Job overview
Harrow Adult Mental Health is seeking a motivated and passionate Psychologist to join our expanding therapies team within the Adult Community Mental Health Hub (CMHH, Bentley House). The CMHH provides interventions for adults with secondary care mental health difficulties, including psychosis, Complex Emotional Needs, and PTSD. Working as part of a whole-system approach alongside acute teams, the role may include opportunities across inpatient settings depending on service needs.
The successful candidate will deliver specialist psychological assessments, collaborate on formulations with service users, and consult with the multidisciplinary team to develop creative, personalised care plans. They will also provide evidence-based psychological interventions tailored to individual needs.
A key aspect of the role involves leading the development of Harrow’s Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) model. Over the past year, CMHH has implemented TIA, training the full MDT in Power Threat Meaning Framework formulation and Psychological Stabilisation. This builds on six years of innovative TIA work in acute services, recently published (Nikopaschos et al., 2023) and now influencing national policy (NHSE Guidelines for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Care, 2023).
Main duties of the job
Bentley House CMHH works closely with the rest of the Harrow mental health system (including the Home Treatment and Inpatient teams) to provide holistic intervention to adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties. The post holder will join an expanding therapies team, committed to providing highly specialist and trauma-informed psychological care. They will work closely with the full range of MDT professionals, including psychiatry, nursing, occupational therapy and peer support. They will playa key role in assessment and formulation, the development of creative multi-disciplinary care plans, and the provision of psychological intervention that follows service users across the Harrow system.
The post-holder will be expected to work as a senior member of the MDT, including the provision of consultation, co-working, teaching, training, supervision and research as well as developing specific training to enhance the systematic provision of psychological interventions offered to service users by all members of the team within a ‘stepped-care’ framework. They will make a leading contribution to the learning culture of the team and wider service, and play an integral role in the further development and embedding of TIA.
Specialist supervision is offered in EMDR, DBT, NET, CBT, Open Dialogue, CAT, systemic and psychodynamic models.
Working for our organisation
There’s a place for you at CNWL.
We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.
Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people.
We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.
With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job Purpose:
·To provide a specialist psychology service to service users across Harrow Mental Health services; including both within the Community Mental Health Hub and acute mental health services in Harrow.
·To provide specialist psychological assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes across these services
·To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
·To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate.
·To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.
·To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor.
Key Responsibilities:
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
·To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients under the care of the Bentley House CMHH.
·To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
·To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
·Where appropriate, to act as named worker and take responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing of care plans and co-ordination of multi-professional meetings.
KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
·To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
·To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
·To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
·To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
KR 3 Policy and service development
·To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
·To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
·To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
KR 4 Care or management of resources
·To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
·To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.
KR 5 Management and supervision
·To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.
·To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant Training Course’s Supervision Training.
KR 6 Teaching and Training
·To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.
·To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance
·To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
·To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
KR 8 Research and development
·To undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.
KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
·To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
·To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘Standards for Continuing Professional Development’.
·To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
·To comply with the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these.
·To adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.
KR 10 General
·To travel within the Harrow area for home visits as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
·To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
·To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations and to support others involved in such situations.
Vaccination
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
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3. Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.