Job overview
This is a post within the Clinical Health Psychology Department at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust which covers St Mary’s, Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. The postholder will work with people who have long-term conditions such as HIV, and alsopeople with a range of other complex physical co-morbidities. These complex patients may have a history of trauma, difficulties with the healthcare system and/or be struggling with their treatment schedule. There will also be opportunities to work with patients presenting to the sexual health service who have concerns relating to sexually transmitted diseases, sexuality or sexual function.
The post will suit someone who has a proven interest in working with physical health conditions and who has a flexible therapeutic approach. Interventions may be longer-term, and/or more sporadic than in some other services, given the nature of long-term physical conditions and the waxing and waning need for support. There is a strong supervisory framework in the department and support in terms of CPD and weekly online team meetings. A mixture of remote and in-person working is accepted. Interest in research is encouraged.
Main duties of the job
To provide a psychology service in the Clinical Health Psychology department, offering psychological therapy to patients of Imperial Healthcare NHS trust with physical health conditions. The client group will cover patients with long-term conditions such as HIV, and patients with complex physical co-morbidities who are too complex for community mental health services and may have a history of adverse childhood experiences and other trauma. There is also the opportunity for work with people who present in the hospital’s sexual health service who have concerns about sexually transmitted diseases, sexuality or sexual function.
The psychologist will be based in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology at St. Mary’s Hospital, (one of Imperial’s three hospital sites) and will be expected to work closely with all members of the MDTs treating patients and to liaise appropriately with the IAPT services in our sector. The work will involve out-patient clinics for the majority of patients, some in-patient work, attendance at meetings and some teaching and supervision of staff within the unit.
Working for our organisation
CNWL offers a diverse range of career opportunities, including roles in mental health, community services, and addiction support, with opportunities for career development and leadership positions. The organization emphasizes a modern approach to healthcare, focusing on community integration and patient well-being.
With great size, comes fantastic opportunities, to develop, innovate and progress.
Along with the fully established benefits such as Monthly supervision; Annual personal development plans/appraisals; Support and guidance with Revalidation; Hidden Gem and annual award ceremonies. We are also able to offer access to a full range of internal and external training opportunities across our services.
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
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, 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.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, 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 standard 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 the client group.
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 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.
Teaching, training, and supervision
1. To attend regular clinical professional supervision.
2. To be active in continuous professional development, through reading, personal research and the attendance at training as agreed with the head of department.
3. To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff’s psychological work, as appropriate.
4. To provide professional and clinical supervision of assistant/graduate psychologists and, as appropriate, to contribute to the supervision of individual cases for trainee clinical psychologists.
5. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology, as required by the head of specialty.
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 contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
2. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
3. To manage the workloads of assistant and graduate psychologists, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures.
4. To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant/graduate psychologists.
Research and service evaluation
1. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
2. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
3. To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.
4. To familiarise themselves with, and to comply with, the Trust’s requirements on research governance.
IT responsibilities (other than those used for research)
1. To use a computer to write letters, enter data into databases and maintain personal records.
General
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 postholder’s professional and service manager(s).
2. 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.
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.
To be noted:
· This is not an exhaustive list of duties and responsibilities, and the postholder may be required to undertake other duties which fall within the grade of the job, in discussion with the manager.
· This job description will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing service requirements and any such changes will be discussed with the post holder.
· The post holder is expected to comply with all relevant Trust policies, procedures and guidelines, including those relating to Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety and Confidentiality of Information and clinical governance including research governance.
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.
2. Due to the high response levels we receive for some vacancies, we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.
3. Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the
4. Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.