Senior Psychologist

Job overview

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner and works in partnership to provide responsive and dependable primary care, mental health, intellectual disability and substance misuse services to the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.

In our quest to deliver patient-focused quality care we are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and enthusiastic Senior Psychologist to join our forward thinking, friendly and expanding Mental Health Team at HMP Woodhill.  By joining our Prison Health Care Team, you will not only look after the healthcare needs of the prisoners, but will also have the opportunity to have a real impact on promoting health and well-being. We are keen to recruit someone with a passion for working with people in custody, and those who have experienced trauma, adversity and offending.

Working in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies, we provide responsive, dependable and high-quality primary care and mental health services to those in prison, to improve their health status and to encourage social inclusion.

We strive to deliver a culturally competent and responsive service that can meet the needs of our population. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds, especially from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.

Main duties of the job

To provide a key role in integrating clinical psychology within the wider mental health team.

To provide a comprehensive specialist clinical psychology service to service users.

To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy as well as offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other members of the clinical team.

To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures.

To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the Health & Justice Services Directorate.

To provide clinical supervision to other members of the team when appropriate.

To contribute to the reflective practice and critical thinking of the team on a case-by-case basis (e.g. complex case reviews) and in service improvement.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To carry out specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client’s difficulties.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To provide specialist assessments of clients presenting with cognitive impairment due to a variety of causes or organic conditions, including pre-assessment counselling and neuropsychological and functional assessments, and to be able to adjust psychological interventions to work effectively with people presenting with complex needs due to cognitive impairment and organic disorders.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To undertake risk assessment, formulation and management for individual clients with complex presentations and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment, formulation and management.

To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

To promote and participate in multi-disciplinary team working, development and liaison.

To promote actively, user and carer involvement in care planning and service development.

To be up to date with both de-escalation, physical breakaway and PMVA techniques appropriate to the service environment