Job summary
We are looking for a highly skilled, motivated and committed Principal Clinical Psychologist to join the Bexley MSK Pain Psychology service at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.
We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds and support flexible and agile working arrangements.
Psychological professions are highly valued within Oxleas, and the successful candidate can expect an inclusive and supportive context within which to develop your career and contribute to the development of our pain psychology offer.
The post holder will join a multidisciplinary pain team that includes Pain Consultants, Pain Psychologists, Advanced Practice Physiotherapists, Pain Management Physiotherapists, Service Manager and Administrative staff. The post involves close working with MDT members to provide holistic care to treat persistent pain in a community setting so strong communication and team-working skills are essential.
The post is based clinically within the Bexley MSK Team, receiving referrals from King's Pain Team and Bexley MSK. Oxleas provides KCH pain clinic's specialist physiotherapist and psychological support to their MDT pain clinic.
Supervision will be provided by the Consultant Clinical Psychologist who is embedded within the MSK service.
Main duties of the job
To lead on the development of a group patient pathway to help manage patient flow through the service. To contribute to ensuring the systematic provision of a high quality and specialist psychological therapy service to patients with chronic pain. The Bexley MSK Psychology service offers clinical input to MSK patients as well as deliver the KCH outpatient pain management program for patients in Bexley.
To offer training, supervision, consultation, advice and guidance on the provision of psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and other clinical members of the team, and to other non-professional carers, who provide psychologically-based assessment, care and treatment. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service.
About us
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
1. We're Kind
2. We're
3. We Listen
4. We Care
Job description
Job responsibilities
To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the MSK Pain Management Service and other clients deemed appropriate by the psychology and service leads from the general MSK service when necessary or appropriate based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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 and physical health problems (in terms of the psychological management of physical symptoms which can complement any medical based approach pain management skills or skills to manage health anxiety) based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within the MSK service where necessary or appropriate individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To use routine outcome measures as required by the service.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models with particular reference to pain management and health psychology theory 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 advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake 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 contribute to the design, evaluation and delivery of the Pain Management Programme RESTORE as directed and agreed with the Band 8a psychologist who is responsible for the day to day design, evaluation and delivery of the Programme, including assessment of suitable clients and routine collection of outcome data.
To identify on the basis of the exclusion and inclusion criteria for the pain management service clients referred for pain management psychological assessment whose needs are best served by other local services rather than or in addition to the MSK Pain management service IAPT or CMHT services and to liaise as appropriate with these teams to make onward referrals and to work alongside these teams if dual integrated work is considered appropriate.
Where appropriate, to undertake holistic initial assessment of new referrals to the MSK Psychology service and to identify on the basis of the exclusion and inclusion criteria for the service and psychological assessment and formulation clients whose needs are best served by other local services IAPT or CMHT and to liaise as appropriate with these teams to make onward referrals and / or work in conjunction with these teams to support the delivery of services by physical health therapists.
To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients on caseload and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
5. Post-graduate Doctoral level training and qualification in Clinical Psychology, as accredited by the BPS and recognised by HCPC
6. Professional registration with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist
7. Evidence of continuing professional development as required by professional bodies for Clinical Psychology, relevant to the post
Desirable
8. Post-Doctoral training in specific theoretical models MBCT, Mindfulness, CFT ACT and/or psychological specialities Health Psychology
9. Completed training/CPD in clinical leadership
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
10. Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
11. Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
Desirable
12. A commitment to and the evaluation of services and enthusiasm for audit, research and service evaluation.
Personal
Essential
13. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
14. Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of emotive and distressing problems.
Desirable
15. Enthusiasm for working within MDT and with patients with chronic pain
Experience
Essential
16. Substantial assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical psychologist with 2 years at a highly specialist level.
17. Experience working in physical health settings with clients with chronic physical health conditions.
Desirable
18. Experience of leading long term condition management groups
19. Experience of the application of psychological theory in the management of chronic pain.