Practitioner Psychologist in Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has become available for an enthusiastic and experienced practitioner psychologist within our Department of Haematology. The successful candidate will aid in the provision of specialist inpatient and outpatient psychological support to adults with sickle cell disease or thalassaemia.

King's College Hospital Foundation NHS Trust is a designated specialist centre for the care of patients with haemoglobinopathies. On register, we have approximately 850 adults with sickle cell disease and 40 with thalassaemia.

The service works closely with the paediatric team, including paediatric psychologists, and approximately 15 patients per year will transfer from the paediatric haemoglobinopathy service. There is regular collaboration with other medical specialities and a number of joint specialist sickle clinics are held regularly.

Haematopoietic stem cell transplants and exagamglogene autotemcel (gene therapy) for adult patients with sickle cell disease have been commissioned at King's for eligible patients. The post holder will have the opportunity to provide psychological input to those undergoing these treatments.

Specialist clinical health psychology input has a long tradition at King's and you will be joining a group of psychology and psychotherapy professionals across various medical specialities who are dedicated and supportive.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will provide specialist psychological therapy to adult haemoglobinopathy patients and their families and carers, in a timely manner and tailored to patients' needs. This includes specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.

The post holder will also contribute psychological expertise to a multidisciplinary team consisting of three consultant haematologists, specialist nurses, a social worker and a team of junior doctors.

The psychology service is led by a Band 8a Highly Specialist Counselling Psychologist who will support the successful candidate through the provision of professional supervision and operational line management.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical and client care

• To provide specialist psychological assessments (including neuropsychological assessments if this is within the post holder's competencies), formulations and interventions for patients in the adult haemoglobinopathy service.
• To develop and deliver psychological interventions that are tailored to the needs of both inpatients and outpatients.
• To produce detailed reports based on the results of psychological assessments (and neuropsychological assessments where applicable).
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred patients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the haemoglobinopathies team and the haematology service and to help contribute to the development and facilitation of a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team and service's delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of patients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals in order to develop and review care plans.

Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.

Care or management of resources

• To take care of and use carefully the Trust's equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure that the post holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies when needed.

Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.
• To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant course's supervision training.

Teaching and training

• To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to other professions as appropriate.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

Record-keeping and information governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

Research and development

• To undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.

Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
• To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC 'Standards for Continuing Professional Development'.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with the HCPC 'Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics' and 'Standards of Proficiency', and ensure professional development in line with these.
• To adhere to the BPS's Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.