Clinical/Health Psychologist

at  Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work as a Clinical/Health Psychologist in our Clinical Health Psychology Department which provides specialist psychological therapy to service users experiencing distress because of their physical health conditions. Our service provides psychological intervention, consultation, supervision, and training across a diverse range of physical health specialists, working closely with our MDT colleagues.
We are a full team of Clinical and Health Psychologists working as one team to deliver high quality psychological care across a range of physical health conditions across St Helens and Knowsley. We also pride ourselves on offering EMDR and receive EMDR Consultant supervision to enable best practice delivery of this service offer. Applicants trained in EMDR are welcomed. EMDR training can be sought as a CPD opportunity for the successful candidate.
There will also be opportunity to utilise complex clinical skills across the specialisms we serve, including stroke services, diabetes, cancer, pain, bariatrics, burns, plastics, and other long term physical health conditions, both inpatients and outpatients. This is a great opportunity to exercise breadth in clinical work whilst developing your areas of interest further. We are a forward-thinking service and want a dynamic psychologist to help grow, develop, and drive the profile of Clinical Health Psychology. We are an outstanding and award-winning Trust.
To provide a specialist Clinical Health Psychology Service within the Clinical Psychology Service across all sectors of physical health care, in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
To offer advice, consultation, and training on patients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to non-professional carers.
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Psychology Department’s policies and procedures and to exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the Psychology Service.
To utilise research skills to contribute to audit, policy and service development and research within the Department of Psychology.
You will be part of a high performing Clinical Psychology Department with access to psychology colleagues to support, reflect with, maintain your CPD portfolio and receive high quality clinical supervision from. You will work with the broader MDT within your specialisms and be a key member of our MDT teams. You will provide treatment in inpatient settings, outpatient clinics in the department and virtual treatment.
The Secretary of State has approved the partnership between St Helens & Knowsley and Southport & Ormskirk Hospitals.
From 1 st July we have come together as a single organisation under the name Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Trust delivers acute hospital care, intermediate care, community, and primary care services to a population of over 600,000 people with a combined workforce of around 9000 dedicated and skilled staff from 17 locations including Whiston, Southport & Formby, St Helens, Ormskirk and Newton hospitals.
The Trust provides regional services for burns, plastic surgery and spinal injuries to more than 4 million people across Mersey and West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales.

LINE MANAGEMENT RESPONSABILITIES

To advise the Clinical and Professional Service Lead on those aspects of the service(s) and practice where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the Psychology Service’s operational policies and services, through the use of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
To provide as required professional and specialist skills in clinical supervision and training.
To provide specialist clinical psychological supervision to Assistant Psychologists and other forms of therapist who may contribute to the team as required.
To provide specialist clinical supervision of individual cases for trainee clinical psychologists.
To provide specialist clinical psychological supervision and training to other healthcare workers.
To contribute to teaching on local clinical psychology training programmes.
To promote an understanding of the remit of the Psychology Service within the Trust

KEY DUTIES

To provide a specialist Clinical Psychology Service within the Clinical Health Psychology Service across all sectors of care, both to inpatients and outpatients.
To clinically supervise more junior clinicians within the team, including Assistant Psychologists, Psychologists on Trainee placements and Volunteers
To take responsibility for specific projects to continuously improve service delivery.
To offer advice, consultation, and training on patients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to non-professional carers.
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the Psychology Department’s policies and procedures and to exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the Psychology Service.
To utilise research skills to contribute to audit, policy and service development and research within the Department of Psychology.
To take part in complex MDT clinics and to provide specialist supervision to nursing, counselling, and other colleagues on psychological aspects of care.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

To receive regular clinical supervision from a more senior Clinical Psychologist and attend regular management and professional supervision.
To provide highly specialist psychological assessments and clinical understanding of patients referred to the Psychology Service based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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 patients, family members and others involved in the patient’s care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient’s psychological health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patient’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 specialist psychological interventions for individuals, couples and families, and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations and drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into consideration both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, couple, family or group.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, evaluation and discharge of patients.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other health professionals, including medical consultants, clinical nurse specialists, therapists and counsellors, contributing directly to patients’ formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care for the benefit of all patients seen by the Psychology Service.
To undertake risk assessment and risk management for patients seen by the Psychology Service.
To communicate orally and in writing, in a skilled and sensitive manner, to other health professionals, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care throughout the Trust.
To develop and maintain professional pathways of care both internally and externally to other care providers, for example, IAPT services.
To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the Head of Psychology.
To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in clinical work within the Psychology service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal, and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology, medicine and health psychology.
To maintain up-to-date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific patient group and psychological health.
To adhere to the Code of Practice of the British Psychological Society and the Health Professions Council and maintain appropriate professional registration and requirements for continued registration at all times.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, Health Professions Council and Trust policies and procedures.
To manage your diary against your agreed job plan, clearly and effectively so that it is accessible to administrators and colleagues within the service, enabling the management of referrals in a timely manner.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES

To continuously improve with regular CPD in Clinical Health Psychology, over and above the Trust Mandatory training, by reading, searching literature bases, attending workshops and conferences.
To provide as required professional and specialist skills in clinical supervision and training.
To contribute to teaching on local clinical psychology training programmes.
To promote an understanding of the remit of the Psychology Service within the Trust.