This Band 8a Applied Psychologist post, providing maternity leave cover, offers an exciting opportunity to join an established specialist physical health psychology service to the Childrens Diabetes and Cystic Fibrosis Service in Worcestershire, to address the psychological needs of children and young people and their families. This will include specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes, focusing on identifying and treating psychological and emotional issues associated with diabetes and cystic fibrosis.
The availability of psychology input is invaluable in helping children, young people and their families to understand and navigate their condition and treatment whilst moving towards adulthood and independence. Psychological perspectives, skills and interventions are highly valued by the diabetes and cystic fibrosis teams.
Main duties of the job
You will join a growing team of psychologists, led by a Consultant Psychologist, providing a specialist physical health psychology service to people who are receiving care from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust. We are passionate about offering psychological support to people in a variety of physical health areas and supporting our staff to be the best they can in delivering this care. The post will have active links with, and support from this wider Physical Health Psychology Service with opportunities for development via the Trust appraisal system.
The post-holder will enjoy considerable variety within their role, providing bespoke individual and group psychological input, team formulation and consultation, supervision, training, and promoting psychologically-informed care in community, outpatient and hospital settings.
This post will be based at Worcester Royal Hospital though hybrid and home working will be supported. We welcome conversations about flexible working arrangements.
We would be delighted to meet / speak with prospective applicants to discuss the post and provide an opportunity to meet current members of the team prior to the interview. Please contact Dr Heidi Napier, Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist on 07874 642290.
About us
Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.
The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester
Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.
We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.
Our objectives are simple:
* Best services for local people
* Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
* Best use of resources
* Best people
Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.
We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Job Purpose
To provide a highly specialist physical health psychology service to the Childrens Diabetes and Cystic Fibrosis Service in Worcestershire, to address the psychological needs of children and young people and their families. To manage and hold clinical responsibility for a specialist caseload and provide highly specialist assessment and interventions focusing on identifying and treating psychological issues associated with diabetes and cystic fibrosis. To provide highly specialist advice, consultation and training as appropriate to parents/carers and colleagues within the Service and to work effectively within the multi- disciplinary health team. To contribute to service evaluation, audit, research and policy development. To promote psychological thinking in collaboration with MDT colleagues. To provide clinical and/or research supervision to less experienced psychologists.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
The post holder will:
Administrative
1. Be responsible for designing, developing and using appropriate clinical and administrative records in line with Trust policies and other professional guidelines, verifying the functionality of some, and auditing correct usage.
2. Coordinate and chair meetings, prepare agendas, check and ensure distribution of accurate minutes.
Managerial
1. Develop the ability to lead in relation to the development and organisation of psychological interventions within a given clinical area, under the guidance and supervision of more senior psychology colleagues.
2. Manage the workload of trainee and assistant psychologists as required and contribute to their appraisal under the supervision of a more senior clinical psychologist.
Clinical
1. Work as an independent and autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, taking full responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions.
2. Carry a defined caseload of patients who have a varying range of severity and complexity of psychological issues, and provide support to their families and carers, as appropriate.
3. Undertake the assessment, formulation, treatment and management of patients as required within the Service with a varying range of severity and complexity of psychological problems. In particular, patients with psychological conditions relating to the diagnosis and ongoing management of diabetes and CF, some of which may be highly specialised. Assessment and intervention to involve families and carers, as appropriate.
4. Use initiative and take responsibility for themselves and the quality of their work and the service they provide to patients and the Service.
5. Collaboratively evaluate the appropriateness of referrals from a number of sources referrals to be accepted as resources permit.
6. Carry a caseload of appropriate size, complexity and severity, including patients whose problems may be complicated by biological, social, familiar, environmental and educational factors, physical ill-health or bereavement and may be presented in a challenging or distressed manner.
7. Provide specialised psychological therapies which require specialist post-qualification experience, supervision and training to acquire the necessary clinical and therapeutic skills and personal resources.
8. Provide psychological therapy, where appropriate, making use of a variety of psychological models, as appropriate, with individuals, families, parents and/or groups.
9. Collaborate on direct and indirect clinical casework with the Service MDT and staff of other agencies, to enhance the capacity of other professionals to carry out their responsibilities.
10. Promote excellent psychologically-informed practice by staff in the Service and provide clinical leadership to other professionals who practice psychological approaches. Promote a service consistent and compliant with the philosophy of person-centred and evidence based practice.
