Assistant Psychologist - Long COVID Rehabilitation

Job description

Job responsibilities

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

Patient care

To support psychology input to the Long COVID Rehabilitation Hubs. Duties could include:

• Developing and implementing psychologically informed resources.
• Organising and co-facilitating psycho-education and peer support groups for service-users under clinical supervision and guidance.
• Supervised one-to-one psycho-education and guided self-help with service-users.
• Joint working with other disciplines (e.g. Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy).
• Establishing and working within therapeutic boundaries.
• Basic cognitive assessment (with training and supervision provided).
• Being involved with patient and public involvement initiatives to help inform, develop, and promote the rehabilitation offer.
• Supporting audit, service evaluation and research activity.
• Encouraging and supporting the development of psychological knowledge and skills for multi-disciplinary colleagues.
• To assist in the delivery of training for colleagues and other staff groups on relevant psychological skills and perspectives.
• Contributing to multi-disciplinary team meetings.

In addition:

• To responsibly maintain and protect clinical records.
• To contribute to audit, service evaluation and research activity, as required.
• To receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with good practice guidelines.
• Reporting back to the Clinical Lead on matters of concern or which need a decision from Clinical Lead level.
• To contribute to Service and Trust objectives.
• To follow Trust policies and procedures.
• To provide information, as required, on performance and outcome measures.
• Analytical and judgement skills: To assess and judge service-user needs and decide upon appropriate interventions within group and individual work; and to analyse and make decisions based upon group dynamics.
• Planning and organisational skills: To plan and prioritise own workload; and to plan and organise structure and content of individual and group work with service-users; to travel between sites as necessary.
• Responsibility for Human Resources: May be required to demonstrate own duties to others, including other assistant psychologists and other health care professionals.
• Health and Safety: To adhere to the Trust health and safety policies and procedures and to have due regard in their practice to the health and safety of themselves, their colleagues and the general public.

  Typical Day

  This is a developing service, and the Assistant Psychologist role will adapt to respond to the service's evolving needs. However, a typical day might look something like this-

  • Joining an Occupational Therapist colleague for a rehabilitation session with a client whose anxiety seems to be a barrier to their progress and gathering information about the client's difficulties / needs for further discussion with the Lead Psychologist.
  • Co-facilitating a psycho-education / peer support group about managing cognitive difficulties in relation to Long COVID.
  • Collating feedback and outcome measures from the group session and updating group materials as needed.
  • Supporting an individual client to work through guided self-help material.
  • Updating clinical notes on the electronic system.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Good honours degree in Psychology (First Class or 2:1) or equivalent post-graduate conversion route.
• Eligibility for Graduate Membership of BPS

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of and interest in psychological issues related to physical health.
• Knowledge of and interest in issues around health inequalities.
• Evidence of continuing professional development showing an interest in and passion for applying psychological ideas and approaches within a physical or mental health context.
• Knowledge and experience of working psychologically with people with physical or mental health problems.

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience in delivering psycho-education to people with physical health problems in individual or group situations.
• Knowledge of and experience of working in or with clinical health psychology services.

Experience

Desirable

• Experience of delivering psychologically informed structured interventions (including guided self-help) for people with physical and mental health-related problems in individual or group situations.
• Skills and experience in psychological assessment including risk assessment.
• Skills and experience in establishing therapeutic boundaries and rapport in individual or group settings.
• Experience of completing service audit and evaluation.
• Experience of delivering training to staff on mental and physical health-related issues.

Skills

Essential

• Ability to work harmoniously and collaboratively with other disciplines.
• Skills in good listening and delivering practical and emotional support to individuals and teams in pursuit of behavioural and psychological change.
• Skills in implementing, analysing and reporting on service audit and evaluation.
• Ability to tolerate and manage highly distressing emotional issues.

Desirable

• Group work skills.
• Teaching and training skills.

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.

Employer details

Employer name

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHSFT

Address

Walton Hospital

Whitecotes Lane

Chesterfield

S40 3HW

Employer's website

http://www.dchs.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)