Assistant Psychologist

Job description

Job responsibilities

With the guidance and support of supervising staff:

To support and enhance the professional psychological care of service users within the team; to provide psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the management of the senior supervising psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with the Clinical Leads and Senior Supervisor and within the overall framework of the teams policies and procedures.

To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work and the developing reporting requirements of the Team.

Clinical:

To assist in the coordination and running of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy groups.

To be required to work on a frequent basis with people with complex difficulties often associated with diagnoses such as Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder/Borderline Personally Disorder.

To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of service users, including the use of psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, family members and others involved in the persons care under the management and clinical supervision of the Clinical Psychologist.

To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a service users problems, under the management and clinical supervision of the Clinical Psychologist, in the Team.

Where required, to attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings.

To assist in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all users of the service, across all settings where care takes place.

To lead in the co-production, with service users, of initiatives such as DBT graduate groups and cross service waiting list groups.

To support the referral and assessment process under development in the Team by collating clinically relevant information in the form of notes reviews to include key information on risk, previous therapy, diagnosis/es and support clinical decision making.

Teaching, training and supervision

To receive regular management and clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.

To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.

To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care.

Service Development

To assist in the collection, input and analysis of service outcome data.

To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects within the service as required.

To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.

Research and service evaluation

To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects.

To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.

To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist the qualified clinical psychologist in evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

Working Environment

The job role will involve working in situations where there may be occasional verbal or physical aggression from service users carers and the general public.

General Requirements

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post-holders professional and service manager(s).

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal, and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry, recording and report writing in accordance with professional codes of practice of the BPS and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues.

To attend and contribute to relevant professional meetings.

To develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues within Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust and in the statutory and voluntary services with the aim of promoting high standards of care and clinical practice.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Psychology Honours Degree 2:1 or above
• Eligible for Graduate Membership of the BPS (GBC)

Desirable

• Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with people with complex difficulties/complex trauma
• Experience of running therapeutic groups
• Experience of DBT

Desirable

• Experience of service-user co-production initiatives

Skills

Essential

• Knowledge and experience of DBT

Desirable

• Offering 1:1 psychotherapeutic interventions under supervision

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

Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Fitzwilliam Centre

143-145 Fitzwilliam Street

Sheffield

S1 4JP

Employer's website

https://www.shsc.nhs.uk/working-us (Opens in a new tab)