Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent, and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award-winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.
Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 8a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to contribute to the development and expansion of the Oral Medicine and Facial Trauma services within the innovative Dental and Oral-maxillofacial Trauma Psychology (DOT-Psychology) service. The post holder will work closely with the Principal Clinical Psychologists within both the Oral Medicine and the Facial Trauma services to provide specialist psychological assessment and treatment of adult patients and their families who are referred. The Oral Medicine service supports people who have long-term and recurrent oral health conditions such as chronic pain, burning mouth syndrome, or temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders among others. The Facial Trauma service supports people who have experienced a traumatic facial injury requiring maxillofacial surgery and who are at risk of developing PTSD or who have complex mental health needs which may impact on their surgical treatment.
The post holder will sit predominantly within the Oral Medicine service but will be responsible for providing assessment and treatment for people accessing either service. The DOT-Psychology service is a large, close-knit team of psychological professionals who work together to provide psychological input across the dental hospital. As such, the post holder will be ideally placed to support with wider service development projects both within the named services and across the wider DOT-Psychology service.
Main duties of the job
We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated individual who is comfortable working in physical health environments as part of an MDT. The post holder will have significant expertise in working psychologically within adults with complex mental health and physical health care needs. They will be confident providing person-centered, 1:1 therapy as well as being comfortable providing indirect consultation, liaison, and training to other HCPs including oral medicine consultants, surgeons, nursing staff, and other specialists working within the dental hospital.
This will include supporting the Principal Clinical Psychologist in delivering support for staff at risk of vicarious trauma at work as well as supporting patients with complex physical health and mental health needs.
Working for our organisation
BARTS Health dental service is a leading international specialist in dental and oral health care, offering regional dental care to patients from across London and surrounding counties. In addition to emergency dental care, treatment is provided for a diverse range of oral health issues, both routine and urgent. NELFT and Barts Health are dedicated to ongoing improvement of services across the lifespan and recognise the importance of research, evaluation, and development in this process. The DOT-Psychology service is a large, close-knit team of psychologists who work together to provide psychological input across the dental hospital. There are excellent opportunities for joint working, supervision, and CPD, working with highly skilled psychology colleagues specialising in facial trauma, paediatric dentistry, oral medicine, orthognathic surgery, dental pain, and phobia.
Probationary Period
This post is subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).
Starting with NELFT
We place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed & inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join on the first Monday of the month & undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which includes mandatory training, systems training, and allocation of equipment. The induction is at head office in Rainham.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
See Job description and person specification for full details of the responsibilities for this post.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
* Doctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology, or equivalent accredited by the BPS
* HCPC registration as a practitioner psychologist.
Desirable criteria
* Additional specialist training in advanced individual, group, and/or family interventions
Experience
Essential criteria
* Skill in working psychologically with physical health conditions
* Skill in working with trauma and PTSD presentations
* Skill in working with significant mental health difficulties
* Experience of working with MDTs and providing interventions through consultation and indirect working
* Sensitivity to issues of equality with experience of the application of clinical or counselling psychology in different cultural contexts
Desirable criteria
* Demonstrate further relevant and specialist training/ experience in pain-related presentations and treatment
Knowledge
Essential criteria
* Knowledge or the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies as applied to clinical health /physical health settings
* Knowledge of relevant issues such as child protection, equality and diversity, and mental health policies.
Skills
Essential criteria
* Expertise in the assessment and management of clinical risk, such as suicidal crises, if they present within the acute hospital setting.
* Skills in effective triage and signposting of patients presenting with psychological needs to the Dental Psychology service across Barts, NELFT, and other NHS/ External sites.
* Ability to work with expertise within a multidisciplinary team, and with consultants, nurses, and other HCPs and the ability to contain distress within the MDT
* Able to work in a busy and dynamic environment with the ability to work flexibly and to adapt at short notice.
* Well-developed skills in organisation and time-management.
* Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers, and other professional colleagues within and outside the NHS
* Effective team working skills, including a compassionate and supportive approach
* To be aware and demonstrate NELFT and Barts Trust Values
Desirable criteria
* Able to administer and interpret cognitive and neuropsychological assessments
Benefits
We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:
* A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long-term/chronic conditions, and LGBT staff.
* A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work-life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our efforts to support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
* Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations, and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
* Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part-time hours, or another flexible pattern.
Supporting our Armed Forces
We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community makes to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans, reservists, and military spouses, and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.
Equal opportunities employer
We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.
We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e., Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.
Correspondence with us
You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.
In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
* Oral Medicine and Facial Trauma 8a JD and Person Spec (PDF, 480.4KB)
* NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)
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