Working 32 hours per week. An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join out inpatient services for people in later life. Cothele, based in Derriford Hospital, is our mental health inpatient unit, and Edgcumbe, based within Mount Gould Hospital, is our dementia ward. Both wards are staffed by a team of friendly dedicated professionals who welcome the skills psychologists have to offer.
This is a new posting that the successful applicant can shape and develop, and would suit someone with a vision of what inpatient care in later life should look like.
You will receive regular supervision to guide and support your personal and professional development, and you will have unrivalled access to a network of clinical psychologist working in various specialities across the organisation.
We believe that education and learning should be a life long venture, so we would assist you financially to embark on any relevant post qualification training course you wish to complete.
Devon is a beautiful part of the world, and Plymouth is a thriving affordable city with much to offer. Our city is surrounded by lovely countryside walks and cycle tracks, moors steeped in history for you to roam and explore, and clean beaches and water sports to suit all ages.
We encourage 3rd year trainees about to qualify, and those who still consider themselves newly qualified and interested in later life psychology to apply.
Main duties of the job
LiveWell South West serves a population of approximately 250,000. This post is setwithin two inpatient services for people in later life.
Job Purpose
Toimprove the psychological health and wellbeing of people admitted for inpatientcare.
To support colleagues working on the ward, and ensure clinical practice is psychologically informed.
Toprovide highly specialist psychological assessment, intervention and evaluation using avariety of applied psychology models and tools.
To support and supervise staff who deliver psychological interventionsto patients.
Toutilise research skills for audit, policy and service development
To perform specialist psychology and neuropsychological assessments when required.
To provide consultation, teaching and advice to ward staff, families, care &residential staff, and other professionals working with older people.
To provide consultation and guidance to other professionals within the team regardingthe psychological aspects of their client work.
This role may not be eligible for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route,
Please note that Livewell may close the job advertisement earlier than the specified deadline if a high number of applications are submitted. Therefore, we recommend you submit your application at the earliest opportunity.
All Livewell staff are expected to be able and willing to work across a 7 day service.
About us
Livewell Southwest is an independent, award-winning social enterprise providing integrated health & social care services for people across Plymouth, South Hams & West Devon, as well as some specialist services for people living in parts of Devon & Cornwall. With teams in community hospitals, GP practices, sports centres, health & wellbeing hubs.
As an organisation with a strong social conscience, we always value being kind, respectful, inclusive, ambitious, responsible and collaborative. Transforming services to make them sustainable, ensuring that we value, support & empower each other.
We are committed to involving the people we care for, families & carers in everything that we do, working towards co-production where we can. Helping us to deliver the right care for people, in the right place & at the right time. By putting people at the centre of what we do, we ensure to support people to lead, healthy independent lives & be the very best at helping people to live well.
Valuing our employees making an investment in their development a priority. We offer:
Protected CPD time for registered staff
Various development pathways and ongoing regular training packages for all staff
Access & funding for training including Care Certificate, Assistant Practitioners Course & Scholarship Into Nurse Training
A Robust Preceptorship
A bespoke induction programme
Existing members of the NHS Pension Scheme can continue their membership when they join the organisation.
Job responsibilities
To adviseboth service and professional management on those aspects of the service wherepsychological and or wider organisational matters need addressing
Tocontribute to service development initiatives being progressed in the inpatientservice.
To possessand practice a high level of communication and relationship skills insituations where emotional distress and risk of self-harm and of lifethreatening behaviour can be expected.
To dealeffectively with highly distressing service user and family situations (e.g.family breakdown, abuse, verbal aggression, challenging behaviour) and tosupport other staff in their responses to such situations (e.g. throughsupervision, consultation, debriefing).
Tocommunicate with staff in the Later Life community teams, health, social care, and the voluntary sector ina highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive informationconcerning the assessment, formulation and intervention plans for people whoare under our care.
To providesupport and guidance in the application of psychological principles andtechniques and to foster reflective practice at an individual and group level.
To be responsiblefor providing a specialist psychological service to people in later life people presentingwith complex physical health problems, psychological disorders andbehavioural difficulties.
To use theoreticaland practical knowledge to perform specialist psychological, psychometricassessments which require specialist analytic and interpretive skills.
To drawon multiple sources and a range of theoretical psychological models andknowledge to develop formulations that guides the development of clinicalinterventions and care plans at an individual and group level. This includes makingskilled evaluations and decisions regarding the psychological management ofclients, including the management of risk.
To writepsychological reports for service users, referrers and carers detailing theoutcome of assessments and interventions and to communicate such complexinformation in a sensitive manner.
Toprovide advice and guidance through the process of consultation onpsychological aspects of a persons care to the person, colleagues, serviceproviders, paid carers and families.
To ensuresystematic psychological assessment of patients on admission takes place withina given period.
To plan and prioritise workload, exercising autonomousprofessional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge ofclients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
To workprimarily within a multidisciplinary approach where a variety of opinion andexpertise is brought to bear on a situation. To contribute to serviceinnovation for older people with mental health problems to best meet theorganisations strategy and priorities.
