Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

We are looking for a dynamic, highly motivated individual committed to delivering high-quality care to autistic people and their families.  This is an exciting opportunity for a suitably qualified, experienced professional looking to contribute to the development of this new service.

The Adult Autism Intensive Support Team provides specialist assessment, formulation, therapeutic interventions (directly to individuals or through consultation) to a small number of autistic people with complex needs. The multi-disciplinary service will support autistic adults, without a co-occurring intellectual disability, under the care of an existing SWLSTG service. The aim of the service is to reduce reliance on inpatient mental health care and improve the skills of SWLSTG clinicians in working with autistic adults.

You will be thoughtful in the way you work with the multi-disciplinary team and have experience in developing the skills of colleagues. You will be interested in working with external partners to develop supportive networks and have energy, drive and enthusiasm for working with complexity.

You will be part of a psychology led developing service that strives for clinical excellence and aims to support its staff to feel valued, provides opportunities for training and development and encourages active participation relevant service developments.

Main duties of the job

• To provide specialist psychological service for autistic adults with complex needs, placing them at risk of admission.
• To provide specialist psychological assessment, formulation and intervention to clients and their care teams, involving undertaking direct assessment with clients or indirect assessment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes with staff or carers.
• To participate in strengthening local services and developing capable environments though training, consultation and modelling.
• To work across a variety of setting including community teams, residential services and inpatient services.
• To work autonomously alongside service users, families, support workers and professionals to enable others to better understand and respond to behaviours of distress in line with Positive & Proactive Care: reducing the need for restrictive interventions (2014) and NICE Guidance (including NG11 & NG93).
• To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate.
• To plan and facilitate staff training and teaching, and presentations as appropriate.
• To participate in service evaluation, audit and research.
• To work as an autonomous professional within professional and Trust guidelines and codes of conduct and guided by the policies and procedures of the service, taking responsibility for own work including treatment and discharge decisions with support of clinical supervisor.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team. This is to include appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a range of sources including psychological and neurological tests, clinical questionnaires, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interview with clients, staff, family members and others involved in the client’s care, all in the context of multi-disciplinary working.
• To formulate, implement and evaluate plans for the specialised psychological intervention and/or management of a client’s problems, based upon a thorough holistic assessment. The formulation should include consideration of the client’s presenting difficulties, personal, social and developmental history, strengths and needs, environmental factors, intellectual ability and level of social support and independence. To consider, evaluate and decide upon a range of interventions and theoretical models across the full range of care settings, including consideration of evidence of efficacy, and to decide upon the most appropriate intervention in liaison with the client or staff or carer.
• To be responsible for implementing a range of specialist psychological interventions, across outpatient, community and in-patient settings, for individuals, carers, families and groups, employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
• To provide expertise and specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.
• To provide expertise, consultation and specialist advice to professional colleagues on the psychological assessment and treatment of autistic people and to promote a psychological perspective of their needs. To provide access, advice and consultation on psychological knowledge, research and research methods to other professionals in the team.
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists and other professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.
• To act as care co-ordinator where appropriate, ensuring the provision of a care package appropriate for the client’s needs. This is to include co-ordinating the work of others involved with care, arranging clients’ care reviews as required and communicating effectively with the client, their family and all others involved in care; and to monitor progress during the course of multi-disciplinary interventions.
• To provide expert consultation about the psychological care of the client group to staff and agencies outside of the team and the Trust including advice, consultation and support to clinical staff in mainstream health services to enable them to offer best evidence-based practice for autistic adults accessing their service. These may include organisations such as independent sector agencies and social services.
• To work with other disciplines and agencies, to provide a coherent and effective service for autistic people.
• To communicate information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care in a skilled, professional and sensitive manner, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both university- and multi-disciplinary care. To be sensitive to each client’s level of needs and to communicate in a manner that is accessible and understandable. This may involve producing easy-to-understand version of reports or letters or arranging face-to-face meetings to explain assessment results. Existing worksheets or intervention packages may need to be adapted to suit the needs of autistic people.