Principal Psychologist in Mental Health Liaison
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
We are looking for a highly experienced clinical or counselling psychologist to work within the Mental Health Liaison team at Princess Anne University Hospital, Southampton. The post is available part-time (0.6 WTE), potentially negotiable up to full-time.
The Mental Health Liaison team is responsible for the assessment and management of mental health needs related to physical health problems. Clinical presentations span a wide spectrum from organic psychosis, severe depression, and somatoform disorder to adjustment reactions, delirium, dementia, and abnormal health behaviour. The team aims to provide acute hospital staff with specialist advice on the management of psychological problems.
The Mental Health Liaison team is friendly and highly receptive to psychology input. It is a well-established and well-staffed team. The CORE-24 model is in place, and the team has recently achieved PLAN (Psychiatric Liaison Accreditation Network) accreditation. There are ample opportunities for further quality improvement, evaluation, and service development.
You will join a wider Adult Mental Health psychology service with a wealth of clinical expertise including CBT, DBT, CAT, and EMDR. We are committed to supervision, CPD, and staff wellbeing. We support flexible working. We have strong links with the University of Southampton, including hosting trainees and clinical academics. You will also maintain close links with the wider group of psychologists working in physical health at the University Hospital.
Main duties of the job
You will provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation, and brief interventions in the acute setting. You will offer advice and consultation to healthcare teams on patients' psychological care. This will include contributing to care planning, delivering training, and offering debriefs and reflective practice sessions.
You will also support the Mental Health Liaison team to work psychologically, by providing psychological input into team meetings, making recommendations for psychology provision in the community, offering ad hoc case discussions, and delivering psychological skills training and resources.
You will be responsible for the governance of psychological practice within the Mental Health Liaison Team, with support from the Senior Leadership Team. You will have a key role in recruiting, managing, supervising, and developing psychological professionals within the team. Your role will include service development, evaluation, and research.
You will be expected to develop and maintain key relationships across a range of services including Adult and Older Adult Mental Health, Talking Therapies, and Health Psychology.
About us
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a newly established organisation, bringing together expertise from across mental health, learning disabilities, community, and physical health services. We are dedicated to delivering compassionate, high-quality, and accessible care to the diverse communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
With over 13,000 dedicated staff working across more than 300 sites, we place patients and staff at the centre of everything we do. Our goal is to create an integrated healthcare system that improves accessibility and ensures more consistent care for patients. By working together, we aim to improve patient outcomes, drive innovation, and meet the unique needs of the populations we serve.
Our Trust unites services from Southern Health, Solent NHS Trust, Isle of Wight NHS Trusts community and mental health teams, as well as Hampshire CAMHS, originally part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This transformation enables us to deliver more seamless care across the region, ensuring that patients receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.
Join us as we embark on this exciting journey to shape the future of healthcare across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We are deeply committed to our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence, and offer outstanding opportunities for career development, training, and collaborative working.
Job responsibilities
Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone.
We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Post-graduate doctoral level training (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) in clinical or counselling psychology as accredited by the BPS, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies, and lifespan developmental psychology.
* Formal training in supervision of other psychologists or equivalent experience.
* Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist.
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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