Our organisation is expanding and we're looking for people with the right values, skills and/or potential to join us. We need people with energy, expertise, enthusiasm to help us provide the very best possible specialist NHS mental health and learning disability care. This involves helping us achieve our strategy to improve the quality of life for the communities we serve through People, Prevention and Partnerships.
So what can we offer you in return?
We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.
You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.
As a Trust we are committed in making a difference. Your development is important to us, so don't forget to ask us during interview what opportunities we can offer. We can offer fully funded lifelong learning opportunities such as an apprenticeship from GCSE to Masters level.
If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.
Job overview
Are you looking for a role where you can shape service development and improve psychological care for those seeking treatment for obesity? This is an exciting opportunity to develop psychology within the bariatric surgery pathway at St. Richard's Hospital, University Hospitals Sussex (UHSx). Following a successful, one-year role we now offer this 1wte substantive post and are looking for a motivated and committed psychologist to provide pre-surgical assessment and introduce psychological support pre- and post-operatively based on current models of best practice.
The department at St Richard's is an International Centre of Excellence and you will be joining a dedicated MDT, with a departmental research portfolio, working within a highly rewarding specialty.
You will be working as an integral part of the MDT team, providing consultation and advice as well as individual assessment and therapy.
You will also be part of the wider Clinical Health Psychology Service within SPFT, a vibrant community of psychological professions providing care into physical health across Sussex.
Main duties of the job
As part of the bariatric multi-disciplinary team you will:
* Offer specialist assessments and treatment of clients under the care of the bariatric MDT, exercising autonomous professional responsibility.
* Provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals e.g. dieticians and clinical nurse specialists, to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients.
* Provide reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients.
* Maintain high standards of clinical practice, record keeping, and report writing in accordance with the Healthcare Professions Council and the British Psychological Society's code of conduct as well as Trust Policy.
* Contribute to multi-disciplinary case forums and training sessions to support the knowledge and skills of all staff within the service.
* Develop the role of psychology across the treatment pathway to improve patient outcomes pre- and post- operatively.
* Use research, audit and service development to continue to improve and develop the service in line with the current evidence base.
Working for our organisation
Sussex Partnership Trust provides mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex. We'd love you to join our organisation that is rated good overall and outstanding for caring by the Care Quality Commission. Other key staff survey results include:
* 70% highlighting flexible working opportunities as a key point for satisfaction at work
* 79% reporting feeling able to make suggestions to improve the work within their team
* 77% identifying the opportunities to show initiative in their roles
Clinical Health Psychology: You will be part of the Trust wide Clinical Health Psychology Team, providing the opportunity for continuing professional development, sharing of expertise, peer support, and promoting the integration of physical and mental health within the Trust.
Working in Sussex: Working in Chichester there is the opportunity to travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns- there's always new experiences to be enjoyed. You will be based within the Bariatric Service at St Richard's, seeing clients as outpatients. The role offers the opportunity for flexible working, with scope to offer some sessions remotely.
The post is offered full-time, 37.5 hours, but we would consider applications for part-time or flexible working.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
* To work as a member of the Bariatric MDT at St Richard's Hospital, University Hospital Sussex. To be clinically based with the bariatric team, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to patients across the bariatric surgical pathway. In addition, to support psychological practice within the unit through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.
* To participate in systematic clinical governance and to offer clinical supervision to assistant, trainee and more junior psychologists and other staff. To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by the team/service.
Scope & Authority:
* To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to individuals and groups accessing care from the bariatric surgical MDT, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways.
* To contribute to the development of a comprehensive psychology service which covers pre-surgical assessment and therapeutic intervention pre- and post-operatively where appropriate in alignment with service care pathways.
* To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients, within the bounds of the service operational policy.
* To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical management decisions in complex clinical issues.
* To clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate.
* To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate.
* To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.
* To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
* To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.
* To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service.
Key Results Areas:
Clinical :
1. To carry out specialist psychological assessments of patients, 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 patients, family members and others involved in the patients care in order to reach a psychological formulation of the patient's difficulties.
2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patient’s problems and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups across the pathway adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
4. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group.
5. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance, and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patients’ formulation, diagnoses and treatment plan.
6. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all patients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the patient group.
7. To undertake risk assessment, formulation and management for individual patients with complex presentations and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
8. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
9. To promote and participate in multi-disciplinary team working, development and liaison.
10. To promote actively, user and carer involvement in care planning and service.
See JD and PS for full details.
For further information please contact Dr Susan Hennessey, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Clinical Lead for Clinical Health Psychology, susan.hennessey@nhs.net.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Post-graduate doctoral level training in applied psychology [or its equivalent for those trained before 1996 or outside the UK*] as approved by the HPC, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology.
* Professionally registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC)
Knowledge/Experience
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of patients across the full range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and in-patient settings
* Demonstrate specialist experience gained postqualification of working as an applied psychologist with evidence of having received a substantial amount of clinical supervision (normally in the region of approximately 50 hours).
* Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology
* Experience of working with a wide variety of patient groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse
* Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
* Experience of the application of applied psychology in different cultural contexts and experience of working within a multicultural framework
* Experience of representing psychology within the context of multi-disciplinary care.
* Experience or demonstrable knowledge of working with the particular patient group served by the team/service
* Experience of working with adults who are overweight/obese and have an understanding of the associated medical comorbidities and the potential social and psychological implications of obesity
Sussex Partnership NHS FT is committed to supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black and Minority, Ethnic and disabled communities and we would welcome applications from these communities.
We regret that we are unable to advise candidates if they have not been shortlisted. If you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date please assume that you have been unsuccessful on this occasion.
In the event of an excessive number of applicants the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy earlier than indicated.
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust takes its responsibilities for the safeguarding and protection of children and young people and vulnerable adults very seriously and expects this of all its employees and bank workers. The Trust works with adult and children’s social care to ensure that the integrated service has systems in place to equip staff and bank workers with the knowledge and skills to recognize abuse, and take action to safeguard and protect vulnerable adults and children and young people. It is expected that all staff and bank workers familiarise themselves with the appropriate structures and policies and with the Sussex child protection and safeguarding procedures and the Sussex multi-agency policy and procedures for safeguarding vulnerable adults and undertake the relevant essential training and further training appropriate to their role.
Successful candidates are normally offered salaries at the bottom of the relevant salary range. However, where previous or equivalent NHS experience in a similar role can be demonstrated and evidenced, this may be taken into consideration when setting the starting salary.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Name Susan Hennessey Job title Clinical Lead for Clinical Health Psychology Email address susan.hennessey@nhs.net
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