Psychotherapist, Practitioner Psychologist & Psychological Therapist

Job overview

We are delighted to advertise this Band 8a post (or Band 7 to 8a Preceptorship) Highly Specialist Psychology role at the National Psychosis Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital. The post holder will support the Consultant Clinical Psychologist to provide an excellent psychological service to the ward. The post holder will have experience supporting psychologists and psychotherapists (including trainees and pre-qualified staff) to work effectively, compassionately and collaboratively. The post holder will deliver evidenced based psychological interventions for people experiencing psychosis and their carers and families. The post holder will offer neuropsychological assessments to service users. The post holder will support staff to increase the psychological safety on the ward and support compassionate and trauma informed ways of working. Supporting staff on the ward will be in an important aspect of the role.

This post also offers opportunities for research and continuing professional development. The unit enjoys excellent research links with departments at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. The service and Directorate have a long tradition in supporting psychology practitioners in developing clinical expertise in novel and emerging areas of working with psychosis.

Main duties of the job

• To provide highly specialist psychological interventions for service users (individual, family, and carer) in a specialist inpatient setting, including neuropsychological assessment.
• 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.
• To promote service evaluation, audit, and research.
• To work as an autonomous professional within registration body guidelines and codes of conduct adhering to local policies.
• To facilitate a monthly staff reflection group, and to participate, as a recipient, in staff support work when appropriate.
• To facilitate monthly team case formulation and discussion spaces to support psychologically informed care and treatment planning.
• To provide a psychological perspective to clinical team discussions for example in ward rounds, CPAs, management rounds, and team discussions.
• To contribute to care through treatment planning and discharge planning as required.
• To take an active role in the multidisciplinary approach to safe patient care and to take appropriate action in relation to safe guarding concerns within the remit of the role.
• To contribute to delivering teaching and training to the team.
• To support the development of an anti-racist and trauma informed culture on the ward.
• To support staff wellbeing.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will be supervised and managed by Dr Majella Byrne, Consultant Clinical Psychologist. The role will be based at the Bethlem Royal Hospital on the National Psychosis Unit.

Key Responsibilities (see detailed job description for the post):

KR 1 Clinical and Client Care

• To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients (individuals, couples, families and social networks of people with psychosis and complex mental health needs) in the National Psychosis Unit.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological or psychotherapeutic interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To provide neuropsychological assessment and reports.
• To provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users and their families.
• To select and deliver evidence-based specialist therapeutic interventions, drawing from a spectrum of ideas and models, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions as necessary, based on the highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, couple, family or group.
• To promote psychological support for carers (or families as appropriate) of referred clients.

KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the National Psychosis Unit and to a psychologically/psychotherapeutically 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.
• To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals.

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 service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.

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.
• To ensure the cleanliness and safe functioning and use of equipment that will be used by clients or other persons.
• To monitor and advise clients on the safe use of materials and processes.
• To ensure adequate confidential and safe storage for artefacts produced during the therapy process in line with professional guidelines.
• To be responsible for obtaining, storing and maintaining all materials and equipment for the provision of therapy in work setting within budgetary constraints.

KR 5 Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of more junior psychological practitioners with support from a more senior practitioner.
• To supervise trainee psychological practitioners within own area of specialism having completed the relevant Supervision Training.
• To contribute to the appraisal of more junior psychological practitioners as appropriate.
• To contribute to the recruitment of more junior psychological practitioners as appropriate.
• To provide supervision for the psychological and/or psychotherapeutic work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

KR 6 Teaching and Training

• To undertake occasional teaching and training of pre and post- qualification psychological practitioners, and specialised training to other professions as appropriate.
• To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in psychological therapy and by implementing knowledge gained in practice.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
• 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 initiate/undertake, support and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits.
• To initiate, carry out, and support research as required.
• To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychological therapist according to professional body and Trust guidelines.
• To maintain own Continuing Professional Development in line with professional body and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and professional 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 professional body Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics/Standards of Proficiency.

KR10 General

• To travel to locations 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, abuse etc) and to support others involved in such situations through Trust-wide approaches including Critical Incident Staff Support and Reflect-Support-Resolve.

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.