We are delighted to offer the exciting opportunity to create and deliver a new Critical Care Unit (CCU) psychology lead role at the Whittington hospital, Whittington Health NHS Trust. We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic psychologist who can draw on strong communication and team-working skills to work with MDT colleagues to support patients and significant others in their CCU experience and psychological recovery. The successful candidate will have extensive post-qualification clinical and consulting experience in the area of physical health care and will have provided input for psychological trauma. The post-holder will become part of the lively, welcoming Clinical Health Psychology (CHP) team who meet regularly to maximize team working and mutual learning, with some management responsibility. The CHP and CCU teams value and celebrate diversity and welcome candidates from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Key days include Tuesday and Thursday.

Main duties of the job

This new senior role involves designing and leading the provision of a psychology service for the Whittington Health CCU, working closely with MDT and CHP colleagues. Key areas include providing psychological input to inpatients (in CCU and when stepped down to other wards) and outpatients attending the CCU follow-up clinic. Other tasks include contributing a psychological perspective to MDT-led patient recovery projects and providing staff reflective practice and training as needed.

The psychologist will be able to work independently and flexibly, providing specialist psychological assessment, clinical formulation, intervention and management recommendations to patients, families and other staff. The postholder is invited to work creatively, drawing on a range of therapy approaches, in individual or group work, to help clients to cope with and recover from their CCU experience.

The post involves offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to highly skilled 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 using research skills for audit, policy and service development and research.

The postholder will become part of the CHP team, with a management role within this team, enjoying exciting opportunities for mutual learning, service development and continuing professional development.

About us

The partnership betweenBarnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust (BEH)andCamden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C& I)is going from strength to strength since it was originally established in 2021 forming theNorth London Mental Health Partnership.

Why choose to join the Partnership?

• We believe that by working together, our two Trusts can achieve more for the residents of North Central London and our patients than we can by working apart.
• Deliver the best care using the most up-to-date practise in supporting those with mental health illnesses.
• Transforming and creating a positive environment for our service users, staff and visitors.
• Creating and working together to become a great place to work for all our staff.
• We offer flexible working, a wide range of health and wellbeing initiatives, NHS Pension and so much more.
• Generous Annual Leave Allowance
• NHS Discounts in a large variety of retail stores and services.
• We have excellent internal staff network support groups.

Job description

Job responsibilities

CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• To provide specialist psychological assessments using interview, formal psychometric and other assessment methods as appropriate, for clients referred by the CCU team.
• To formulate and provide specialist psychological treatment and management plans for referred clients, working with carers and significant others as needed, using a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches.
• To manage individual caseload autonomously and professionally.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, psychosocial and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans and to make appropriate referrals onwards as necessary.
• To devise and deliver group-based interventions, leading in the development and provision of psychoeducational and other groups as needed.
• To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients.
• 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 complex 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 maximize opportunities for mutual learning with MDT colleagues to inform clinical work.
• To liaise with other health and social care staff, from a range of agencies within and outside of the NHS, in the care provided to clients.
• TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION
• To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
• To contribute to the teaching and training of non-psychology staff in psychological skills as appropriate.
• To provide advice, consultation and training to other health and social care staff working with the client group, where appropriate.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision and leadership to junior qualified psychologists, trainee psychologists and assistant psychologists where required.
• To participate in an agreed programme of post-qualification training and professional development towards developing advanced knowledge and practice.
• To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and clinical supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work as appropriate.
• To provide clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care.
• To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or other applied psychologists, as appropriate.
• To facilitate reflective practice sessions for the CCU teams, including working with challenging cases, as needed and requested.
• To contribute through consultation and training to the psychological understanding and ways of workings of other multidisciplinary and multi-professional teams within the service.

MANAGEMENT, RECRUITMENT, POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

• To use specialist knowledge, experience and skills to support the development of the service, to provide a key role in psychological aspects of service development across Whittington Health ICU and beyond and to provide a key role in better meeting the psychological needs of patients across Whittington Health.
• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the CCU 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 CCU service where psychological and/or organisational matters are relevant.
• To manage junior and assistant psychologists within the service and in training posts within the framework of the team and service's policies and procedures.
• To be involved in the short listing and interviewing of psychological staff as appropriate.
• To be an active participant in all multi-disciplinary forums related to the delivery of CCU psychology services e.g. MDTs, clinical forums, referral meetings, case discussions and research meetings.
• To share the preparation and chairing of key meetings within the CCU Psychology and Clinical Health Psychology Services in agreement with the CHP Service Lead.
• RESEARCH AND SERVICE EVALUATION
• To bring doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of psychology.
• 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 lead on and regularly engage in audit, research and service evaluation activities relevant to service and patient needs.
• ADMINISTRATION AND IT RESPONSIBILITIES
• To be responsible for personal record keeping, processing and storage of data and other clinically-related administrative tasks where appropriate.
• To ensure that all databases and patient records related to the service area are maintained satisfactorily.

Person Specification

Qualifications/ Registrations

Essential

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

Experience/ Knowledge

Essential

• Completion of substantial post-doctoral post-qualification supervised psychology experience working with clients experiencing post traumatic stress
• Experience of the application of clinical/counselling psychology to physical health problems
• Experience of working as a psychologist within a physical health multi-disciplinary team in the NHS.
• Experience of the management of qualified applied psychologists and/or psychological therapy staff.

Desirable

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients who are struggling with post traumatic stress linked to CCU admission
• Experience of facilitating groups within a physical health NHS context

Skills and abilities

Essential

• Well developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Interest and ability to contribute to service development
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups with regard to chronic/acute physical health condition management

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies e.g. advanced level training in CBT, ACT, CFT narrative and/or systemic therapy

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-1145