Job Description
This is an exciting new post created within our Psychological Therapies team as part of our transformation of care for people with Serious Mental Illness under the Community Mental Health Framework. You will be working as part of the new integrated primary and community mental health service linking Community Mental Health Teams and Primary Care Networks. Your focus will be on working with people with serious mental illness including those with personality disorder in the early steps of the personality disorder pathway.
We wish to appoint aBand 8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist, or psychological therapist,to provide psychological assessments and interventions for adults with severe and/or complex mental health problems, their families and carers.
We also welcome applications from Clinical/Counselling Psychologists who are recently qualified who can be appointed to aband 7 development post. The development post (previously known as a preceptorship) provides an opportunity for newly qualified Clinical/Counselling Psychologists to be supported to develop their skills across the core dimensions of therapy, supervision, team work and leadership, with a view to being eligible for future promotion to the 8a post in the service.
You should be able to demonstrate your use of evidence-based practice in specialist adult mental health settings, including competence in cognitive-behavioural and third wave approaches. If not already, you will be willing to work towards accreditation with an accrediting body such as BABCP, SfDBT or ACAT, for which you will be fully supported.
As a member of Specialist Psychological Therapies you will work closely with colleagues in our adult mental health community and in-patient teams. You will also liaise with and support psychological therapists working at earlier steps in the Buckinghamshire Psychological Therapies Pathway. You will work with the Clinical Lead, Locality Leads, Team Manager and your team to ensure that the Buckinghamshire Psychological Therapies Pathway achieves its key objectives of delivering integrated, safe, accessible, responsive, effective and caring services to people in Buckinghamshire. You will ensure the service you provide is of a high quality and meets national guidance as well as meeting local and nationally agreed targets.
You will join our established, friendly and supportive team of psychologists and psychotherapists which is part of the wider Buckinghamshire Psychological Therapies Pathway. The Buckinghamshire Psychological Therapies Pathway has over 120 staff including clinical and counselling psychologists, CBT therapists, and psychotherapists providing a wide range of evidence-based and innovative psychological therapies. The post will be attractive to clinical or counselling psychologists with an interest in working with people with severe and/or complex mental health problems. You will receive expert clinical supervision and will have access to a wide range of CPD activities. There are excellent opportunities for service development, service evaluation/research and teaching/training
Benefits of working for Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust include:
- Excellent opportunities for career progression
- 27 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, with an increase to 33 days with continuous service
- NHS Discount across a wide range of shops, restaurants and retailers
- Staff accommodation
- Competitive pension scheme
- Lease car scheme
- Cycle to work scheme
Clinical:
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 tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, as appropriate and commensurate with
2. To plan and implement formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy.
3. To implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, 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 complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
5. To be responsible and accountable 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 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.
8. 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.
9. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the BPS and Trust policies and procedures.
10. Adhere to an agreed activity contract relating to the number of client contacts offered, and clinical sessions carried out per week in order to minimise waiting times and ensure treatment delivery remains accessible and convenient.
11. Complete all requirements relating to data collection within the service including use of routine outcome and patient experience measures.
Teaching, training, and supervision
1. To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior psychological practitioner and where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
2. To gain additional specialist experience and skills relevant to the therapeutic discipline and the service as agreed with the Clinical Lead and Team manager.
3. To provide professional and clinical supervision of trainee and assistants as appropriate to the postholder’s own level of qualification.
4. To provide advice, consultation and clinical supervision to other members of the treating team in the provision of psychologically based interventions to help improve client functioning.
5. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology, as appropriate.
6. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
Management, recruitment, policy and service development
1. To advise Clinical Lead and Team Manager on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
2. To manage the workloads of assistant and trainee clinical psychologists, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures, as appropriate to the postholder’s own level of experience.
3. To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant / graduate psychologists or other assistants.
Research and service evaluation
1. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services and participate in the development of high quality, responsive and accessible services.
2. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
3. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research as appropriate to own level of experience and within agreed service objectives.
4. To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues using research methodology to address a clinical question or improve services.
General and Professional
1. 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 Clinical Lead and Team Manager.
2. To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychological methods 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 applied psychology and psychotherapy and related disciplines.
3. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
4. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.
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