Senior Carer Support Worker

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

1. To support multidisciplinary care by providing psychological assessments for caregivers of clients in the various services in the borough; including assessment of risks to and from caregivers and to service users.
2. To co-create support plans for caregivers.
3. To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families.
4. Liaise with professionals and individuals across a service users network whilst respecting confidentiality and information sharing policies.
5. Support the linked CMHTs in identifying caregivers and facilitating contact and caregiver involvement.
6. To assist in the development of individual and network-wide clinical materials or training materials, and in addition to develop such materials independently as falls within own degree of competence.
7. To arrange, schedule and provide training in order to support the clinical work with caregivers.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

1. To contribute to the effective working of the service e.g. by registering new referrals; creating databases to track processes or progress through pathways and keeping them up to date; contributing to the training and support of other staff in developing and providing psychotherapeutic care of clients.
2. To act in a manner that supports a psychotherapeutically-informed framework for the service.
3. To support the team or services delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
4. To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with caregivers and clients in order to develop and review care plans.
5. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual and group work and work with other team members.

KR 3 Policy and service development

1. To follow policies and procedures in own area of work, and to comment on proposed improvements or beneficial changes.
2. To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
3. To support the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services that meet the needs of local communities.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

1. To take care of, and use carefully, the Trusts equipment and physical resources.
2. To ensure that the postholder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Teaching and Training

1. To demonstrate work methods to junior and MDT staff as needed and to support their development of necessary skills.
2. To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations or published articles.
3. To arrange, schedule and provide training to employees of the Trust or employees of partner agencies in order to support service improvement.

KR 6 Record-keeping and Information Governance

1. To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
2. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
3. To create and maintain databases, perform analyses and produce reports.

KR 7 Research and development

1. To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects to inform the service lead and others in the development of Trust clinical psychological therapy and caregiver services, training provision and research activities.
2. To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
3. To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in the development in the Trust of evidence-based practice.
4. To conduct surveys with service users and carers to gather views on service provision

KR 8 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

1. To receive regular clinical and professional supervision according to NHSE, HCPC and Trust guidelines.
2. To gain wider experience of psychological therapies/caregiver support within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post-holder is employed.
3. To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
4. To undertake personal training relevant to the post in agreement with the supervising psychologist and the manager.

KR 9 General

1. To travel to appropriate meetings and venues across the directorate and across the Trust as required.
2. To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group and follow trust policies relating to its management.
3. To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (challenging behaviour, self-harm, harm to others, suicide and violence) and to support others involved in such situations.

Person Specification

Qualification

Essential

• oA First-class or Upper-second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology (or related behavioural science) that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society. (A/I) OR oAn approved Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner (MHWP) Qualification, as recognised with the NHSE new psychological professions framework

Desirable

• o Relevant specialist training in relation to working with Serious Mental Health Problems (SMHP) and caregivers (A/I)

Experience

Essential

• oExperience of working within an NHS setting as an assistant psychologist or MHWP. (A/I)
• oPost-qualification experience of multidisciplinary working and psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs who present with SMHP. (A/I)
• oTo be able to work clinically without direct supervision. (A/I)
• oExperience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and/or lived experience. (A/I)

Desirable

• oExperience of working with caregivers. (A/I)
• oWorking with risk and crisis in community and acute settings (A/I)

Knowledge

Essential

• oGood theoretical knowledge of the problems experienced by and needs of service users with SMHP. (A/I)
• oMethods of psychological assessment and treatment for those with SMHP. (A/I)
• o Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training. (A/I)

Desirable

• oKnowledge of interventions such as CBT, distress tolerance and emotional regulation. (A/I)
• oKnowledge of work with risk of harm to self or others. (A/I)
• oUnderstanding of principles of treatment in relation to SMHP. (A/I)

Skills

Essential

• oSkills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working independently as a pre-qualified practitioner with clinical supervision. (A/I)
• oWell-developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, sensitive or contentious information to clients, families and colleagues. (A/I)
• oSkills in completing literature reviews and summarising research findings to inform clinical practice or for the purpose of publication. (A/I)
• oSkills in supporting the development of training and therapy materials. (A/I)
• oWell-developed IT skills including using excel and clinical record systems.

Desirable

• oExperience of database management (A/I)

Abilities

Essential

• oAbility to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I)
• oHighly organised, able to manage workload, work to deadlines with competing tasks. (A/I)
• oAbility to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with people who are acutely psychotic, manic, depressed, victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)
• oAbility to manage verbal aggression and hostility directed at self. (A/I)

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).

Employer details

Employer name

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Maudsley Hospital

Denmark Hill

London

SE5 8AZ

Employer's website

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