Assistant Psychologist - Hillingdon Acute Mental Health Services

at  Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

We are looking to employ an Assistant Psychologist to work on our male Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in our acute inpatient mental health wards in the Riverside Centre, Uxbridge. Uxbridge is on the Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines and accessible from London as well as areas west of London.
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
The successful candidate will join an established inpatient psychology team consisting of a consultant clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and assistant psychologists. They will support in providing psychological input into the female acute mental health inpatient ward at Hillingdon as part of a multi-disciplinary team. This will include running therapy groups on the ward, seeing inpatients for individual sessions as well as attendance at Multi-Disciplinary Team meetings. The post holder will play a key role in helping to develop psychological formulations for all people admitted onto the wards and using these formulations to inform the approach the MDT takes in it’s care and treatment of people while they are on the ward.
The psychology team are taking a lead in implementing trauma informed approaches (TIA) to inpatients care. The post holder will receive training in these approaches and will support the continued implementation of TIA on the wards. We have close connections with other teams implementing TIA across CNWL, and meet regularly to share ideas and experiences and to enhance implementation across sites.
Psychological therapies are highly valued by the wider MDTs here, and there is a supportive culture in the teams and the psychological therapy service. You will attend a weekly psychology meeting, attended by the wider adult mental health psychology team, trainee and assistant psychologists, where complex cases across the service are discussed, with an emphasis on assessment.
The post holder will receive training in all areas of his/her work as well as receive regular clinical supervision by an appropriately qualified Clinical Psychologist. It is a great job for anyone wanting to go on to train as a clinical psychologist. We offer placements to all 3 London doctoral courses.
Access to a car is not essential.
Please see full job description for further information
Clinical
To undertake, under the clinical supervision of a qualified psychologist, protocol based psychological assessments of patients applying psychological, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patient’s care
To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s problems, clinically supervised by a qualified psychologist.
To undertake joint assessments with MDT staff as required.
To undertake appropriate tasks delegated by the MDTs agreed with the postholders supervisor.
To assist with the provision of enhanced support including providing time limited practical, psychological and emotional support to clients at times of increased need.
To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings, reporting all identified adverse risks to clients’ recovery.
To assist, under the direct supervision of a qualified psychologist, in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.
To assist with audits reviewing the quality of clinical practice and care pathways within all parts of the Hillingdon Mental Health Service.
Help promote team cohesiveness, multidisciplinary working and at all times work collaboratively with colleagues in all parts of the Trust and other agencies to achieve healthy and effective working relationships and care provisio

Please refer the Job description for details