Job title: Clinical or Counselling Psychologist in Clinical Health Psychology

Salary: Band 8a (depending on previous experience)

Job type: Permanent

Part time (0.5 WTE) -18.75 hours per week

We are delighted to offer this excellent opportunity to lead a new 8a psychology (0.5 wte) post within the Bariatric service, Whittington Health.

This exciting post involves designing and leading the provision of a Clinical Health Psychology service in Bariatrics where the post-holder will work alongside multi-disciplinary colleagues to provide a psychological assessment and treatment service for referred clients. The successful candidate will have post-qualification clinical and consulting experience in the area of physical health care including skills in self-management support. They will be able to use evidence-based practice, team liaison and transferrable skills and work collaboratively with the Bariatric MDT.

The postholder will become part of the friendly and dynamic Clinical Health Psychology team where there are exciting opportunities for mutual learning, creative service improvement and continuing professional development. The teams value and celebrate diversity and welcome candidates from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

A key working day is Tuesdays when team meetings are held.

Main duties of the job

Integrated care is central to the Whittington Health core philosophy and close involvement with psychologists is prioritized. The post involves close liaison with multi-disciplinary colleagues so strong communication and team-working skills are essential. The role involves pre-surgery assessment and psychological intervention in order to prepare for bariatric surgery and/or to support realistic expectations and coping strategies to ensure maximum benefit from surgery. Challenges with eating (e.g. binge eating) are a key focus for psychological input. The post involves working creatively to design a new psychology service that addresses the needs of clients and the referring team offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures and using research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.

About us

At Camden and Islington NHS foundation trust our staff and service users have worked closely to create a set of values that make sure people who use our services get the best possible chance of a rapid recovery.

We have 3 key priorities which are:

Early and Effective Intervention,

Helping People to Live Well

Research and Innovation

The cultural pillars that help us achieve our key priorities are:

We value each other

We are empowered

We keep things simple

We are connected

By coming to work at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust you will be joining a Trust with a national reputation for research, where services recognise that research underpins its commitment to providing high quality and innovative clinical care.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Clinical

• To provide specialist psychological assessments using interview, formal psychometric and other assessment methods as appropriate, to clients referred from the Whittington Health Bariatric MDT clinic.

• To formulate and develop psychological treatment and management plans for referred clients, working with carers and significant others as needed, to provide targeted interventions, using a range of therapeutic approaches.

• To devise and deliver group-based interventions as needed.

• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients.

• To refer clients to secondary care and other local community psychology services if additional psychological needs are identified that are better met in these other specialist

• To provide reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients.

• To work closely and communicate effectively with the multi-disciplinary teams to ensure the provision of effective and evidence-based interventions.

• 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.

• To attend and contribute to referral, multidisciplinary and service operational meetings. To use learning from MDT colleagues to inform clinical work.

• To liaise with other health and social care staff, from a range of agencies, in the care provided to clients

• To contribute to reducing the impact of tobacco dependence for patients, using opportunities to support quit smoking where relevant.

• To oversee the design, evaluation and service delivery of psychological elements of the Bariatric Service as directed and agreed with the Clinical Health Psychology Lead.

Teaching, training, and supervision

• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
• To participate in an agreed programme of post-qualification training and professional development towards developing advanced knowledge and practice.
• To undertake training to develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and clinical supervision.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision of junior clinical/counselling psychologists, trainee clinical/counselling psychologists and/or of assistant psychologists as opportunities arise.
• To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or other applied psychologists, as appropriate.
• To provide advice, consultation, training and supervision, where appropriate, to other health and social care staff working with the client group.
• To facilitate reflective practice sessions for the medical multi-disciplinary teams, including working with challenging cases, as needed and requested.

Management, policy and service development

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of clinical teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
• To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing

• To contribute to the workload management of junior clinical/counselling psychologists, trainees and assistant psychologists, where appropriate, within the framework of the services policies and procedures.

-Research and service evaluation

• - To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work, group work and work with other team members.
• To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.
• To undertake project management, including audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop and evaluate service provision.

Person Specification

Education and qualifications

Essential

• Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 2000) as accredited by the HCPC.
• Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council as a clinical psychologist or a counselling psychologist

Experience

Essential

• Completion of substantial post-doctoral post-qualification supervised clinical health psychology experience working with clients in the area of medicine or surgery or a related client group.
• Experience of working as a psychologist within a physical health multi-disciplinary team

Knowledge

Essential

• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological intervention with people with physical health conditions.
• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological intervention with people with physical health conditions.

Skills and abilities

Essential

• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues

Employer details

Employer name

Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Whittington Hospital,

Magdala Avenue,

London

N19 5NF

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

455-CANDI-668