A Vacancy at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
We are looking for a creative and energetic systemically informed Clinical Psychologist/Family therapist/Psychotherapist with CAMHS experience) to join the CAMHS Assertive Outreach Team.
You will work in a multi-disciplinary team contributing to the delivery of high quality, evidence-based assessments and treatments. You will be responsible for a clinical caseload: assessing, care planning and offering interventions for children and young people with support from the multi-disciplinary team.
Emphasis will be on improving access and outcomes by supporting colleagues to co-ordinate the care of young people presenting with challenging and complex needs, a range of diagnosis, disorganised support networks and an increased risk of harm to self and others who likely have a history of difficult engagement with services which makes them increasingly vulnerable to admission, risk events and crises.
The role involves offering time limited psychological informed crisis management planning to the service user, carer and network of services. The post holder would be expected to guide the work of other mental health professionals with an emphasis on consultation alongside the service user, including coordinating networks of services. Experience and commitment to engaging and working with families across cultures is essential.
There will be opportunities for joint working with a range of professionals within the team and across the service, for delivering teaching and consultation.
• To contribute to the development of this new innovative project aimed at improving access to CAMHS for Children and Young people in partnership with their family and network
• To provide a highly specialist systemically informed psychological interventions including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
• To enable other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• 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.
• To facilitate network meetings and provide clinical supervision, training and consultation as appropriate, functioning as a lead specialist.
• To promote service evaluation, audit and research.
• To work as an autonomous professional within registration body guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
• To be active in the provision of staff support within their area, including but not limited to Critical Incident Staff Support and Reflect-Support-Resolve. To participate, as a recipient, in staff support work when appropriate.
Southwark CAMHS is responding to the overwhelming evidence base about the impact of inequalities on wellbeing by restating its commitment to anti-racism and addressing long standing inequalities of access to mental health service. This initiative is supported at Trust level through the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) that fosters wider engagement with community groups and local services.
Southwark CAMHS has developed an Assertive Outreach Service alongside the Adolescent Team and now has CAMHS clinicians embedded in YOS and SILLS to support some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people. These are young people that the Thrive model identified as “In Need of Risk Support” and the service is now committing to further developing this pathway in Southwark.
The Assertive Outreach Service is a dynamic and supportive team including psychiatry, clinical psychology, nursing, creative therapies and occupational therapy. We provide assessments and evidence-based therapies to children and young people with complex mental health difficulties including depression, emerging psychosis, OCD, PTSD and social anxiety. The service has close links with Youth Offending Services, with the Adolescent Team and various National and Specialist Services; working in close partnership with social care, education and local
third sector services. The service is committed to providing high-quality, collaborative evidence-based services.
Clinical and Client Care
• To provide specialist systemically informed psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for Young people where the identified client has complex mental health needs and may require risk support, in collaboration with their families, professional and social networks
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological or psychotherapeutic interventions with carers, networks or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To act as care/CPA co-ordinator taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing care plans, CPA co-ordination and meetings).
• To provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users and their families.
• To select and deliver evidence-based specialist therapeutic interventions, drawing from a spectrum of ideas and models, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions as necessary, based on the highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, couple, family or group.
• To promote psychological support for carers (or families as appropriate) of referred client
Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically/psychotherapeutically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological/psychotherapeutic care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
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.
Care or management of resources
• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
Management and supervision
• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychological practitioners with support from a more senior practitioner.
• To supervise trainee psychological practitioners within own area of specialism.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychological practitioners as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychological practitioners as appropriate.
• To provide supervision for the psychological and/or psychotherapeutic work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.
Teaching and Training
• To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychological practitioners, and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
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.
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.
Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological therapist according to professional body and Trust guidelines.
• To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with professional body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and professional Standards for Continuing Professional Development.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with professional body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.
General
• To travel to appropriate meetings and visits in homes or community settings as appropriate and across the trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• 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.
This advert closes on Sunday 23 Feb 2025