Clinical/ counselling Psychologist/ Systemic /Art Psychotherapist

Job overview

We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our friendly and compassionate established multi-disciplinary Team.

• To join the Multi Agency Psychological Support (MAPS) Service - which is located in the local authority (London Borough of Hillingdon) and is part of an existing NHS service. The MAPS service comprises of a team of psychologists, providing a service for children, young people and young adults who are in/leaving care and/or adopted or have special guardianship orders, or who are children in need of protection, children in need, or vulnerable children referred to the stronger families service. We work closely with our Hillingdon CAMHS service.
• An additional part of role will be to provide psychological support for the ‘Staying Close’ project. Staying Close aims to provide stable accommodation and comprehensive support to care-experienced young people, aged 18+, who are leaving residential or supported living placements. This will be delivered in partnership with a range of agencies and organisations, including health, education, and employment providers. The aim is to ensure that young people receive joined-up support that meets their needs and helps them to achieve their full potential as they step out of care and transition into adulthood.

Main duties of the job

• To provide specialist psychological and/or systemic or psychotherapeutic assessments and interventions whilst interpreting and integrating complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members, foster carers and others involved in the client’s care, including frontline workers in health, education, social services and the voluntary sector.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of children   and young people with mental health difficulties, including those children who are looked after and adopted, or are children in need, children in need of protection, young adults leaving care, or vulnerable children who are part of the stronger families teams. These plans will be based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To work to prevent placement breakdown, and far more effective rehabilitation of children and young  people back into their families where appropriate.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will join an established Looked After Children and Early Intervention Service, and will have the opportunity to be part of the ‘Staying Close’ project (Leaving care young adults).  These services work alongside an MDT CAMHS Team and undertake the following responsibilities:

Clinical:

• To provide specialist psychological and/or systemic or psychotherapeutic assessments and interventions whilst interpreting and integrating complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members, foster carers and others involved in the client’s care, including frontline workers in health, education, social services and the voluntary sector.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of children   and young people with mental health difficulties, including those children who are looked after and adopted, or are children in need, children in need of protection, young adults leaving care, or vulnerable children who are part of the stronger families teams. These plans will be based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
• To work to prevent placement breakdown, and far more effective rehabilitation of children and young  people back into their families where appropriate.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological, psychotherapuetic and systemic interventions for individuals, carers, families          and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, environmental, biological and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• To collaborate with colleagues in devising appropriate psychological, psychotherapeutic and systemic interventions for children, young adults, families         and groups.
• To provide specialist psychological/ systemic advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals who comprise of the team around the child/young adult contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically and or systemic 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.
• To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care.
• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation  and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.