11. Undertake risk assessments and risk management of individuals presenting with risk of vulnerability or self-harm. Provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
12. Select and provide specialised psychological assessments, including developmental, cognitive and psychometric assessments, which require training and expertise to acquire the necessary dexterity, accuracy and observational skills. Interpret complex psychological data from a variety of sources, including neuropsychological tests, psychometric tests, and self-report measures, rating scales, structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, their relatives and others involved in the patients care.
13. Adhere to appropriate confidentiality guidance from the Trust, the HCPC and the BPS with respect to considering issues of risk, supervision and safeguarding.
Communication and Liaison
1. Communicate highly confidential and sensitive personal information, obtained through assessment, formulation, therapy and interventions, to the patients (children and young people) themselves and where appropriate their relatives, other professionals and others involved in their care. The information may be highly distressing and communications are to be in a skilled and sensitive manner, making judgements involving highly complex facts or situations concerning what information is to be shared, how and when to convey it in the best interests of the patient and having regard to issues of safeguarding, child protection, mental capacity and potential sensory and cultural barriers to communication.
2. To formulate and communicate sensitively psychological assessment findings and implement psychological treatment plans, individual, family or group interventions as appropriate.
3. Provide specialist advice and consultancy to the MDT, patients relatives, carers and other involved professionals from other agencies.
4. Raise awareness within the Service MDT of a psychological and systemic framework for thinking about illness and physical health.
5. Act as an expert professional resource for the Service and other health professionals.
6. Present and participate in relevant Service meetings and appropriate professional groups and meetings, as agreed with the Lead Psychologist.
7. Contribute to the effective working of the Service MDT in order to deliver comprehensive clinical care to families, children and young people, ensuring that psychological well- being is central to the planning and delivery of health care.
8. Maintain excellent working relationships with colleagues, local CAMHS teams and other local agencies.
Analysis and Judgment
1. Provide formulations of the patients problems based upon analyses of complex information gained from multiple sources including assessment findings, psychological theory and a range of available psychological and other clinical information.
2. Exercise autonomous clinical responsibility for the development and implementation of psychological treatments, strategies, and interventions, adjusting and reformulating as appropriate on the basis of feedback.
3. Be able to make independent and autonomous clinical judgments on the way in which expected clinical outcomes are to be met using a variety of sources, including policy, professional guidelines, peers and colleagues within and outside the Service.
4. Provide a problem solving, trouble-shooting role in response to issues for which there is no documented or acceptable practice, drawing creatively upon psychological models, theories and approaches and research skills.
Planning and Organisation
1. Plan own work.
2. Coordinate the use of tests, books and other equipment used by the post holder, psychology assistants, trainees and more junior psychologists, in collaboration with colleagues.
Improving Diversity and Inclusive Recruitment:
As part of the Trust's aim to improve diversity across the Trust, positive action is being taken and all applications for this post from BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ candidates can request to be considered under an expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum criteria as specified in the person specification for this role.
Applicants will be prompted in the application form to declare if they wish to be considered under this expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme, and their response would be visible to the Shortlisting Panel.
If you have any queries about expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please contact Rob Saunders (HR Manager - Recruitment) in confidence via email robert.saunders1@nhs.net
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
* Experience required specific to working with children, young people and families and/or diabetes
* A minimum of 2 years of experience working as a qualified Clinical Psychologist within a relevant area
* Sufficient training and experience to be recognised by the Division of Clinical Psychology as a suitably qualified psychologist to offer clinical placements to trainee Clinical Psychologists
* Training and experience in the application of psychological knowledge across a range of mental health presentations, including physical health
* Experience of assessing and providing a wide range of psychological interventions to patients presenting with the full degree of clinical severity and across a range of clinical mental health presentations
* Experience of conducting clinically relevant research
* Experience of working with highly emotive and distressing problems
* Experience of multi-agency/ multidisciplinary working
* Therapeutic expertise in working with groups/carers/families
* Experience of consultation to non-psychology staff
* Experience of designing and delivering teaching and training
Desirable
* Experience of strategic planning and service development
* Experience of teaching and training psychologists in a Clinical Psychology doctorate training course
Personal Qualities
Essential
* Committed to promote patients right, independence and choice e.g., through informed consent for interventions
* A positive attitude and able to act on feedback
* Ability to praise and be supportive to others
* Able to meet the travel requirements of the post
* A commitment to continued professional development, to partnership working and to reflective clinical practice
* Enthusiastic, proactive and interested in
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