Job overview
This role presents an exciting opportunity for an Assistant Psychologist to join our specialist, multi-disciplinary team offering a specially tailored programme for service users with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). The FiND Service offers a 2-day-per-week programme (2 cohorts of patients run concurrently – one on Mon & Tue, one on Thu & Fri) over a 3-8-week period for people with FND. The service offers an intensive package of CBT, physiotherapy, psycho-education and rehabilitation skills training. The successful candidate would play an integral role in supporting the CBT therapist in the delivery of evidence-based interventions for the treatment of FND, as well as delivering education groups to the patient cohorts. There will be opportunities to develop assessment skills in the area of FND, and there are ongoing research and audit projects evaluating the effectiveness of the treatment programme with which the AP would be encouraged to take a role.
We are committed to get the very best out of our staff and support staff in their career aspirations. We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to psychotherapy, psychology and research roles.In addition, we offer ongoing training and development in therapeutic skills, risk management, IT skills, etc.
Main duties of the job
-Provide protocol based individual psychological interventions for FND clients utilising cognitive behavioural therapy approaches.
-Assist in the assessment of prospective attendees of the programme, under the supervision of the CBT therapist.
-Arrange, schedule and provide protocol-based group psychological interventions for clients within the service.
-Support clients in undertaking behavioural experiments, activity targets, etc. based around their individual treatment plans.
-Assist clients in identifying and reviewing treatment goals.
-To assist other team members in the development of individual or group clinical materials or training tools.
-Upkeep of clinical records via the electronic patient journey system database.
-Ongoing evaluation of the service via collection and analysis of outcome measures.
Due to the nature of the programme, the working hours will be Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Working for our organisation
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) provide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.
SLaM employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. Currently, provide inpatient care for approximately 5,300 people each year and treat more than 45,000 patients in the community in Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; as well as substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.
By coming to work at SLaM, you will gain experience of being part of an organisation with a rich history and international reputation in mental health care. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities, and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field. Our working relationship with King's Health Partners allows those working at the Trust to get involved in academic research.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Job Description
Working Relationships:
CBT Therapist - Daily
Physiotherapist - Daily
Rehabilitation Assistant - Daily
Administrator - Daily
Neuropsychiatrists - As required
Service Lead - As required
Job Purpose:
-To assist in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology service in the FiND Day Programme
-To provide clinical work as required by the service, under the direct guidance and close clinical and professional supervision of the Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.
-To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
-To work following clinical guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, while closely supervised and regularly seeking help from clinical/professional supervisor or manager.
Key Responsibilities:
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
-To provide protocol based individual psychological interventions for clients in the FiND service utilising Cognitive Behavioural Therapy via a primarily psycho-educational intervention.
-To provide psychological assessments for clients in the FiND service under the close supervision of a practitioner psychologist/psychotherapist including specific assessments of Functional Neurological Disorders employing a neurological and biopsychosocial approach.
-To arrange, schedule and provide protocol-based group psychological interventions for clients in the FiND Service.
-To assist the team in the development of individual or group clinical materials or training materials.
KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
-To contribute to the effective working of the FiND service by creating databases to track processes or progress through pathways and keeping them up-to-date.
-Contributing to the training and support of other staff in developing and providing psychological care of clients.
-To act in a manner that supports a psychologically informed framework for the service.
-To participate in the service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
KR 3 Policy and service development
-To follow policies and procedures in own area of work.
-To participate in the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
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 supplies as needed.
KR 5 Teaching and Training
-To participate in demonstrating work methods to newly recruited team members and to support their development of necessary skills.
-To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations or published articles.
KR 6 Record-keeping and Information Governance
-To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
-Under the supervision of the practitioner psychologist/psychotherapist to maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
-To maintain data bases, perform analyses and produce reports.
KR 7 Research and development
-To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects to inform the service.
-To assist the psychologist and others in the development of Trust psychology and other services, providing training and undertaking research activities.
-To undertake data collection, analysis, and to produce reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
-To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist in the development of evidence-based practice in the Trust.
-Under guidance to conduct surveys with service users and carers to gather views on service provision.
KR 8 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
-To receive regular clinical and professional supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.
-To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.
-To undertake personal training relevant to the post in agreement with the supervising psychologist and the manager.
KR 9 General
-To travel to home visits, community placements and psychology meetings across the Trust as appropriate and 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 such as challenging behaviour, or descriptions of abusive histories and to support others involved in such situations.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. A First-class or Upper Second-class Bachelors degree with Honours in Psychology that is accredited by the British Psychological Society and confers the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society.
Experience
Essential criteria
2. Sufficient post-graduate experience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs to be able to work clinically with close direct supervision.
3. Post-graduate experience of conducting research projects or audits.
4. Experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities. This may have been gained through work, research, volunteering and / or lived experience.
Desirable criteria
5. Experience of working with neuropsychiatric disorders, including FND.
Knowledge / Skills
Essential criteria
6. Graduate level knowledge of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis.
7. Good theoretical knowledge of the problems experienced by and needs of patients with functional problems and of methods of assessment and treatment.
8. Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training.
9. Well-developed verbal and written communication skills including communicating complex, information to clients, families and colleagues.
10. Skills in delivering teaching and training to other professional groups.
Desirable criteria
11. Skills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working as a pre-qualified practitioner with close clinical supervision.
Abilities
Essential criteria
12. Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team.
13. Ability to identify and follow relevant clinical governance procedures.
14. Ability to maintain concentration and to remain in restricted positions for long periods during observations, assessments and psychological interventions.
15. Ability to manage occasional emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour.
16. Ability to communicate complex, sensitive or contentious information to people who may have impediments to understanding.