Job overview
1. Do you have an interest in high quality assessment, intervention, and care for people living with dementia?
2. Do you also want to work for an older adult mental health service with a track record in developing and leading innovative practice?
If you are, we have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join a new BPSD pathway in Hillingdon Older Adult Mental Health services. The post holder will join a new group of clinicians providing this service, which will comprise of a Guided Care Matron, a band 6 nurse / OT, an Assistant Psychologist, and a Care Assistant.
Main duties of the job
3. The role will have a focus on triage, assessment, formulation, and care planning for older adults in Hillingdon who have been referred into the service for support with BPSD; of which a large percentage are Care Home residents.
4. The role will work as part of the Older Adult Service to offer intensive support and treatment to patients within their own homes and Care homes and support in the reduction of A&E and hospital admissions for this group in our community.
5. The post holder will be working with service users, but also with families, informal carers, care home teams, and other services and agencies involved in an individual's care.
6. As this is a new pathway in our service there will be opportunities for the post holder to support service initiation, development, and review.
7. This post is community based, so would ideally suit someone with access to a car or other transport for work use; however, we are more interested in finding the person and we can work around this within the team.
Working for our organisation
The Hillingdon OAMH service works with older adults covering the Hillingdon borough and is based in Woodland Centre in Hillingdon. Hillingdon is home to a diverse population and contexts, from urban to semi-rural. Situated in North West London, it has good transport links with the rest of London and surrounding counties and is home to a wide range of social, leisure, and sporting opportunities available to people working and living in the area.
The Older Adult CMHT is a multidisciplinary team; comprising of mental health nurses, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, social worker, psychologists and support workers. The team is supported by a good administrative system and offers an excellent work environment. The team also works closely with our colleagues in the Older Adult Home Treatment Service, Oak Tree Ward, our Older Adult Acute Mental Health inpatient ward, and the Hillingdon Memory Service. The team has good partnership working with wider local statutory and non-statutory Dementia services.
The post holder will also be joining CNWL's community of Psychological Professionals, which has a network for people working in older adult mental health services. We have a range of developmental opportunities including a Senior Psychologist forum, and access to a range of CPD.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
·To provide a highly specialist psychology service to older people including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
·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, functioning as a lead specialist in older adult mental health and dementia care.
·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 principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
·To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
·To provide a highly specialist psychology service to older people including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
·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, functioning as a lead specialist in older adult mental health and dementia care.
·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 principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
·To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
·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 advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
·To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
·To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
·To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
·To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
·To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
Please see Job Plan / Person Specification document for full details.
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.
8. 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.
9. 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
10. Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13 week probationary period.