Principal Clinical Psychologist-Integrated Co-Occurring Needs Pathway

Job overview

Are you committed to making a positive change and empowering people with co-occurring drug and alcohol and mental health needs to achieve a better quality of life? Would you like to work for MPFT / Inclusion, an award-winning NHS provider of addiction treatment service in England and part of a forward thinking, nationally leading and innovative NHS trust?

MPFT/ Inclusion has an exciting opportunity for a passionate and caring individual to join our team within the Intensive Co-Occurring Needs [ICoN] service, which has been highlighted as an area of good practice by Dame Carole Black amongst others, which offers support to those with complex co-occurring needs. Within South Staffordshire there is shared commitment to develop better access and outcomes for those with co-occurring drug and alcohol and mental health needs with an established project board to oversee the delivery and enable integration and cultural and system change. The ICoN service has been reviewed and is awaiting direction from the project board on how it will support the system going forwards and creates an exciting time for the right person to lead the changes.

ICoN is seeking a dedicated and compassionate Principal Psychologist to join our dynamic team. This innovative post is a jointly funded positioned between secondary care mental health services in South Staffordshire, MPFT and Inclusion Services.

Main duties of the job

• To be responsible for and lead the provision of a psychology service to adults accessing mental health or community drug & alcohol services. This is to incorporate complex assessments leading to psychological formulations of distress; recommendations for treatment options and evaluation and delivery of interventions.
• As a senior clinician with specialist post-qualification training, the post holder will take responsibility for development of a specific area of psychological knowledge within the MPFT / Inclusion psychology team.  This may include leading or contributing to training, supervision and governance aspects of the specific therapeutic model or approach.
• To supervise and support the psychological assessment and therapy provided by other psychologists and other clinical members of the team who provide psychologically informed care and treatment.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team.
• To utilise research and audit skills to guide service development.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We believe that the individuals and families who use our services should receive high quality, committed and inclusive care, realising all the benefits a modern NHS organisation can provide. We work with patients and our staff teams to achieve the best outcomes we can. We invest heavily in training and development, and the wellbeing of our people, both staff and service users is central to who we are.

Here at MPFT, we are proud of the comprehensive wellbeing and lifestyle support offer available, in addition to in-house training and coaching support. Our services are robustly governed, evidence-based, inclusive, and designed and provided in conjunction with service users. We are committed to providing the best service we can, and if you share our values, we want you on our team!

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification. A summary is provided below:

• To provide a clinical psychology service to patients, with moderate to severe mental health problems, liaising as appropriate with relevant local mental health services.
• To work with clients alone as necessary, or to work jointly with others depending on the relevant risk assessment.
• To provide expert psychological assessment, formulation and therapy to an exceptionally high standard to patients with a range of mental health problems.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To liaise with relevant professionals within inpatient and community settings, coordinating the delivery of psychology services for adults within the localities where services are provided.
• To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the multi-disciplinary team.