We are excited to recruit applicants for a new role in psychology, the Clinical Associate in Psychology (CAP). CAPs will be one of the professions that will help us to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan to meet the psychological needs of people with complex mental health and social problems living in Bedfordshire and Luton. We are particularly keen to hear from applicants who have ties with and a commitment to working in our local area, from those with diverse backgrounds and from people who bring lived experience relevant to mental health work. The CAPs role has been developed to fill an identified skills gap between assistant psychologists and qualified clinical psychologists. The applicant will be able to practice autonomously with appropriate support, working within their scope of practice, under the supervision of a registered clinical psychologist, as well as working alongside different professionals and in different settings.

We are currently advertising for a post within our Memory Assessment Service in Bedfordshire, mainly based in the mid-Bedfordshire locality. We are looking for someone who has completed the relevant training that will enable applying for qualified CAP posts.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide assessments for people receiving services within our Memory Assessment Services, with a focus on assessment of people living in care homes. This role sits within our work offering the Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate tool (DiADeM) for care home settings. This is a new way of working for our memory services; it is often unnecessary and distressing for some people living with advanced dementia to be offered a formal memory assessment within a memory clinic setting. However, people with advanced dementia, their families and staff caring for them, still benefit from a formal diagnosis as it allows access to appropriate care to meet individual needs and prompts staff to consider MCA and DOLs issues where appropriate. The post holder will be responsible for using the DiADeM tool in care homes to support diagnostic decision making, in conjunction with the multi-disciplinary team.

The post holder will work with people who use our services and their carers to develop a shared understanding of cognitive difficulties, how they cope and the impact this has on their care, mental and physical health needs. Service users seen by the post holder will include those who are experiencing cognitive difficulties and may present with behaviours that express distress.

About us

This is an exciting new opportunity to be actively involved in developing how we develop services and creative new ways of supporting people living with a dementia to access appropriate diagnostic understanding and care.

For further information, please contact:

Dr Kim Caldwell (Consultant Clinical Psychologist)

kim.caldwell1@nhs.net

Dr Jeannette Fuller (Principal Clinical Psychologist)

jeannette.fuller@nhs.net or 07876 847115

Lisa Davies (Operational Manager for Memory Assessment Services)

lisa.davies10@nhs.net

Job description Job responsibilities

• To provide psychological assessments, in particular using the DiADeM tool, to support diagnostic decision making in conjunction with a multi-disciplinary team
• To use psychological assessment skills to understand with the person their symptoms and behaviours in relation to their experiences and wider social context.
• To help service users identify the best options/interventions to help them with what matters to them.
• Where indicated to develop plans for ongoing support.
• To be responsible for providing and receiving complex, sensitive, distressing and emotional information in relation to health issues where these may be difficult to hear.
• To spend sustained amounts of time with service users whose behaviour may be aggressive and hostile, who may have poor verbal communication skills and self-care and specific physical and/or mental health needs.
• To be mindful of the needs and assets of individuals and families from a wide range of racial, cultural, sexual, religious and social backgrounds. To join with service users and colleagues, co-producing innovative ways of communicating and working across language and cultural differences.

Person Specification Education/ Qualification/ Training Essential

• An approved qualification in psychology conferring eligibility for graduate basis for registration with the British Psychological Society, (Class 2.2 or higher).
• Completion of approved training for Clinical Associate in Psychology roles

Desirable

• Attendance at specialist short courses relevant to the post (e.g. further training in cognitive assessment, working with dementia)

Experience Essential

• Experience of work in the NHS or outreach work, or local engagement work (e.g. youth worker, mentoring, peer support etc), experience of working in voluntary sector, working in community groups.
• Work with client groups with serious mental health problems: omental health care and/or oworking with carers and/or odelivering therapeutic group interventions and/or oworking in MDTs and/or oAudit, evaluation or research.
• Work in multi-cultural settings

Desirable

• oWork with community, voluntary & social enterprise organisations.
• oWork with behaviours that express distress
• oLived experience of mental health issues or psychological problems as a service user or carer

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

363-BED11562-A