Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist

Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join the Home Treatment Teams across Westminster & Kensington and Chelsea. The teams works alongside inpatient and community mental health services to offer an increased level of support to those experiencing a mental health crisis outside an inpatient setting. The team supports service users living in their own homes and step down accommodation across the boroughs.

The post-holder will work collaboratively with the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) and colleagues from other services to manage risk and to provide a psychological perspective to care, along with providing assessment, formulation and brief interventions to service users and their families.  The post-holder will also support and work with the team to develop a range of psychologically informed interventions. The post holder will also be integral to decisions and delivery about reflective practice, team formulation/consultation and post incident support.

The service is proud to be accredited by the Quality Network for Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams (QNCRHTT) with the Royal College of Psychiatry; The post holder would be actively involved in ensuring the psychological standards are met and maintained.

The post holder will be the supervisor for the Assistant Psychologists and other psychological professionals in the team.  Along with providing a placement for a trainee clinical psychologist from the North London training courses.

Main duties of the job

Providing a full and comprehensive psychology service providing direct care to service users and their families offering assessment, formulation, risk assessment and brief evidence based interventions when indicated.

Offer indirect work ensuring that all members of the MDT have access to a psychological framework for understanding the service user’s needs.  This will be provided by giving psychological consultation, contributing in clinical meetings and team formulation.

Developing the MDT’s knowledge and skills to use a psychological approach to a service user’s care through teaching, training and where needed supervision.

Work as an integrated clinical member of a multi-disciplinary team, which will include responsibility for ensuring the systematic provision and governance of a high quality specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychology service.

Utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post-holder will be based in the Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster Home Treatment Teams and will be part of both the boroughs’ Mental Health Services and acute mental health psychology teams, supervised by the Acute Psychology Lead. Home Treatment Teams provide a service for adult service users experiencing mental health crisis requiring intensive home-based support and treatment. The service aims to enable clients to be cared for at home during crisis, rather than needing to go into Hospital.  The service also supports clients in their transition from hospital back to their homes.

Therefore, the post holder will be required to travel to service users’ homes.

The post-holder will be responsible for providing a psychological therapy service providing direct care to service users and their families offering assessment, formulation, risk assessment and brief evidence-based interventions when indicated. This will include providing recommendations for psychological therapy to support service user’s recovery.

The post-holder will also offer indirect work ensuring that all members of the multidisciplinary team have access to a psychological framework for understanding the service user’s needs. This will be provided by giving psychological consultation, contributing in clinical meetings and team formulation. Thus, contributing to the formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans of service users.

The development of the psychological framework in the multidisciplinary team will be supported by teaching, training and supervision provided by the post-holder and the wider crisis and borough psychology teams.

The post holder will work as an integrated clinical member of a multi-disciplinary team, which will include responsibility for ensuring the systematic provision and governance of a high-quality specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychology service.

The post holder will utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

The post holder will participate as a senior clinician and be an integral part of the leadership team involved in the development and delivery of a high-quality service. Supervision of the two assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists will be included as part of this role. It will also include being present and contribute to clinical and senior team meetings, facilitating reflective spaces for the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) including debriefs and being actively involved in the maintenance of Quality Network for Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Teams (QNCRHTT) accreditation.

As an autonomous practitioner one will be responsible for their own work working within their professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.

The post holder will offer post incident support to staff for their wellbeing and psychological safety.

Please see detailed Job and Person Description in attached documents.