Highly Specialist Clinical / Counselling Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. 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.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
7. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving this client group of people with severe and enduring mental health problems.
8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
9. To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
10. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care, integrating the contribution of other professionals on the basis of client need.
11. To effectively draw on a variety of sources to establish care plans and treatment formulations in a context in which much data may be unavailable because of the clients inability to express themselves and because of the loss of much historical information, when early life has been extremely disrupted.
12. To be able to overcome a variety of barriers to communication when working with clients who are fearful of others, unable to articulate their problems or who think within a very different frame of reference, requiring imaginative and sensitive approaches towards engagement.
13. To provide a service that operates in a range of community settings; individual homes and hostels, community houses, inpatient units and team base requiring particular attention to issues of risk and confidentiality.
14. To manage time effectively and efficiently as a sparse resource in a context of high level demand.

Person Specification

Training and Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS including models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and (for Clinical Psychologists) neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology ; OR alternative training outside of the UK that is recognised by the Health & Care Professions Council leading to registration in the UK as a Clinical or Counselling psychologist
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS
• Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
• Registered with the Health & Care Professions Council

Desirable

• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• Post-graduate training in CBT for psychosis and/or Family Interventions for psychosis
• BABCP accreditation

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in patient settings
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course with 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, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
• Experience of working with people who experience severe, complex and long-term mental health problems

Desirable

• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
• Experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Experience of working as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision while working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an alternative agreed by the Director of Psychology

Knowledge & Skills

Essential

• Skilled 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 adults with mental health problems
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups working in primary care
• Formal training in the supervision of doctoral level trainee clinical psychologists
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. dual diagnosis including people experiencing psychosis with personality disorder, substance misuse, learning disability, neurological dysfunction, additional disabilities etc)
• Knowledge of recent policy and legislation in relation to people with severe and enduring mental health problems specifically and concerning mental health in general
• Knowledge of CBT for psychosis

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).

Employer details

Employer name

South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust

Address

Kingston and Richmond

Tolworth

KT6 7QU

Employer's website

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