Counsellor Practitioner - Neonatal Intensive Care

Job overview

We would like to recruit an enthusiastic, creative, values led Counsellor to working within and alongside the Neonatal intensive care MDT. The role is a part of a wider Paediatric Psychological medicine Team, based at Addenbrookes Hospital.

The Counsellor Practitioner is a member of the children’s services counselling team and the wider psychosocial team that works in NICU.   The role is to provide a responsive therapeutically based service, accessible to all parents/carers and families from their baby’s diagnosis or admission into NICU, including supporting families where their baby is receiving palliative or end of life care through to bereavement care if necessary.  This post also provides a specialist counselling service to NICU outpatient families, where their baby has been on NICU and they would like to access support when they are home, in order to process the NICU experience. The counsellor works alongside the NICU Clinical Psychologist and with the ward team, including the Matron, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Neonatologists, other Counsellors and outside agencies involved with the family, and is flexible and adaptable in delivering the service.

This counselling will largely take place within Addenbrookes and will involve the post-holder offering a responsive and needs led service on a daily basis.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will cover two clinical areas.  1) To provide a counselling service for parents on NICU.  2)  To provide a specialist counselling outpatient service for NICU parents in the community (those parents that had a baby on NICU and are now home and want to access support to process the NICU experience), including bereavement follow-up support.  Both work includes working with families experiencing high levels of trauma and emotional distress. Work to include detailed assessment, intervention and liaison with other professionals, using a theoretical framework.
• To work in a range of environments alongside the Clinical Nurse Specialists and Neonatologists, to support parents on NICU.  This includes working at the cot-side in NICU.
• Provide crisis and trauma focused support for families, and to make decisions about referral on to other services as appropriate.  Using a range of specific psychological interventions which may include trauma support work, problem solving, anger, stress and anxiety management.
• To be fully aware of and contribute to the bereavement counselling service provided for families
• Carry a bleep and to respond to urgent referrals as quickly as possible within working hours (9-5). Undertaking an assessment of need which includes the ability to differentiate between moderate and severe levels of psychological distress.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Support other staff in working with parents and families, including the provision of debrief meetings as appropriate.
• Have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and will work closely to communicate sensitive information effectively within the MDT, complex professional systems and wider teams.
• Work effectively as a member of the multi-disciplinary teams, and be available as a resource for other healthcare professionals on an advisory basis.
• Work closely with the other Counsellor Practitioners and Clinical Psychologist working in these areas and be managed by the NICU Clinical Psychologist.  The post holder works autonomously within professional guidelines, managing own caseload and making effective use of clinical supervision and the clinical governance framework.
• The post is based within Addenbrookes Hospital. The post holder will have an honorary contract to work with Cambridge University Hospitals and will work within the following service expectations of CUH.
• All staff have a responsibility to comply with the current infection prevention and control policies, procedures and standards and ensure they have received an annual update on infection prevention and control issues including hand hygiene. All staff should practice and encourage appropriate hand hygiene and act professionally to ensure the hospital environment is clean, safe and tidy.
• To perform your duties to the highest standard with particular regard to effective and efficient use of resources, maintaining quality and contributing to improvements.
• To follow all the Trust Security policies and procedures and be vigilant to ensure the safety and secure environment for care.
• All staff that have access to or transfers any data are responsible for those data, it must be kept secure and they must comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, GDPR May 2018 and the common law on confidentiality. All data must be kept in line with the Trust’s policies and procedures. Data includes all types of data i.e. patient, employee, financial, electronic, hard copies of printed data or handwritten data etc.
• The post holder is responsible for data quality and complying with the policies, procedures and accountability arrangements throughout the Trust for maintaining accuracy and probity in the recording of the Trust’s activities.
• All staff will receive training on Child Protection - Safeguarding Children Policies and Procedures as part of Induction and annual updates, this will equip the post holder with the knowledge of what you will need to do if you have concerns about the welfare of a child/young person under aged 18.
• CUH is a smoke free campus.  All employees must comply with the requirements of the No Smoking Policy and support the processes and practices in place in relation to patients and visitors
• To uphold the Trust Values and Behaviours standard.
• Work within the professional code of ethics and practice as detailed by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), British Psychological Society and HCPC.
• Monitor, evaluate and audit the service provided.
• Participate in staff training, teaching and supervision where appropriate.
• Network with other professionals working within psychosocial provision for critically ill children and their families.