The Acute Liaison Mental Health Service (ALMHS) at Kettering General Hospital is seeking to appoint a Clinical Psychologist/Senior Assistant Psychologist to provide maternity cover between May 2025 to 2026. At present, the team includes a Principal Clinical Psychologist, a Senior Clinical Psychologist (going on maternity leave), and two Senior Assistant Psychologists working at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital.
Clinical Psychology within the Acute Liaison Mental Health Service (ALMHS) will offer the chance for psychological assessment, formulation, and intervention for adults that present to the general hospitals across Northamptonshire. This includes those patients that attend A&E and those that have been admitted into the hospital for physical health needs. There is also the opportunity to offer follow-up psychological therapy to patients discharged from the hospital.
You may have preconceived ideas of what it might be like working in an acute hospital, working in physical health and specifically what your role might entail, so I would encourage you to make contact in order to have a discussion about this and ask questions. This would also be relevant to establish your developmental needs/interests, the service needs, and how the service will be able to support your development.
Main duties of the job
Joining this service/Trust would include:
* Regular supervision with the Principal Clinical Psychologist
* Opportunities to have Trainee Clinical Psychologists on placement via University of Leicester
* Opportunities for further training and development based on professional and service needs
* The ability to help shape the service and psychological provisions
* A balance of inpatient and outpatient working
* Ability to attend special interest groups, training days, and events utilizing the training budget
* Attendance to development sessions facilitated for the team on a regular basis
* Regular opportunities to meet as a Psychology team within the service
* Joining a team that is willing to consider your interests and development needs and help you reach your potential
* Opportunities to meet with the Trust Psychology network monthly for CPD
* Opportunities to attend training on leadership and wellbeing within the Trust
Working for our organisation
The service includes a strong multidisciplinary team presence with Psychiatry, Nursing, Occupational therapy, Social Workers, Support workers, Experts by experience, and Administrative support. There are also opportunities to be involved in staff training, staff wellbeing, service development, reflective practice, and case formulation with teams. Clinical Psychology within liaison services, in relative terms, are a new discipline which offers the chance for development, growth, and innovation in order to meet the mental health needs of patients within the general hospitals.
In addition to the benefits offered under the NHS terms and conditions of service, this post additionally attracts an incentive of £5000 pro rata for the successful applicant/s paid over the first 18 months of employment.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For further information on the advertised role, please refer to the job description located under the Supporting Documents heading. The full person specification can be accessed under the ‘About You’ Section of the document.
Person specification
Knowledge & Experience
* Doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology (or equivalent), including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies, and lifespan developmental psychology, as accredited by the BPS, or Doctoral level training in Counselling Psychology (or equivalent - masters level plus completed post-qualification training).
* HCPC registration, if a practitioner psychologist
* Substantial post-qualification experience of working in mental health, providing NICE compliant interventions
* Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across a range of physical and mental health conditions and across care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care, and inpatient settings.
* Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, particularly trauma.
* Experience of supervising other psychological therapist practitioners within a clinical mental health service.
* Experience of teaching, training, and/or supervision of staff from a range of clinical backgrounds.
* Experience of working with severe and complex mental health difficulties.
* Experience of risk assessment and risk management strategies and their application to practice.
* Experience of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working across primary, secondary, tertiary, and non-statutory organisations.
* Experience of the applications of psychological interventions in different contexts.
Skills & Abilities
* Broad knowledge of specialist mental health services and the wider network of mental health services in the NHS.
* 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 professionals colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
* Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessments, intervention, and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
* To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
* To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
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