Location: Torquay, TQ2 7AA
Salary: £29970.00 to £36483.00
Date posted: 6th March 2025
Closing date: 7th April 2025
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Job Description:
Are you looking for a challenging and rewarding post where you can build your experience in psychology?
We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced Assistant Psychologist to join the Urgent and Inpatient Care Psychology Team. The role is to provide psychologically informed care on Haytor ward, which is an acute inpatient ward for adults experiencing a mental health crisis. You will be working as part of a multidisciplinary team including nurses, occupational therapists, pharmacy, and psychology. We seek someone with experience in mental health settings who wants to develop and apply psychological knowledge. The environment can be fast-paced and requires a calm and creative approach to providing psychological interventions.
You will join our friendly, creative, and supportive psychology team. We have a range of psychological therapists working in our service using various models including Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Creative Therapies, and ISTDP. There are opportunities for continuing professional development and networking with psychological therapists across the wider Trust.
Please note that this vacancy may close early without notice due to the volume of applications we expect to receive. Please do not delay in submitting your application as no further applications will be accepted once the vacancy has closed.
Main duties of the job
The successful applicant will be experienced in working within multidisciplinary teams and with people with mental health difficulties. They need to be committed to providing a psychologically informed perspective to mental health care.
This will be achieved through facilitating groups on the ward such as emotional regulation and recovery-focused sessions. There will also be the opportunity to provide individuals on the ward with psychological assessment, formulation, and interventions under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
There will be opportunities to attend and be involved in providing training, consultation, and reflective practice to the wider team. This could include topics such as trauma-informed care, recovery principles, distress tolerance skills, and emotional regulation.
About us
We provide mental health, learning disability, and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist and secure services for the wider south-west region and nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health and wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise and resources within our organization, and through our partnerships, to deliver high-quality services that are safe and focused on people's recovery.
We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families, and carers in everything we do.
Job responsibilities
Job Purpose
To improve the psychological wellbeing of people who are using our inpatient services and support the qualified psychological practitioners in these services to achieve the above aim.
This will be achieved in this post by:
1. Contributing to the creation of a psychologically informed environment on an acute inpatient ward.
2. Implementing specific assessments, clinical care, psychological interventions, and providing advice and consultancy to clients, family members, carers, and professionals under the supervision and management of a clinical supervisor and Professional Lead.
3. Being supported by senior colleagues within Urgent and Inpatient Services and making good use of the expertise of others within the service to further develop clinical skills with this client group.
4. Working independently within a defined managed and occupational context and within professional guidelines and DPT procedures and protocols.
5. Receiving regular professional and clinical supervision in accordance with Trust policy and Professional Practice Guidelines set out by the British Psychological Society or appropriate designated Professional Body.
6. Conducting the role in accordance with a value system of person-centred care, enhancing client autonomy, social inclusion, and dignity.
Communication and Working Relationship Skills
* Clients, family, and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with clients who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic, or highly emotionally disturbed.
* Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues in the multi-professional integrated mental health and wellbeing service on a day-to-day basis.
* Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in hospital and community settings in a skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of clients under the service's care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.
* Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers in Urgent and Inpatient Care and in DPT, to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation.
Analytical and Judgemental Skills
* To be able to integrate complex data and make evaluation and formulation decisions.
Planning and Organisational Skills
* To plan and prioritise own workload, balancing the demands of patient care, support, and guidance of carers and professionals, and service research and development activities.
* To provide psychology knowledge to the multi-professional planning, development, and marketing of mental health and wellbeing services.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy
* Assessment & intervention: To make assessments and deliver treatment plans within a supervised context for individuals, carers, families, and groups, and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues.
* Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance, and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters, and families.
Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation
* The post holder is responsible for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines, working within clearly defined occupational procedures.
* To follow policy guidance in own role and to comment on proposed policy changes and service developments.
Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources
* Careful use of equipment.
Responsibility for Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management
* Leadership & supervision: To assist the work of less experienced assistants and/or trainees as required. To provide supervision to health and social care colleagues.
Responsibility for Information Resources and Administrative Duties
* To maintain accurate records.
* To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the email traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.
