Psychological Therapist

Job responsibilities

1. To accept referrals, support and assist with Clinical Psychology and Talking Therapies (CPTT) based within a prison setting.2. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by a specialised mental health service.3. To provide specialist assessment and suitability for psychological interventions.4. To support decision making regarding suitability of referrals and signposting where necessary to relevant services.5. To provide interventions within a time limit to the agreed sessional requirements of the CPTT.6. To organise own caseload, taking professional responsibility and exercising autonomous judgement with regards to professional practice.7. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.8. 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.9. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of service users whose problems are managed by psychologically based enhanced care plans.10. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals as appropriate.10. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.11. To undertake ongoing risk assessment of service users on current caseload and utilise Mersey Care and prison processes for reporting and management of risk.12. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highly complex information concerning theassessment, formulation and treatment plans of individuals where there may be conflicting views, high emotion and significant barriers to understanding and change, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of care.13. To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior psychological therapist and where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.14. To contribute to peer supervision within the service.15. To provide supervision and guidance to assistant psychologists where appropriate.16. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team.17. To maintain CPD through ongoing training in core professional therapeutic model along with training in other relevant therapeutic models and approaches in line with service needs, over and above that provided within the principal service area where the postholder is employed.18. To contribute to the development of trainee psychological therapists through a range of methods, such as teaching, placements and supervision.19. 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.20. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of all relevant staff, as appropriate.21. To provide advice, consultation, supervision and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.22. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies, procedures and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, serviceevaluation and audit23. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.24. To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of junior staff.25. To support assistant and graduate psychologists, within the framework of the team/services policies and procedures.26. To support the development of clinical pathways within the service, developing online resources and resources to be used within the service.27. The post holder will be expected to make full use of IT packages available within the work area, for example, Microsoft office, email, internet and statistical packages.28. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.29. To support the service to undertake research and provide advice to other staff undertaking research.30. To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.31. To undertake a defined role in secure division Service Governance structures as agreed.32. To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the postholders professional and service manager(s) in linewith the priorities of the service and PDP objectives and to provide evidence of CPD undertaken, e.g. in the form of CPD logbook.33. To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychotherapy/psychology across the service by continuing to develop 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 relevant therapeutic models and disciplines.34. To maintain 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 and Secure Care Division and Trust policies andprocedures.35. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.36. To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required by their operational manager after consultation.

Qualifications

Essential

• Masters Level (or equivalent) qualification in CBT with Accreditation by the BABCP
• Professional qualification in relevant therapy, such as BACP accredited counsellor, or UKCP/BABCP accredited cognitive behavioural therapist
• Registered with professional regulatory body, such as HCPC, BABCP, BACP

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• Additional therapy qualification in relevant approach, such as EMDR, schema therapy, DBT, solution focused therapy, internal family systems

Knowledge

Essential

• Demonstrable post qualification experience of working as a qualified therapist with clients with complex mental health needs, including trauma, personality related difficulties, substance misuse issues, neurodiverse presentation, across a range of different settings
• Experience of working as part of a team, undertaking specialist assessment, formulation and treatment
• Experience of working autonomously to deliver evidencebased assessment, formulation and treatment utilising a range of therapeutic procedures
• Experience of working with presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity and maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Ability to work independently on own initiative and as an effective member of multi-disciplinary teams
• Ability to work effectively with a wide range of stakeholders
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment
• Well-developed assessment skills incorporating a range of methodologies, e.g. clinical interview, psychometrics, structured clinical tools
• Ability to assimilate complex information from a range of sources to complete psychological formulation and clinical risk assessment in order to develop effective treatment plans for clients
• Experience of delivering psychological intervention in a range of formats to complex client groups
• Ability to effectively engage clients who may present with significant clinical obstacles to engagement
• Ability to maintain clear and appropriate personal and professional boundaries and to recognise own limitations
• Ability to assess risks from client in terms of risk to themselves and others
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to clients and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the patient group and mental health
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by relevant professional body

Desirable

• Experience of working in a prison/forensic mental health setting
• Experience of working with patients with severe and enduring mental disorder, including personality disorder
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, psychosis and people with additional disabilities)
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework

Skills

Essential

• Ability to sit in a constrained position when working with patients
• Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration responding and participating as required
• Ability to cope and deal with highly distressing emotional circumstances
• Ability to empathise with patients and enter the patient's experience to provide high levels of support
• Undertake Control and Restraint training and maintain this level of training
• Ability to identify and provide appropriate means of support to staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multimedia materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of service governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Ability to self-reflect, use clinical supervision appropriately and consider complex organisational and team dynamics

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).