We are looking for Clinical/ Counselling Psychologists to join the Rehabilitation Services at Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) based in the county of Hertfordshire. Our Rehabilitation Services are always striving to improve and provide the best quality of service available whilst promoting clinical excellence. The service is currently going through an exciting expansion with the expectation that we can avoid hospital treatment where possible, or reduce the length of inpatient stay and improve outcomes by improving quality of life and reducing the incidences of service users being readmitted to hospital.

Our Rehabilitation Services works to a whole systems approach to recovery from severe mental illness that maximizes an individual's quality of life and social inclusion by encouraging their skills, promoting independence and autonomy to give individuals hope for the future and leading to successful community living through appropriate support. We aim to provide evidence-based interventions through a full range of multi-disciplinary team interventions to support the individual achieve this.

Main duties of the job

To ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist Psychological Service to clients with moderate to severe mental health problems in clusters 5 - 17 + 0 both within our community based Inpatient Rehabilitation Units, and under the care of our Community Outreach Rehabilitation Service (EROS)

To supervise and support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by other psychologists, psychological therapists, assistant psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically based care and treatment.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within Secondary Care.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team/service.

To comply with the Trust's Anti-Discriminatory Statement, Employee Charter, Trust Policies and Procedures, Code of Conduct and Equality and Diversity.

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organization with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Our Trust values are:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it!

Would you like to be part of the HPFT family? Would you like work with us to ensure our service users live the fullest lives possible they can? Would you like to be supported in your career to be the best that you can be?

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post would be based out of our St Albans service, but covers other locations in North Herts. Flexible and part time working arrangements are possible.

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the rehabilitation services based upon the appropriate use, interpretation, and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods of proven efficacy including CBT, across the full range of care settings.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of evidence-based psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, 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 both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To provide specialist psychological supervision, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulations, diagnoses, and treatment plans.
• To ensure that all members of the treating team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

For full details of the role and responsibilities for this vacancy please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification documents attached.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Good honours degree in psychology. Eligibility for graduate membership of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
• Substantial full-time post-registration experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment with clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature.
• Full registration with Health Professions Council
• Experience in neuropsychological assessment

Desirable

• Related academic qualifications to masters or doctorate level.
• Post-doctoral training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice.

Experience

Essential

• Assessed experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adults of working age with a wide range of presentations of varying severity. Typically this would involve a minimum of four years experience with 2 years at highly specialist level, or its equivalent demonstrated through CV and interview.
• Experience of working with moderate to severe mental health problems, including: medically unexplained symptoms, physical health problems, and personality difficulties.
• Demonstrate further specialist clinical experience and training, through a minimum of 50 hours clinical supervision of working as a specialist clinical psychologist over a minimum of 18 months, or an agreed alternative
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for client's psychological care and treatment.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision, including supervision of clinical psychology trainee(s).
• Experience working within a multi-disciplinary therapy service.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research design and methodology.
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management with clients with complex problems, including specialised psychological interventions for difficult to treat groups (eg multiple mental health and/or physical health problems). Ability to demonstrate an area of special interest/skill in assessment, therapeutic intervention or research/evaluation.
• Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS and HCPC

Skills

Essential

• Able to work at a high level of professional autonomy and responsibility, in a collaborative multi-disciplinary environment and also as a lone worker in circumstances where there may be exposure to verbal and sometimes physical aggression.
• Ability to work and communicate highly sensitive, contentious information effectively in a highly emotive or hostile atmosphere, and to overcome barriers to acceptance/psychological resistance to potentially threatening information.
• Ability to work face to face with patients in isolated potentially hostile settings without other team members being nearby.
• Ability to demonstrate an interest in working with adults and older people with 'common' mental health needs.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations.

Employer details

Employer name

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Beacon

26 Kingharry Lane

St Albans

AL3 4AU

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

367-LD&F-8408