Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist – Diabetes (Adults)

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for this post holder to join an integrated diabetes service in developing psychological support for Enfield residents living with diabetes and its complications. The post holder will work closely with the Clinical Lead for Diabetes, Medical Consultants, Diabetes Specialist Nurses and other colleagues to determine to how best to provide effective, evidence based psychological support for people with diabetes attending the service. Such input will be aimed at reducing diabetes related distress and disability and promoting wellbeing, adherence to treatment, and positive treatment outcomes in adults with complex diabetes related problems. Input will also support with signposting / referring people with diabetes to other relevant services for example. mental health teams.

Main duties of the job

To be responsible for the provision of a high quality, specialist clinical/counselling psychology service to the Diabetes Centre. This will include providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on psychological aspects of diabetes to other health professionals and supporting clinical team members who provide psychosocial care. Where appropriate, the post holder with exercise autonomous professional responsibility for clinical decisions, working within professional guidelines and Diabetes Centre policies and procedures.

The post holder will be expected to utilise their knowledge of evidence based psychological interventions and research skills to identify and implement audit, research and service development projects within the Diabetes Centre (if appropriate)

The post holder will also have a key role in education on psychologically informed care within the Diabetes Centre and when appropriate, will be involved in the training and continuing professional development of clinical / counselling psychologists and other health professionals.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To provide specialist psychological assessments based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological 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.
• To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient’s psychological difficulties, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework 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 evaluate and make decisions about management and treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning illness, historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group. With ability to critically weigh up and incorporate into treatment planning differing opinions regarding the aetiological and maintenance factors within client and family presentation.
• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans.
• To provide highly specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals involved in the client’s care.
• To ensure that members of multidisciplinary teams working within the Diabetes Centre have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding clients’ difficulties through the provision of advice and consultations, and the dissemination of psychological research and theory
• To undertake risk assessment and risk management as appropriate for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.