Harrow Adult Mental Health is looking for a highly motivated and passionate Psychologist to join our expanding psychological therapies team. This specialist post is offered within the acute pathway, and sits across the Home Treatment Team and Mental Health Emergency Assessment Centre.

The Acute Psychology Pathway provides integrated and high quality psychologically-informed care to service users with acute mental health presentations including psychosis, complex emotional needs and PTSD. The successful candidate will play a key role in the urgent assessment of service users presenting to acute services, and the development of creative, multi-disciplinary care plans to support these service users outside of hospital. They will be involved in the provision of psychological intervention that follows service users from acute to community services, under our continuity pathway.

The post-holder will also be expected to take a leading role in the ongoing development of Harrow's Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) model for the adult mental health services. This approach has been established in Harrow acute services over the last six years, recently published (Nikopaschos et al. 2023) and now also influencing National Policy (see NHSE Guidelines for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Care for Adults and Older Adults, 2023).

Harrow is committed to the continued development of our staff. In line with this, the post-holder will be funded to complete EMDR training in 2024/25.

Main duties of the job

The Harrow Home Treatment Team and Mental Health Emergency Centre work closely together with the inpatient wards and Community Mental Health Hub as a cohesive system, which provides holistic intervention to adults with mental health difficulties in Harrow. The post holder will join an expanding therapies team, committed to providing highly specialist and trauma-informed psychological care, integrated across this system. They will work closely with the full range of MDT professionals, including psychiatry, nursing, occupational therapy and peer support. They will playa key role in the assessment of service users presenting to acute services, the development of creative multi-disciplinary care plans, and the provision of psychological intervention that follows service users across the system.

The post-holder will be expected to work as a senior member of the multi-professional team, including the provision of consultation, co-working, teaching, training, supervision and research as well as developing specific training to enhance the systematic provision of psychological interventions offered to service users by all members of the team within a 'stepped-care' framework. They will make a leading contribution to the learning culture of the team and wider service, and play an integral role in the further development and embedding of TIA.

Specialist supervision is offered in EMDR, DBT, NET, CBT, Open Dialogue, CAT, systemic and psychodynamic models.

About us

CNWL provides NHS servicesthroughout a person's life, in physical and mental health and everything inbetween, at GPs and hospitals to the community and in their own home.

The majority of our services are provided in the community, which means treating people in their homes or from clinics close to home. In this sense we are a very modern part of the NHS, something the new Long Term Plan wants to see more of, with better integration and coordination of care, delivered as close to home as possible

Where community care is not possible we offer a number of facilities to treat people in hospital or residential environments. We also provide healthcare in prisons in London and the surrounding areas.

Partnerships are central to what we do here - with patients and their families, with staff and with other organisations, especially commissioners and providers but also with local authorities, GPs, universities and the voluntary sector. We envisage more in the years to come.

We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

To provide a highly specialist psychology service to service users under the care of the Harrow Home Treatment Team (HTT) and Mental Health Emergency Assessment Centre (MHEAC), 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 the Acute Pathway.

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.

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients under the care of the Harrow HTT and MHEAC.

To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.

To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

Where appropriate, to act as named worker and take responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing of care plans and co-ordination of multi-professional meetings.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

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 services 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.

KR 3 Policy and service development

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.

KR 4 Care or management of resources

To take care of, and use carefully, the Trusts equipment and physical resources.

To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5 Management and supervision

To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychologists with support from a more senior psychologist.

To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism.

To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychologists, as appropriate.

To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychologists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.

To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the Harrow HTT and MHEAC by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychology and acute mental health, and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.

To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

KR 8 Research and development

To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.

To initiate and carry out appropriate research (NB: not a major job requirement [major = 20% or more of job]).

To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to the Harrow HTT and MHEAC.

To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.

To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC Standards for Continuing Professional Development.

To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.

To comply with the HCPC Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics and Standards of Proficiency, and ensure professional development in line with these.

To adhere to the BPSs Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

KR 10 General

To travel within the Harrow area for home visits as appropriate and across the Trust 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 and to support others involved in such situations.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• oEntry-level qualification in Applied Psychology (professional Doctorate, or combination of MSc plus PG Diploma level additional training) that has been accepted by the HCPC for purposes of professional registration.
• oAdditional training in a specialised area of psychological practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, or an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma.
• oCompleted training course in clinical supervision.
• oRegistered with the HCPC as Practitioner Psychologist, and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the HCPC. (

Desirable

• oPost-qualification training in supervision and management

Experience

Essential

• oEvidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision
• oExperience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature. (
• oExperience of supervising assistant and trainee psychologists having completed the relevant training
• oPost-qualification experience that supports working with, and addressing issues of, diversity within local communities.
• oExperience of carrying out post-doctoral research, audit or service evaluation projects.

Desirable

• oExperience of teaching and training
• oExperience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team

Knowledge

Essential

• oKnowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological assessments and interventions for acute and crisis presentation
• oTheoretical knowledge of psychological presentations and the evidence base for the relevant treatment
• oAdvanced knowledge of psychological assessment and clinical psychometrics
• oKnowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities
• oDoctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis
• oKnowledge of factors affecting acceptability and accessibility of mental health care.

Desirable

• oHigh level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.

Skills

Essential

• oTo deliver psychological therapy across cultural and other differences.
• oTo select and administer specialist psychological assessments, interpreting and integrating complex data that require analysis, interpretation and comparison, drawn from several sources.
• oTo communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information.
• oTo plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and for meetings such as CPAs and case reviews
• oTo plan allocation of tasks to assistant psychologists
• oTo be skilled in the administration of psychometric and neuropsychological tests, including those that require complex manipulation of test materials
• oWell-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data.
• oSkills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups

Abilities

Essential

• oAbility to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles.
• oAbility to identify an
  Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.
  
  333-J-HA-0597