Practitioner Psychologist, Neuropsychologist

Job overview

• This is a fantastic opportunity for an enthusiastic and dynamic Clinical Psychologist to help lead our acquired brain injury and functional neurological disorder pathways. You will provide specialist assessment and rehabilitation to adults who have experienced an acquired brain injury and those experiencing functional neurological disorder. The Lishman Unit provides in-depth, multidisciplinary assessments and rehabilitation interventions using a team goal-setting approach. You will work with an already established multidisciplinary team who are highly specialised and dedicated to the service users they work with. There will be opportunities for you to collaborate with the team and the wider Neuropsychiatry pathway and will be a perfect platform to demonstrate leadership qualities. The role involves regular contact with the Ward Manager and Consultant Psychiatrist to help ensure you feel confident and supported in your role, in addition to a Trust-wide Staff Support Service and networks to help you connect with others within SLaM. Career Progression pathways and development opportunities: We have career pathways available, where you will be able to develop your skills and build on your experience to progress into other roles across different specialties. For this role, we offer career pathways to senior practitioner psychologist roles across Specialist Services and in our services for adults with complex emotional needs.

Main duties of the job

• To provide a specialist psychology service to the brain injury and functional neurological disorder MDTs within the Lishman Unit including specialist assessment, neurorehabilitation, therapy, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
• To contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
• To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate.
• To undertake service evaluation, audit and research.
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, and guided by the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

• To provide neuropsychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients in the brain injury and functional neurological disorder (FND) MDTs within the Lishman Unit.
• To provide psychological rehabilitation using a multidisciplinary goal-setting approach, with close support from the senior psychologist.
• To provide evidence-based psychological therapy appropriate for clients with brain injury and FND.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To participate in neuropsychologically-informed assessments with the MDT (such as outreach assessments), with supervision from the senior psychologist.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To act as keyworker for specific service users, taking responsibility for updating the ward round, co-ordination of family meetings, providing point of contact for service users’ family members and contributing to discharge planning.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the brain injury and functional neurological disorder MDTs within the Lishman Unit and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team or 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 liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

KR 3 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.

KR 4 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 as needed.

KR 5 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 Training Course’s Supervision Training.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

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

KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required 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.

KR 8 Research and development

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

KR 9 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.

KR10 General

• To travel to outreach assessments as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as challenging behaviour emerging from brain injury or trauma, or team dynamics arising from prominent maladaptive interpersonal styles and to support others involved in such situations.

styles and to support others involved in such situations.

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.