Are you interested in a role where every day is different and where you can use a variety of psychology skills? If so, we are looking for a caring and innovative clinical psychologist to join us. Our Specialist Older Adult's Mental Health Services (SOAMHS) is expanding to provide services to older people with mild-moderate needs within the community. The teams are small so you will be working with the whole range of mental health problems. The new service will be therapy led and the psychologists will have a significant role in this developing service

The London boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham are culturally highly diverse and there is a real commitment to meet the needs of the communities we serve. The post holder will be involved in ensuring psychology provision is appropriate and accessible for this diverse community.

Main duties of the job

There is a huge variety of work within this role and you will play a key part in supporting the more therapeutic nature of support throughout the service as well as providing andsupervising clinical interventions.

You will provide groups and individual therapy for people within the service as well as for their carers/families where indicated alongside other team members.

The team will include Clinical Associate Psychologists (CAPS) and part of your role will be to supervise these new members of the MDT who will join the teams in the New Year. You will promote psychological thinking within the MDT and the wider system around the patient through collaboration with partner agencies and supporting outreach within a wide range of community resources and organisations.

There is an emphasis on service development to ensure the needs of our patients are met and new ideas and evidence based approaches are welcomed. Links with third sector organisations such as AGE UK are encouraged.

About us

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.

Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.

We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.

We'rerated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Together, we're committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.

We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.

The regulations mandating vaccination for in-scope roles in the NHS have now been removed. The Trust does however continue to encourage and support staff to be vaccinated as this remains the best line of defence against COVID19. Vaccination data will be collected by our recruitment team during your on-boarding if you are happy to provide a copy of your COVID pass.

Job description Job responsibilities

The post-holder will work within newly formed teams which will be co-located with existing local Older Peoples Mental Health Services (OPMHS) which is well established. The teams are welcoming, supportive and value psychological input into patient care.

As the nature of the work we do and the client population is so diverse, flexibility of approach is essential to truly meet client needs.

The psychology service across OPMHS is informal and friendly and information, skills and ideas are regularly shared. This includes a range of therapeutic approaches and expertise.

OPMHS supports individual CPD and a range of training opportunities may be funded by the Trust.

The post holder will have regular individual supervision from an experienced Clinical Psychologist. In turn they will also provide supervision to colleagues, including newly appointed CAPS, and trainees as appropriate. OPMHS is also supportive of research activity and genuinely supportive of new ideas and innovation

Person Specification Qualifications Essential

• Good honours degree (2:1 minimum) in Psychology.
• Eligibility for graduate membership of BPS
• Post-graduate doctorate in clinical or counselling psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS.
• Registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.
• Training in clinical supervision for doctoral, and equivalent, trainees

Desirable

• Other related academic and post-graduate qualifications
• Evidence of post-doctoral training in psychological therapy techniques

Experience Essential

• Experience of working as a qualified (specialist) psychologist in a relevant clinical setting
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of having facilitated/co-facilitated psychological therapy groups

Desirable

• Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of administration, scoring and written interpretation of psychometric / neuropsychological tests

Knowledge Essential

• Advanced specialist knowledge, both theoretical and practical, of psychology applied to clinical practice
• Completion of at least 1 year's supervised practice in specialist clinical practice
• Specialist theoretical and practical knowledge of the assessment and treatment of complex mental health problems

Desirable

• Knowledge of relevant legislation and its implications for work in relevant setting

Skills Essential

• Able to provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where there are significant barriers to acceptance which need to be overcome using the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills such as would be required when communicating in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere.
• Able to make judgements involving highly complex facts or situations, which require the evaluation of a range of options (e.g. the assessment of specialist clinical conditions and the determination of treatment options), Where expert opinions may differ
• Able to plan, prioritise and organise own service user caseload, treatment programmes (individual or group) involving other staff, and other aspects of the work such as research activity
• Able to use database, word processing and test administration/scoring software
• Able to sit for lengthy periods of time while demonstrating active listening skills
• Able to maintain intense concentration frequently and for prolonged periods
• Able to function in highly emotionally distressing circumstances on a frequent basis (e.g. in dealing with service users with serious mental illness, histories of homicide and serious violence, self-harm, sexual abuse)

Desirable

• Working knowledge of SPSS

Other Requirements Essential

• Knowledge of the professional code of conduct of the BPS
• Must be capable of being guided by precedent, clearly defined policies, procedures and codes of conduct
• Able to reflect on own professional practice
• Willing to participate actively in CPD in line with BPS guidelines
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework
• Record of having published in either peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

222-LS-OPMHS-63-E