Senior Applied Psychologist

Job summary

This is an exciting time to be part of a new co-produced service that aims to transform the approach taken with young adults so that every interaction is used as an opportunity to make a positive difference.

This new service will strengthen the psychosocial offer for young people within the Black Country while they transition from child to adult mental health service provision (CAMHS to AMHS). In addition, the model will target disadvantaged groups within the 18-25 age bracket who are from specified groups such as care leavers, youth offenders, special educational needs and disabilities, and who also show signs of being most in need of additional support, and where services have not been managing to offer and provide effective support so far. The provision will work closely with social care and the voluntary sector, as well as to 'wrap around' the mental health provision within CAMHS and AMHS.

Main duties of the job

The new Black Country service (covering Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, and Dudley) will include psychologists and a range of other professionals, as well as some lived experience roles and some of the new HEE Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner positions.

The advertised role will be suitable for somebody who can challenge unhelpful narratives and offer alternative perspectives to enable the young adults who come through the provision to benefit from a more trauma informed approach (including a mindset of 'what's happened to you and what's helpful for you' rather than 'what's wrong with you?') The approach will foster relational safety and security and therapeutic benefit regardless of whether trauma is considered to be specifically relevant. The model has been developed based on young person and family priorities, as well as various other forms of evidence, and these align with the recovery focused principles of CHIME.

About us

Within this position you would be able to use your skills and experience to facilitate the team building process and to promote the wellbeing of its members. The psychology positions have been included to support an empowering, psychologically informed culture. A significant part of the role will be to assist the team with the use of biopsychosocial formulations to make sense of distress and to collaboratively construct relevant plans of action. Your psychological expertise would be beneficial to support the use of psychological interventions, including strengths based, family focused/systemic and DBT informed managing emotions transition pathways. Clinical supervision will be provided to all team members to support this way of working and regular reflective practice will also be facilitated. Other approaches could be used in a flexible manner as appropriate to meet young person needs.