Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

The Psychology Service for Older People in Haringey is looking for a compassionate, creative and versatile Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join our team. This is a permanent post of 30 hours a week (0.8wte).

We are based at St Ann's Hospital in Haringey where we are privileged to work with a diverse population of older people. The Psychology team is embedded within Mental Health Services for Older People, working closely with colleagues in the Community Mental Health Team for Older People, Specialist Dementia Service and Haringey Memory Service. We are looking for a committed team worker who values the breadth of perspective and skills in a multi-disciplinary setting.

The clinical work is varied and rewarding. Our service users typically have complex needs related to ageing and include both functional and organic diagnoses. There is scope to offer a wide range of interventions and we are looking for a team member who is confident to draw on a range of psychological models in order to work with individuals, families and groups. This could include CBT, ACT, CFT, MBCT, psychodynamic and systemic approaches.

Main duties of the job

All team members offer specialist psychological assessment and a range of interventions for a diverse caseload, which includes moderate-severe mental health needs, organic presentations and  complex co-morbidity.

Psychologists in the team use a variety of assessment tools, including neuropsychological assessment, to assist with diagnosis/formulation and draw on a range of psychological models in order to ensure interventions are effective, accessible and meaningful to our service users. We work with individuals, carers and families, offering individual and group interventions.

We work closely with multi-disciplinary colleagues within Older People’s services as well as with external care providers including local care homes. The post holder will be expected to attend weekly clinical meetings, work jointly with colleagues and offer consultation, supervision and training for the MDT as required.

There will be opportunities to develop skills for supervising assistant and trainee psychologists.

The post-holder will also have opportunities to get involved in service development work, ideally using a Quality Improvement framework to support the implementation of change ideas and ensure we meet the needs of our local population.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Duties of the role are to provide a qualified clinical/counselling psychology service to older people with severe mental health needs and/or dementia in Haringey. This includes

• The provision of psychological assessment and therapy for individual service users including those with complex mental health conditions, cognitive impairment and co-morbid physical health conditions, their carer’s and their families.

• Consultation, training and support for the wider systems and organisations providing care for our clients including the delivery of staff-centred interventions in residential homes caring for older people with challenging behaviour.

• Consultation, training and support for MDT colleagues working within MHSOP (currently Community Mental Health Team for Older People, Specialist Dementia Service and Haringey Memory Service) including joint assessments, joint delivery of interventions and input to team meetings.

• To clinically supervise assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists (on meeting the progressional requirements to do so).

• Professional skills to:

• To contribute to local service developments under the supervision of the professional lead

• Work autonomously within professional guidelines and the framework of the Service’s policies and procedures
• Use core professional training for some or all of the following purposes as appropriate: research, undertake audit, and contribute to policy and service development.