Practitioner Psychologist, Psychotherapist or Psychological Therapist

Job overview

In Lambeth Secondary Care Psychological Therapies (SCPT) we are reaching across the pathway and into community and primary care settings. Our clinicians provide a range of specialist psychological therapies for mood, anxiety, trauma related and personality difficulties for adults with long-standing and complex mental health difficulties.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced psychological therapist to join us, focusing on close working with our first step of care - our tier 1 team - and with Lambeth's Short Term Support Team, providing clinical care to clients with complex needs, as well as overseeing and assessing new referrals to our service. In addition, the postholder will be working therapeutically in our tier 2 trauma-reliving /complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (cPTSD)reliving therapy pathway offering Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TF-CBT) or/and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Main duties of the job

The post is based at 151 Blackfriars road, but there is an expectation that the postholder will travel to other sites as needed.

As described above, the postholder will be working in close liaison with the North Short Term Support Team (STS North Living Well Centre) and oversee the SCPT team working within that locality. This includes attending and providing input to STS Multi-disciplinary meetings, Primary Care and Alliance Network meetings, conducting joint assessments and formulations, offering training and supervision to Tier 1 SCPT staff and to STS staff.

The postholder will also work clinically on our tier 2 complex PTSD reliving therapy pathway, co-facilitating preparatory groups including our Trauma Stabilisation Group and our EMDR preparation group, as well as offering assessments and treatment for individual reliving-focused therapy, including TF-CBT and/or EMDR. Local training will in protocols will be provided and relevant supervision is available.

Finally, the postholder will be involved in supervision, line management and recruitment of new Tier 1 staff.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To act, alongside colleagues, as Lead Psychological Therapist for one of the place-based Living Well Centres (North) and the Tier 1 protocolised interventions service, supporting the multidisciplinary team and psychological therapies pathway in the care of complex presentations
• To provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and interventions for people with complex mental health presentations. The role will also involve the provision of advice, education and support to service users and their carers or family members as indicated. You will also act as the psychological therapies lead to ensure effective care between the team and the pathway, leading Tier 1 provision. This role also involves providing assessment and intervention for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms in a population with complex emotional needs.
• 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, functioning as a lead specialist clinician in relevant therapies and the Tier 1 context.
• To ensure that systems are in place and working effectively for managing care in these components of the pathway, and across relevant care teams/systems.
• To undertake service evaluation, audit, research and policy development.
• To work as an autonomous professional within BPS/HCPC/ APC/BPC/UKCP/BACP guidelines and codes of conduct. Guided by principles and policies or procedures of SLaM and the borough, and taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
• To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice and/or currently understood best practice-based evidence, in individual work and work with other team members.
• Liaison with external agencies
• Investigations and incidents -  lead on informal and formal
• Flow management (Capacity/Demand) for locality
• Ensuring staff stay up to date with developments in field
• Data reporting to senior leadership team, including flagging and problem solving suggestions of difficulties
• The post holder will need to provide visible and effective clinical leadership to the clinical teams they supervise and be skilled in working collaboratively with others.