To beresponsible for planning and prioritising own workload and for balancingindividual responsibilities for service user work with other roles within andoutside the teams e.g. clinical audit, service development, consultancy andtraining.
To leadthe day to day delivery of a psychology service for in-patients with organicand functional illness.
Being responsiblefor assessing, formulating and implementing plans for a range of evidence-basedpsychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, groups andservice delivery systems.
Beingresponsible for the adjustment and refining of psychological formulations,drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number ofprovisional hypotheses based upon the analysis of each individual case. Inparticular to be responsible for providing a direct service for patients whosepsychological issues demand more than a standard therapeutic approach e.g.basic CBT may have been tried unsuccessfully, methods and approach may needsignificant adaptation. In addition, to demonstrate awareness of race, cultureand diversity issues. To assess and manage risk within an appropriatepsychological framework.
To be responsiblefor providing specialist advice and consultation to other service members onpsychological aspects of mental health; including appropriate treatmentapproaches, complex issues of engaging people with memory difficulties andmaintaining change, and working with the wider systems which affect a personswellbeing (e.g. family, paid carers).
Tointerpret and contribute to the development of policies and procedures for theprovision of psychology and psychological therapy services for OPMH.
To contribute to the multi-professional planning,development and marketing of mental health wellbeing services.
Tomaintain and apply psychometric tests and equipment, and evaluate progress.
To superviseassistant psychologists and trainee clinical psychologists.
To providetherapy supervision to non-psychology staff providing psychological therapies onthe wards.
To providestaff with a forum for reflective practice and team formulation of patients.
Thepost holder will be required to compile clinical reports, maintain accuraterecords using the appropriate IT system and be responsible for any other administrativetasks relating to their clinical work e.g. clinical audit and reports.
Thepost holder is responsible for liaising with other team members and health andsocial care employees, both in verbal and written form in order to co-ordinateeffective and appropriate care for older people using Later Life Services.
To ensurethat other staff including ward staff and managers across a range of agenciesand settings have access to a psychologically based framework for theunderstanding and care of inpatients through the provision of specialistpsychological advice, guidance and consultation, and the sharing ofpsychological research and theory.
To carryout research activities as and when required, applying knowledge of researchmethodology and to contribute research knowledge and expertise to the researchactivities of other disciplines as required by the service.
To takeresponsibility and develop effective means of auditing and evaluating theoutcomes of individual work, team activity and clinics within the service.
The postholder will be involved in identifying and implementing service developmentswhich will enhance the treatment opportunities provided to service users andcarers, through consultation and collaboration with managers, team members andlocality wide facilities.
The post holder is accountable for their ownprofessional actions, acting within LiveWell South West policies andprocedures and Professional Practice Guidelines (HCPC).
To work autonomously within clinical professional guidelines andexercise responsibility for the governance of psychological practice with theHealth and Social Care partnership for Later Life Services.
To provide expert and specialist clinical psychologist expertise andadvice guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of client care tocolleagues, and, other service providers, and families.
To ensureall clinical care and treatment provided by psychology is carried out underappropriate supervision and leadership.
The postholder will ensure that they maintain their awareness of research findingsconcerning psychology, assessment and therapeutic interventions.
To contributeto the supervision of Trainee Clinical Psychologists on D.Clin Psych Course(Plymouth University).
Person Specification
Communication Skills
* Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex highly technical and or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families carers and other professional colleagues, both within and outside the NHS.
* IT Skills
* Ability to work within a multidisciplinary team and promote psychological interventions as appropriate
* Emotional robustness to frequently work with the intense distress of others
* Strong leadership qualities, resilience and ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty
Experience
* Experience of teaching and training others
* Experience in assessing, formulating and providing interventions for older people with mental health problems & dementia
* Experience of conducting psychological assessments
* Experience of working in teams and maintaining working relationships and a high degree of professionalism
* This post requires a person to have gained theoretical and practical knowledge specific to organic and later life issues and interventions that is significantly beyond the core levels necessary to achieve Chartered status
* Knowledge of Older People Mental Health services in the NHS, skills and practice of clinical psychology.
* Knowledge of research methodology, research design, data analysis consistent with Chartered Psychology professions
* Broad knowledge of Older Peoples Mental Health and Dementia in-patient services
* Experience of conducting and interpreting neuropsychological assessments
* Experience of the application of clinical psychology in different cultural contexts
Analytical & Judgement Skills
* Ability to integrate complex data, make highly skilled evaluations and decisions, and take a long-term perspective
* Proficient in the manipulation of complex psychological test equipment for use in formal testing situations
* Ability to adapt style and/or assessment and intervention strategies to meet the challenges of complex clients /situations
Qualifications
* Qualified Clinical/Counselling Psychologist (D.Clin. Psych or equivalent) and registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist
* Postgraduate qualification/training in either: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Systemic family therapy, Mindfulness based therapies, Cognitive Stimulation Therapy.
* Formal training in supervision of other psychologists
* Further training in or significant experience in neuropsychological assessment
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
#J-18808-Ljbffr