of anxiety and depression and how it may present in the perinatal period
• Demonstrates knowledge of the issues surrounding work and the impact it can have on mental health / benefits & employment systems
• Knowledge of medication used in anxiety and depression and other common mental health problems.
• Demonstrates an understanding for the need to use evidence based psychological therapies and how it relates to this post
• Knowledge of child protection issues and other relevant legislation
• Able to attend supervision training if not already trained, and other training as the post develops
• Good record of Continuing Professional Development and willingness to continue this

Values

Essential

• Continuous Improvement
• Accountability
• Respectfulness
• Enthusiasm
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Strong customer service belief
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented

Skills

Essential

• Full range of skills and competencies as laid out in the competence framework for CBT (Roth and Pilling 2007)
• Computer literate
• 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
• Has received training (either formal of through experience) and carried out risk assessments within scope of practice
• Able to develop good therapeutic relationships with clients.
• High level of enthusiasm and motivation
• Advanced communication skills.
• Ability to work within a team and foster good working relationships.
• Ability to use clinical supervision and personal development positively and effectively
• Ability to work under pressure
• Regard for others and respect for individual rights of autonomy and confidentiality
• Ability to be self reflective, whilst working with service users, & in own personal and professional development and in supervision
• The ability and skills to act as an advocate for a new service, to engage and foster good professional relationships with all health professionals in promoting the good integration of this service with the wider health care system

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).