Principal Practitioner Psychologist

Job overview

We are excited to advertise a permanent 0.8 WTE (4 days) Principal Practitioner Psychologist post (Clinical, Counselling, Forensic, grade 8b) to work in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale's adult acute inpatient service.

The two 18-bedded adult acute wards, Hollingworth and Moorside, are based at Birch Hill Hospital and provide specialist assessment,  care and treatment for men and women aged 18 to 65 years old with a variety of mental health needs. People will often be admitted via A&E, Liaison, Home Treatment Team, a Mental Health Act Assessment within the community or from an outpatient clinic and are often experiencing distress, a mental health deterioration and/or may be in crisis.

Hollingworth and Moorside are friendly, dynamic ward teams who are keen for a full MDT to help them provide the best possible care they can.  We are looking for skilled and compassionate Practitioner Psychologist to join us and provide high-quality psychology input within our acute inpatient services. The post holder will be part of an acute pathway psychology team with a network of colleagues around them and will supported and supervised by a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Main duties of the job

As outlined in the job description, the main duties include:

• To provide clinical leadership and direction in the continual development and provision of a high quality specialist psychology service within the adult acute inpatient service, embedding trauma informed care
• To support with the transformation of acute inpatient care, in line with national direction
• To  hold a clinical caseload undertaking evidence-based psychological assessment, formulation, and intervention (individual and/or group). This may include a range of mental health difficulties at the point of crisis including experiences of psychosis, depression and/or Complex Emotional and Relational Needs (CERN)
• To provide specialist psychological support, consultation and guidance to other professionals contributing directly to the assessment, formulation and intervention plan
• To ensure the team have access to a psychologically-based framework for understanding and caring for the service user, through the provision of advice, consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management and to provide general advice to other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management
• To support inpatient colleagues through the provision of supervision, reflective practice and post-incident reflective spaces
• To contribute to audit, policy/service development and research. To propose and implement policy changes within the areas served

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For a more detailed overview of the roles job description and main responsibilities, please see the attached job description and personal specification.