Clinical Psychologist - Psychology Health

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

The principal purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health & wellbeing of people within the post holders specialist field of practice.

The post will sit within the Health Psychology and Neuropsychology Department and will involve a dynamic role across multiple teams within Clinical Health and Neuropsychology Services. This role will include working with functional presentations across a range of settings, including the Functional Neurological Disorder Service. There will be strong links with the Integrated Psychological Medicine Pathway within Liaison Psychiatry. The post holder will be clinically managed and supported within the Health Psychology and Neuropsychology Department.

This will be achieved in this post through undertaking the following areas of responsibility:

1. To support the systematic provision of a high-quality psychological service in specialist field of practice, across identified locality area, as a key component of integrated mental/physical health and wellbeing services across Devon Partnership NHS Trust and the Acute Trust.

2. Providing a Clinical Psychology and Therapy service to people as a key component of services provided by Devon Partnership Trust.

3. Providing local clinical leadership, co-ordination and supervision for trainees and volunteers employed by or attached to the psychology service, under the general direction and supervision of the Professional Lead

4. Carrying a specialist caseload of clients, and providing advice and consultancy to patients, family members, carers and professionals.

5. The post holder will be supported by senior colleagues within their specialist field. The post holder will be expected to make good use of the expertise of others within the service to further develop their clinical skills with this client group.

6. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service / local team.

7. The post holder with receive regular professional and clinical supervision in accordance to Trust policy and to Professional Practice Guidelines set out by the British Psychological Society or appropriate designated Professional Body.

8. Observe, and abide by all relevant Professional Codes of Conduct and Practice including the British Psychological Society. The post holder will be fully registered with the Health Professions Council as a condition of employment

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

Clients, family and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with clients who may have specific difficulties in understand and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.

Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues from both Devon Partnership Trust and the Acute Trust in the multi-professional integrated mental health/physical health and wellbeing service on a day to day basis

Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in hospital and in community settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under the services care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.

Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers across the Trust and the Acute Trust. to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

To provide specialist clinical/counselling psychology expertise and advice.

To provide psychological therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups. Proficiency in in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.

To support the Professional Head, General Manager, Practice and Strategic Development Leads and Professional Leads by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.

To provide complex assessment of specialist conditions

Planning and Organisational Skills

The psychology service: To plan and organise own work within the service setting and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within the commissioned integrated mental health and wellbeing service to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities.

The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychology/therapy supervision to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of mental health and wellbeing services

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

Assessment & intervention: To provide expert psychological therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues.

Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation

The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.

Policy & service: To support policies and procedures for the provision of psychology and therapy services within own service and other services within the Trust.

R & D: To support the R&D activities of the clinical health psychology and neuropsychology service.

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

To be responsible for the safe keeping of equipment under own use.

Responsibility for Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management

Leadership & supervision: To professionally supervise less experienced psychology/therapy staff, trainees and volunteers.

To provide placement responsibilities for trainee staff.

To contribute to the provision of therapy supervision for non-psychology/therapy staff providing psychological therapies within other Trust teams.

To support placements for trainee staff in line with professional guidelines

Responsibility for Information Resources and Administrative Duties

To maintain accurate records, compliant with Trust Practice Standards.

To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.

Responsibility for Research and Development

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work within the PPT and local mental health services.

To conduct project work including specific areas of audit, research or service evaluation

As a clinician to be responsible for collecting clinical practice and outcome data that contributes to building practice-based evidence and service evaluation.

Freedom to Act

The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines

To work autonomously within clinical professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the governance of psychological practice within the locality/specialty. Interpretation of professional and Trust guidelines, and implementing policies in conjunction with peers, Head of Profession and General Manager.

To provide specialist clinical psychology expertise and advice guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families.

Any Other Specific Tasks Required

To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists/psychotherapists/therapists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.

To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist (D.Clin.Psychol. or equivalent) and eligible for Chartered Clinical or Counselling Psychologist Status in the British Psychological Society. Registered with HCPC.

Desirable

• Further training in related area
• Further training in at least one (other) psychological therapy
• IT Skills

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Broad knowledge of specialist services and of the services in the NHS where psychology is commonly applied.
• Excellent verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills
• Proven organisational, planning and time management skills
• Ability to work independently and use initiative within a service consisting of a network of teams.
• Ability to work as a member of a clinical team.
• Ability to tolerate ambiguity, and maintain own morale and motivation in challenging service delivery contexts.
• Good communication skills when presenting / facilitating to varying groups of people

Desirable

• Strong leadership qualities, resilience and ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Project management skills / experience

Experience

Essential

• Experience, and/or training in diversity awareness and social inequality.
• Proficiency in in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.

Desirable

• Experience of working with complex trauma and with systems working around people who have experienced trauma.
• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of neuropsychological assessment and awareness of impact of neuropsychological symptoms on presentation

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address

1 Church Lane

Heavitree

Exeter

EX2 5DY

Employer's website

https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)