Highly Specialist Family and Systemic Family Psychotherapist
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
This is a new post aimed at reshaping the systemic profession's structure and promote systemic practice across Lewisham CAMHS.
The post holder will work closely with the Principal Family Therapist to provide a comprehensive range of assessment and therapeutic interventions, and consultation to professionals supporting children, young people and families referred to CAMHS with mental health difficulties including neurodevelopmental conditions.
We are looking for a creative and enthusiastic Systemic Family Therapist who is passionate about working with children and young people, who is keen to develop collaborative approaches and support the commitment of Lewisham CAMHS to continually improve access to services for all community groups.
You will work alongside a multi-disciplinary team to contribute to the delivery of high quality, evidence-based assessment and treatments. You will be responsible for your own clinical caseload and you will be involved in assessments, care planning and offering interventions for children and adolescents with support from the wider multi-disciplinary team.
Lewisham CAMHS works closely with Kings and IoPPN to provide learning opportunities to systemic Practitioners and Psychotherapists and there are opportunities to provide additional training clinics, teaching and supervision.
Main duties of the job
1. To provide highly specialist systemic psychotherapy to young people and their families under the care of Lewisham CAMHS including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
2. To think creatively, work flexibly and have a range of clinical skills in working alongside others to support a complex range of service users and their network.
3. To provide systemic supervision and consultation as appropriate and enable other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
4. To contribute to service evaluation, audit and research.
5. To work as an autonomous professional within AFT and UKCP guidelines and guided by principles and policies or procedures, taking full responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
About us
Lewisham has a total population of 303,500, making it the 14th largest borough in London and the 6th largest in inner London (by population size). Approximately 23% of the population are aged between 0-17 years old (68, 458), with slightly more males than females (35,095 compared to 33,363) (based on ONS 2018 mid-year estimates). The percentage of 0-19-year-olds of BME heritage has remained at marginally above 65% since the 2011 Census. By 2031 it is expected to reach 67%. The school language census taken in Autumn 2018 showed that over 170 languages are spoken in Lewisham.
The objective of Lewisham Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is to provide a multidisciplinary diagnostic, assessment, treatment, advisory and consultative service for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. The service has five Specialist Multidisciplinary Teams: Horizon (Generic), Neuro Developmental Team (for children with significant neurodevelopmental problems including ASD), Symbol (for Looked After and Adopted CYP); ATT (for young people with severe and enduring mental health problems) and ARTs (for young offenders). In addition, the Paediatric Liaison Service offers a service to children with psychological problems associated with chronic health conditions and the Child Well-Being Practitioner and the Mental Health in Schools Teams offer low intensity intervention to CYP who have mild to moderate Depression, Anxiety or Behavioural Problems.
Job responsibilities
1. KR 1 Clinical and Client Care: To provide specialist systemically informed psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for Children, Young People, their family and Network where the identified client has complex mental health needs. To provide culturally appropriate, evidenced informed Systemic interventions in partnership with carers, networks or families of referred clients. To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans. To act as care co-ordinator taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans, and network meetings. To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information and provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers, service users and their families. To promote psychological support for carers (or families as appropriate) of referred clients. To ensure that all services provided are accessible, respectful and sensitive to the needs of Lewisham's diverse communities.
2. KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning: To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically and systemically informed framework in CAMHS. To provide consultations to other clinical staff on the use of family therapy and systemic psychotherapy techniques and, where appropriate, to jointly work with other team members in the provision of therapeutic interventions. To take a proactive stance in challenging racism and discrimination and support the development of a culturally competent service. To advise on the development and integration within the team of systemically based assessment and interventions that might at a systems level be incorporated within the team's operational policy, and be applied on a routine basis by other team members. To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans and to arrange and lead network meetings as appropriate. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in clinical work and work with other team members. To participate in helping develop services for families and carers of service users.
3. KR 3 Policy and service development: To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes. To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects. To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
4. KR 4 Care or management of resources: To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust's equipment and physical resources.
5. KR 5 Management and supervision: To be responsible for the day-to-day supervision or co-ordination of an agreed workload of more junior or trainee family therapists, systemic practitioners and other CAMHS Clinicians. To contribute to the appraisal of more junior or trainee family therapists, systemic practitioners and other CAMHS Clinicians. To participate in the recruitment of more junior family therapists, systemic practitioners and other CAMHS Clinicians, as appropriate. To provide professional and clinical supervision to junior family therapists, family workers or systemic practitioners, honoraries and trainee family and systemic psychotherapists for all aspects of their work. To provide supervision for the systemic and family work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.
6. KR 6 Teaching and Training: To plan and undertake teaching and training of pre and post-qualification family and systemic psychotherapists and specialised training to other professions as appropriate. To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within Lewisham CAMHS by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in the field of systemic practice and by implementing knowledge gained in practice. To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles. To provide training in family/social network inclusive practice to multi-disciplinary teams. To deliver in-service training workshops and seminars on systemic topics for practitioners (e.g. nurses, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, paediatric staff etc.), and to contribute to multidisciplinary training events which may be organised by other staff within the Trust.
7. KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance: To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
8. KR 8 Research and development: To initiate, undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits. To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to improved access and outcome to young people in need of risk support. To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.
9. KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development: To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior family and systemic psychotherapist according to UKCP and Trust guidelines. To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with AFT and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the UKCP Continual Professional Development guidelines. To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies. To comply with UKCP Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct and ensure professional development in line with these. To adhere to the UKCP Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct and Trust policies and procedures.
10. KR 10 General: To travel to appropriate meetings and as appropriate in community settings and across the trust when required. To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour and follow trust policies relating to its management, including lone working policies. To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc) and to support others involved in such situations through Trust-wide approaches including Critical Incident Staff Support and Reflect-Support-Resolve.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Post-graduate qualification in relevant mental health/social welfare profession and demonstrable practice in this field (A/I)
* Masters level qualification in Family and Systemic Psychotherapy or equivalent qualification, accredited by UKCP. (A/I)
* Registered with the UKCP as Systemic Psychotherapist and evidence of continuing professional development as required by the UKCP. (A/I)
* Completed training course in clinical supervision and/or Accredited by AFT to supervise qualified Systemic and Family Psychotherapists (A/I)
* Additional training in a specialised area of systemic practice through formal post-qualification training (PG Diploma or equivalent), OR a combination of specialist short courses, OR an evidenced portfolio of supervised practice-based learning in a specialist area of clinical practice, assessed by an experienced clinical supervisor to be of equal level to a Postgraduate Diploma. (A/I/R)
Experience
* Evidence of having worked as a clinical specialist under supervision in community mental health services or Social Care setting. (A/I)
* Experience of providing specialist systemic assessment, formulation and interventions with clients across a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in community, social care or acute mental health services. (A/I)
* Experience of providing consultation to a range of staff groups (A/I)
* Experience of working with, and addressing issues of, diversity, including experience of working within a multicultural framework. (A/I)
* Experience of carrying out research, audit or service evaluation projects. (A/I)
* Experience of working with service users that mainstream services have struggled to engage, who frequently experience discrimination and present to acute and crisis services with multiple and complex risk presentations.
* Experience of providing teaching and training to family and systemic psychotherapists or other professional groups. (A/I)
* Experience of delivering Specialist interventions and working with complex networks across multiple services and agencies in relation to risk of harm to self and others.
* Experience of assessments for neurodevelopmental conditions such as ASD and ADHD.
* The Trust encourages and welcomes applications from people with lived experience of mental health challenges. We see this as valuable and recognise the positive impact this experience can have on the work we do.
Knowledge
* Knowledge of the theory and practice of family and systemic psychotherapy, psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for a range of diagnostic groups and Mental Health presentations. (A/I)
* Theoretical knowledge of Mental Health presentations and the evidence base for relevant interventions with individuals, families and networks. (A/I)
* Advance knowledge of the barriers experienced by diverse groups in accessing mental health services and of the emerging evidence base to improve access.
* Advanced knowledge of a range of systemic models in assessment and treatment, including knowledge of specific family and systemic theories and evidence.
* Knowledge of legislation in relation to mental health issues, child and adult protection, and equalities. (A/I)
* Knowledge and experience in risk management in relation to self-harm and harm to others across a range of diagnostic groups.
* Knowledge of neurodevelopmental conditions such as ASD and ADHD.
* Doctoral level knowledge of psychological research methodology and complex statistical analysis. (A/I)
Skills
* To deliver psychotherapeutic, psychological and systemic interventions across cultural and other differences. (A/I)
* To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers and colleagues overcoming barriers to communication including sensory, and emotional difficulties, cultural differences and hostility to or rejection of information. (A/I)
* To plan and schedule assessment and interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, and for meetings such as CPAs, network meetings and case reviews. (A/I)
* To clinically supervise trainees and qualified systemic Psychotherapists.
* Well-developed IT skills including entry and analysis of research data. (A/I)
* Skills in providing teaching and training to other professional groups (A/I).
* Highly specialist skills in providing consultation to the multi-professional team or other professional groups within own service. (A/I/R)
Abilities
* Ability to work with a number of clients and systems together, managing the highly complex emotional relationships within and between the component parts of the systems in ways, which maximise the potential for therapeutic outcomes (A/I/R).
* Ability to work effectively within a multi-disciplinary team, contributing to effective team functioning and holding team roles. (A/I)
* Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate. (A/I)
* Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic meetings (A/I).
* Ability to manage emotionally stressful situations such as working with victims of abuse or trauma, or with people who engage in severe self-harming or aggressive behaviour. (A/I)
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.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
£61,927 to £68,676 a year per annum incl. of HCAs pro rata
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