Higher Assistant Psychologist

Job overview

We are recruiting three Assistant Psychologist posts (AP) (3.0 wte) to help evaluate the benefit of new psychological therapies for people with psychosis.

The currently advertised post is for 12 months with the likelihood it will be extended if the trials recruit successfully to target.

The Sleeping better and feeling safer trials are investigating whether a new psychological treatments help reduce distress in people with psychosis, and improves their quality of life.

We have two posts on Feeling Safer and one for Sleeping better.  Both are multi-centre studies of a psychological intervention  and are funded by grants led by Professor Daniel Freeman, and Dr. Felicity Waite from the University of Oxford. The post-holder will be based with Robert Dudley’s research team in the Early intervention in Psychosis service and colleagues working on other psychosis research projects at St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle, and will work in CNTW NHS Foundation Trust.

Main duties of the job

The posts will help deliver large-scale studies to evaluate the real world use and clinical effectiveness of a new psychological treatment for people with psychosis or for sleeping better also those with an ultra high risk of developing psychosis. The posts will be based in Newcastle but will involve travel across the Trust.  The post holders will act as a research assistant and work with the trial therapists, trial coordinator and the site lead to help evaluate the treatment trials.

The ideal candidate will have experience in research and or clinical settings. It may help if you have experience of working with people who have experienced difficulties with paranoia and unusual experiences like hallucinations. They should have the ability to organize and manage multiple interlinked components of the project and their work. They will need to demonstrate a high level of interpersonal skills and be able to conduct interviews and assessment with potentially vulnerable individuals. Most importantly, they will need to be enthusiastic about the research area and have a high level of motivation and commitment.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The main role of the trial assistant will be as outlined below:

• Screening, recruitment, and assessment of patients for the sleeping better or feeling safer controlled trial of psychological treatment. This will involve speaking to referrers regularly, attending clinical team meetings, visiting teams. There are monthly recruitment targets.
• Participants will be seen in clinic settings or at home across a large geographical area. This means there will be extensive travel which would be facilitated by having valid driving licence, and access to own or other independent means of transport.
• Good record-keeping will be needed, including updating medical records with trial progress and completing the recruitment database.
• You will need to produce regular reports on the recruitment process (including managing the recruitment database) and assessments.
• You will need to regularly enter and check data in the study databases.
• Attendance at supervision will be expected, and at appropriate research team meetings, including training at the lead site, London.

Please find attached job description for full details.

Advertising date : 8th May 2025

Closing date : 22nd May 2025

Likely interview dates: 4th to 6th June 2025

We welcome your application.

Please note - this vacancy may close early if a suitable number of applications are received.