Job summary
The Psychology Service for Older People in Haringey is looking for a compassionate, creative and versatile Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join our team. This is a permanent post of 30 hours a week (0.8wte).
We are based at St Ann's Hospital in Haringey where we are privileged to work with a diverse population of older people. The Psychology team is embedded within Mental Health Services for Older People, working closely with colleagues in the Community Mental Health Team for Older People, Specialist Dementia Service and Haringey Memory Service. We are looking for a committed team worker who values the breadth of perspective and skills in a multi-disciplinary setting.
The clinical work is varied and rewarding. Our service users typically have complex needs related to ageing and include both functional and organic diagnoses. There is scope to offer a wide range of interventions and we are looking for a team member who is confident to draw on a range of psychological models in order to work with individuals, families and groups. This could include CBT, ACT, CFT, MBCT, psychodynamic and systemic approaches.
Main duties of the job
All team members offer specialist psychological assessment and a range of interventions for a diverse caseload, which includes moderate-severe mental health needs, organic presentations and complex co-morbidity.
Psychologists in the team use a variety of assessment tools, including neuropsychological assessment, to assist with diagnosis/formulation and draw on a range of psychological models in order to ensure interventions are effective, accessible and meaningful to our service users. We work with individuals, carers and families, offering individual and group interventions.
We work closely with multi-disciplinary colleagues within Older People's services as well as with external care providers including local care homes. The post holder will be expected to attend weekly clinical meetings, work jointly with colleagues and offer consultation, supervision and training for the MDT as required.
There will be opportunities to develop skills for supervising assistant and trainee psychologists.
The post-holder will also have opportunities to get involved in service development work, ideally using a Quality Improvement framework to support the implementation of change ideas and ensure we meet the needs of our local population.
About us
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
Our Five-Year Strategy:
- We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
- With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
- We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care
Why NLFT?
- We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
- We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
- NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
- Excellent internal staff network
In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Duties of the role are to provide a qualified clinical/counsellingpsychology service to older people with severe mental health needs and/or dementia in Haringey. This includes
- The provision of psychological assessment and therapy for individual service users including those with complex mental health conditions, cognitive impairment and co-morbid physical health conditions, their carers and their families.
- Consultation, training and support for the wider systems and organisations providing care for our clients including the delivery of staff-centred interventions in residential homes caring for older people with challenging behaviour.
- Consultation, training and support for MDT colleagues working within MHSOP (currently Community Mental Health Team for Older People, Specialist Dementia Service and Haringey Memory Service) including joint assessments, joint delivery of interventions and input to team meetings.
- To clinically supervise assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists (on meeting the progressional requirements to do so).
- Professional skills to:
Work autonomously within professional guidelines and the framework of the Services policies and procedures
Use core professional training for some or all of the following purposes as appropriate: research, undertake audit, and contribute to policy and service development.
- To contribute to local service developments under the supervision of the professional lead
Job description
Job responsibilities
Duties of the role are to provide a qualified clinical/counsellingpsychology service to older people with severe mental health needs and/or dementia in Haringey. This includes
- The provision of psychological assessment and therapy for individual service users including those with complex mental health conditions, cognitive impairment and co-morbid physical health conditions, their carers and their families.
- Consultation, training and support for the wider systems and organisations providing care for our clients including the delivery of staff-centred interventions in residential homes caring for older people with challenging behaviour.
- Consultation, training and support for MDT colleagues working within MHSOP (currently Community Mental Health Team for Older People, Specialist Dementia Service and Haringey Memory Service) including joint assessments, joint delivery of interventions and input to team meetings.
- To clinically supervise assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists (on meeting the progressional requirements to do so).
- Professional skills to:
Work autonomously within professional guidelines and the framework of the Services policies and procedures
Use core professional training for some or all of the following purposes as appropriate: research, undertake audit, and contribute to policy and service development.
- To contribute to local service developments under the supervision of the professional lead
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Essential Criteria Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology and two or more distinct psychological therapies as accredited by the BPS.
- Registration with the Health & Care Professions Council
Desirable
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and intervention/treatment of people across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, residential care homes and in-patient settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
- Experience of working with people whose behaviour challenges.
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
Desirable
- Training in other therapies, such as systemic.
- Experience of neuropsychological assessments, particularly those relevant to working with dementia.
Skills/abilities
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- 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.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Ability to contain, explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision of other staff.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
- Skills in group work.
- Skills in the delivery and interpretation of neuropsychological assessments
Personal Qualitites
Essential
- Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary service setting and establish constructive working relationships across services and care agencies
- Flexibility and versatility in order to work effectively with the wide range of individual needs encountered in a service for Older People
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Essential Criteria Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology and two or more distinct psychological therapies as accredited by the BPS.
- Registration with the Health & Care Professions Council
Desirable
- Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology.
Experience
Essential
- Experience of specialist psychological assessment and intervention/treatment of people across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, residential care homes and in-patient settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems.
- Experience of working with people whose behaviour challenges.
- Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
Desirable
- Training in other therapies, such as systemic.
- Experience of neuropsychological assessments, particularly those relevant to working with dementia.
Skills/abilities
Essential
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- 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.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
- Ability to contain, explore and formulate an understanding of high levels of distress both directly with patients and indirectly via supervision of other staff.
- Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practised within the clinical fields of psychology.
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC.
Desirable
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. personality disorder, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc).
- Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.
- Skills in group work.
- Skills in the delivery and interpretation of neuropsychological assessments
Personal Qualitites
Essential
- Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary service setting and establish constructive working relationships across services and care agencies
- Flexibility and versatility in order to work effectively with the wide range of individual needs encountered in a service for Older People
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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).
