Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

We are seeking a highly skilled Clinical Psychologist to join our Integrated Stroke Early Supported Discharge and Community Neuro Rehabilitation Service.

‘It is an exciting time to be working in the Stroke ESD and Community Neuro Rehabilitation Service as we continue to develop the excellent standard of neuropsychology provision that we offer. I love working as a Clinical Psychologist in the service because the team are skilled and supportive, the rehabilitation our patients receive is excellent and it makes me proud to be a part of this.

You will be responsible for a clinical caseload across Cambridgeshire, where you will deliver evidence-based specialist Psychology programmes to support patients with complex needs. You will work collaboratively with a team of professionals, including Psychology Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Specialist Nurses, and Neuro Rehab Assistants.

This is a countywide service, and the successful candidates base will be negotiable. This exciting opportunity involves working in different settings, including patient’s homes, wards, and using virtual consultations to manage your caseload. There may be times when there is a requirement to provide clinical cover across the county.

If you are an adaptable individual with excellent clinical skills and knowledge, and have access to a car for work purposes, we want to hear from you!

Main duties of the job

Please confirm in your application that you meet the specified criteria.

To provide specialist psychology for the Stroke Early Supported Discharge and Community Neuro rehabilitation Service, use evidence-based practice, ensure clinical care is effective and appropriate, promote independence and ensure patients receive the appropriate care, be professionally and legally accountable for your own and delegated work, undertake holistic specialist assessment using advanced, specialist clinical reasoning skills.

To ensure that accurate and timely written records are kept, report any issues, be responsible for initiating and co-ordinating case conferences when indicated to ensure integrated care and planning, provide specialist neurological advice to all members of the multi-disciplinary team, service users and others of changes involving current care plans, patients progress and other relevant matters.  To work within Trust and HCPC guidelines, demonstrate a good working knowledge of national and local standards in line with legal and operational requirements, use own professional judgement, implement best practice/legislation.

Join our team and made a positive impact on the lives of our service users.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please note for this role you will be required to travel independently around the county meeting strict time deadlines. You will need to hold a full UK driving licence and have use of a vehicle. You cannot use public transport for this role as this is not a reliable form of transport and will not allow you to meet service needs.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

• To assess, plan and develop specialist psychological programmes for patients under care of the Stroke Early Supported Discharge and Community Neuro Rehabilitation service.
• To work as an autonomous specialist practitioner within the multi-professional team as part of the Stroke Early Supported Discharge and Community Neurorehabilitation Service.
• To be responsible for own caseload and undertake specialist assessment of patients with complex and multiple neurological pathologies using advanced, specialist clinical reasoning skills based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological 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 patients, family members and others involved in the patient’s care.
• To identify patient needs, agree goals and provide appropriate psychological interventions relating to their physical, functional and psychological needs. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, and groups, within and across services, 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, multi-modal assessments and interventions and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient’s cognitive, behavioural and/or emotional problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patient’s difficulties, and employing methods of evidence-based proven efficacy.
• To advise and support the service on the assessment and management of behaviours that challenge.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by care plans informed by psychological theory, knowledge and practice.
• To keep the patient at the centre of care, ensuring patient and carer participation in decision making.
• To provide specialist psychological advice to professionals from other disciplines.
• To provide support and education to peers, new staff non-registered staff and students.
• To supervise junior staff and students, overseeing patient intervention and ensure that Assistant Psychologists deliver high quality patient care.
• To be actively involved in training, teaching and supporting band 7, 6 and 5 therapists, Assistant Psychologists and Rehabilitation Assistants if appropriate, to achieve competencies.
• To be accountable for a delegated caseload held by non-registered staff in the team.
• To build up and maintain key relationships with referring services to facilitate appropriate referrals, and an understanding of the roles within the Stroke Early Supported Discharge and Community Neurorehabilitation service.
• To take an active role in the Stroke Early Supported Discharge and Community Neurorehabilitation service duty processes to prioritise and ensure a timely response for assessments.
• To work in various community settings, this involves lone working.

*DVLA have a number of reciprocal arrangements with overseas countries, for further information please visit the DVLA website