Specialist Senior Clinical Psychologist (Annex 21)
This is an exciting opportunity at a newly developing Psychology Service at the North West Regional Spinal Injuries Centre located in Southport.
You will be part of a whole new team that is being recruited into alongside the Consultant Clinical Psychologist / Service Lead, consisting of a Principal Clinical Psychologist / Deputy, Senior Clinical Psychologists (Band 7 Preceptorship considered) and a Counsellor. All psychologists are trained in EMDR.
The service offers ample opportunities for service development, implementing standards and recommendations, such as BASCIS, to provide care from pre-admission outreach to inpatients, discharge planning, and more.
Varying levels of complexity and needs exist, both for individuals, their carers / significant others, and groups, as well as staff training and systemic culture change.
The service seeks dynamic staff who are keen to identify projects for quality improvement, research, publications, and presentations.
Main duties of the job
* To provide specialist clinical psychology services to inpatients within the NWRSIC, across acute and rehabilitation wards with some outreach where clinically indicated.
* To support the ongoing development and delivery of a specialist clinical psychology service, supervising junior colleagues as needed.
* To deliver highly specialist psychological assessments and treatment to adult inpatients at the NWRSIC, on an individual and group basis.
* To provide advice and consultation regarding inpatients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues.
* To contribute to the strategic planning of clinical psychology services within the NWRSIC, aiming to maintain high levels of psychosocial care for patients.
* To represent Clinical Psychology in aspects of the NWRSIC's wider organisational development.
* To contribute to the planning, development, and delivery of the Department's teaching and training commitments.
About us
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We believe that everyone should have access to Five Star Patient Care.
We offer:
Acute Care: emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport, and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care: primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services: adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital provides rehabilitation for patients needing acute hospital beds, freeing up space for those who need it most.
Specialist Regional Services: we provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to over 4 million people across Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man, and North Wales.
Achievements:
O rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Job responsibilities
Please see attached Job Description for full details.
To provide specialist psychological assessments of adults referred to the Clinical Psychology Service based upon appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of highly complex psychological data from various sources, including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations, and semi-structured interviews.
To formulate and implement plans for formal psychological treatment and/or management of a person's psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the person's problems, employing methods of proven efficacy as appropriate for their age and physical health condition, across a range of contexts, including inpatients and outpatients.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individual adults and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models, and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options, taking into account physical health condition, current medical treatment, theoretical and therapeutic models, and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based treatment plans.
To ensure that professionals in other agencies have access to a psychologically based formulation and treatment plan for adults within the service, through provision of advice and consultation, and dissemination of psychological research and theory.
To screen/assess and manage factors which may indicate a level of psychological or physical risk for individuals, and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
To coordinate multi-agency or multi-disciplinary input, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of psychological treatment, communicating effectively with the service user and all others involved in the network of care, and monitoring progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of service users under their care, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of care.
To refer on to appropriate agencies/professionals for treatment or an opinion that is in the person's best interests.
To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance, and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to the person's diagnosis, formulation, and intervention plan.
To demonstrate awareness of potential communication difficulties and/or cultural considerations, and, where appropriate, adapt professional practice accordingly, involving identification of, and effective liaison with, appropriate support services, such as advocacy, family support, translators.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Post-graduate doctoral level training (or equivalent) in clinical psychology, including specific models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies, and lifespan developmental psychology, accredited by the BPS.
* Professional registration as Practitioner Psychologist with HCPC.
* Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training, and/or other fields of applied psychology.
Knowledge
* Doctoral level knowledge of clinical psychology, including highly developed specialist knowledge of clinical psychology in physical health, clinical psychometrics, and neuropsychology, particularly the literature pertaining to two or more distinct psychological therapies for adults referred to Clinical Health Psychology.
* Skills in the use of highly complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention, and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
* A high level of ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical and clinically sensitive information to adults, their families, carers, and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
* Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
* Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of clinical psychology.
* Knowledge of safeguarding vulnerable adults and other key legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and supervision regarding work with adults and their families/carers.
* Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS.
* Ability to plan and prioritise own clinical workload and research programmes.
* Advanced word processing skills, advanced use of presentation software such as MS PowerPoint, use of internet for searching documents and research, and use of email.
* Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in Spinal trauma.
* Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies.
* Experience of conducting holistic and comprehensive assessments for the purpose of producing psychological reports.
* Completion of supervisor training to enable the supervision of practicing Clinical Psychologists/trainees.
* Skills in the use of statistical packages such as SPSS and use of MS EXCEL or similar spreadsheets to analyse data numerically and graphically.
Skills
* Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist at a specialist level.
* Experience of working with adults with long term physical health problems in a hospital setting.
* Experience of working with adults with complex psychological presentations.
* Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients' psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified autonomous practitioner and also within the context of a multidisciplinary treatment plan.
* Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
* Experience of assessing and treating adults across the full range of care settings, particularly inpatient and outpatient.
* Experience of working in pain management and complex pain.
* Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
* Experience of working with clinical risk.
Other
* Ability to sit in constrained positions when working with clients.
* Ability to sustain intense levels of concentration, responding and participating as required.
* Ability to self-reflect and use clinical supervision appropriately.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.