Responsibility for Research and Development
* To undertake service-relevant research and development activity agreed within the Urgent and Inpatient Psychology Service, and to organise personal or service-led R & D activities as required.
Freedom to Act
* Undertakes standard operating procedures and is available for reference. Shall work within guidelines for the service and will receive regular supervision.
Any Other Specific Tasks Required
* To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.
* To ensure that all psychologists continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.
Review of this Job Description
This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be amended in the light of changing service needs. This job description is to be reviewed in conjunction with the post holder on an annual basis.
Equality & Diversity
Devon Partnership Trust is an inclusive employer and is committed to recruiting and supporting a diverse workforce, reflecting the population we serve and the communities we work within. Applications are encouraged and welcomed from all people, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. The Trust expects all staff to behave in a way that recognises, respects, and celebrates this diversity and challenges any form of discrimination.
Part-time, job share, and flexible working applications will be considered and supported when operationally possible, and reasonable adjustments will be made wherever possible.
Recovery
It is a requirement of all employees to have an understanding of the broad principles of the Recovery Approach and to incorporate them into every aspect of their work in support of the Trust's aim to provide services that support people's recovery through being holistic and promoting social inclusion, self-management, personal autonomy, and independence.
Risk Management / Health and Safety
Employees must be aware of the responsibilities placed on them under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, ensure that agreed safety procedures are carried out, and maintain a safe environment for employees, patients, and visitors.
Records Management
The post holder has responsibility for the timely and accurate creation, maintenance, and storage of records in accordance with Trust policy, including email documents and with regard to the Data Protection Act, The Freedom of Information Act, and any other relevant statutory requirements.
Clinical Governance, Compliance and Performance
The post holder will be responsible for proving that the Care Quality Commission outcomes areas have been met in all registered/related activities for which the post holder is responsible. Where outcomes are not met the post holder is expected to put in place/recommend actions to improve. The post holder will proactively seek and engage the support of the governance teams in the Compliance and Corporate Development directorate to gather information as required. The post holder will build an understanding of and adhere to the CQC guidelines as well as the Trust's guidelines on the approach to maintaining CQC registration.
Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infection
The post holder is expected to comply with Trust Infection Prevention and Control Policies and conduct themselves at all times in such a manner as to minimise the risk of healthcare-associated infection.
The Trust operates a non-smoking policy. Employees are not permitted to smoke anywhere within the premises of the Trust or when outside on official business.
Trust employees are expected to follow Trust policies, procedures, and guidance as well as professional standards and guidelines. It is your responsibility to read and familiarise yourself with all policies relevant to your job role.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is part of everyday practice and all Trust employees are required to work in accordance with policies, procedures, and professional codes to safeguard people who use our service, their children, families, and carers from abuse. Where staff work with adults, staff must be aware of any children that live with or have contact with the person in their care. They have a duty to promote the child's welfare and ensure their needs have been taken into account as part of the overall assessment and engage with other agencies as appropriate. All staff should have the knowledge and skills to work in such a way as to reduce the likelihood of abuse, and they must be alert to, and take appropriate action in relation to, safeguarding issues. Where staff are unsure what appropriate action to take, they must always escalate their concerns and speak to a senior member of staff or the DPT Safeguarding Team.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* BA or BSc in Psychology recognised by the British Psychological Society.
* Knowledge of different applied psychological perspectives in mental health settings.
* Knowledge of short-term psychological interventions.
Experience
* Clinical experience and/or supervised practice working with people with mental health difficulties.
* Experience of working collaboratively with clients.
* Experience working in a Multidisciplinary Team within a mental health care setting.
* Experience and/or training in diversity awareness and social inequality.
* Experience gained during supervised training of working in services that require clinical psychology.
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care, and inpatient settings.
* Experience of teaching, training, and/or supervision.
Skills
* Excellent verbal, nonverbal, and written communication skills.
* Ability to integrate complex data; make evaluations, formulations, and decisions.
* Organisation and time management skills.
* Ability to work independently within defined occupational procedures and use initiative.
* Ability to work as a member of a clinical team.
* Ability to tolerate ambiguity, and maintain own morale and motivation in challenging service delivery contexts.
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.
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