Perinatal Psychologist

Job overview

The opportunity has arisen for a suitably qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist, to apply for a permanent Band 7 Community Perinatal Psychology post within this Service. The successful applicant will work within the Hillingdon Community Perinatal Mental Health Team.

This position is open to applicants who have relevant pre and where relevant post qualification experience, and can demonstrate a well developed interest in and understanding of perinatal mental health problems.

The applicant must have excellent clinical skills, and experience with a wide variety of patient groups across the whole life span. In addition to the focus on maternal mental health, specialist perinatal mental health services also consider the family context and the infant and parent-infant relationship. Promoting the emotional and physical wellbeing and development of the mother and infant are central to the work of all professionals within high quality perinatal mental health services.

We are looking for well-rounded and experienced practitioner with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. They must be keen to work pro-actively within multidisciplinary teams and be confident and motivated as well as flexible and able to show initiative. They must be robust and resourceful and willing to work in an environment which can be demanding and challenging. Appropriate training, support and regular supervision will be provided by MDT and a Senior Perinatal Psychologist.

Main duties of the job

The post-holder will work as a member of the multidisciplinary team in Hillingdon Perinatal Mental Health Service and will provide a qualified clinical psychology service to women/birthing people referred into or under the care of the team. Under the supervision of a senior perinatal clinical psychologist, they will provide specialist psychological assessment and treatment to service users and support and signposting to their families/carers. They will provide advice and consultation on their care to non-psychology colleagues and to the professional network involved in treating and caring for women/birthing people under the team.

The post holder will provide specialist perinatal psychology interventions, including developing group work within the community, and will contribute to implementing care plans for women/birthing people with a range of mental health and social and emotional difficulties, particularly focusing on providing evidence based psychological interventions adapted to the needs of women/birthing people and their infants in complex and varying degrees of illness and distress.

The post-holder will liaise closely with relevant mental health services local to the patient, such as Talking Therapies, midwifery and children’s social services, etc. so as to ensure efficient and seamless patient care pathways.

The post holder will provide shared clinical supervision to trainees and other professionals alongside the 8a clinical psychologists.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please review attached job description for more information

Clinical: •    Provide assessments of patients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources.  •    To contribute to assessments of women/birthing people with specialist mental health disorders including formulations of predisposing, protective, precipitating and perpetuating factors. •    Implement care plans for the formal treatment and/or management of a woman/birthing person’s  problems, (with consideration of her baby’s needs) based upon an appropriate conceptual framework, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings. •    To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, grounded in the principles and techniques of a range of theoretical approaches. These will include long and short term interventions as appropriate to need. •    Evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes which have shaped the individual, family or group •    Provide specialist expertise, advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to women/birthing people’s formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan •    Contribute directly and indirectly to a framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all women/birthing people treated within the service, across all settings and agencies providing services for women/birthing people, their children and their families. •    To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual women/birthing people and their families and to provide advice to other professions on risk assessment and risk management in relevant cases. •    Communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni and multi-disciplinary care. •    To work under supervision from the team lead, the consultant perinatal psychologist and with case management support from the consultant psychiatrist.

Managerial

• Provide clinical supervision and performance management of clinical psychology or other professional trainees and of psychology assistants if applicable. •    Be involved, if appropriate, in short listing and interviewing.

Teaching Training and Supervision

• Receive weekly or bi weekly (dependent on experience) clinical professional supervision from a senior perinatal clinical psychologist. •    Develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT work as appropriate •    Contribute to the pre and post-qualification teaching of psychological approaches and sharing clinical skills, as appropriate. •    Provide advice, consultation and training to professionals (including children’s social workers) working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings.  •    To gain additional specialist experience and skills relevant to clinical psychology and/or the service as agreed with the professional psychology manager. •    To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision as appropriate. •    To provide professional and clinical supervision of trainee and assistant clinical psychologists.

Research and Audit

• To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service valuation and audit. •    To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where clinical and/or organisational matters need addressing. •    To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual and group work, in some instances, alongside other team members. •    To undertake appropriate research and to provide research advice to other staff undertaking research. •    To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision. •    To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes. •    To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in  Psychology/Perinatal Psychotherapies across and beyond the service.

Administration and Clinical Recording

• To enter required data into the Trust’s patient administration systems and to make use of data bases as directed by managers in the course of clinical duties. •    To use computer and computer software to prepare reports, presentations and documents relevant to working duties. •    To undertake administrative tasks in line with service requirements, making appropriate use of administrative support available.