Senior Practitioner Psychologist, Mental Health Homeless Team

at  Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust

Applications are invited from Practitioner Psychologists registered with the HCPC for a permanent Band 8a post (up to 33.5 hours per week) with options for flexible working in the Brighton & Hove Mental Health Homeless Team (MHHT) based in East Brighton Community Mental Health Centre, Brighton General Hospital.
Mental Health Homeless Team.
As the psychologist within the Mental Health Homeless Team you can make your own powerful contribution by helping us support some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in society. Our service works with rough sleepers and insecurely housed individuals across Brighton and Hove, who have a severe and enduring mental illness and who may have additional substance misuse problems.
The MHHT is an exciting community mental health service that collaborates with colleagues from the housing department, health workers and VCS organisations.
You will join a friendly, highly-skilled and enthusiastic multi-disciplinary team of
mental health nurses, social workers, an STR worker and a consultant psychiatrist.
Please talk with us if you have an area of work you’re passionate about and would like to develop and we’ll see if we can support you.
We encourage calling the service to ask any questions from applicants, or arrange an informal visit.
As a Senior Practitioner psychologist, you will;
Apply skills and expertise in psychological assessments
Hold a caseload of clients.
Collaboratively develop formulations and care plans,
Facilitate group and individual psychological interventions
Provide case consultations and reflective practice sessions for staff
Provide teaching, training and supervision, to assistant and trainee psychologists.
We encourage flexible working. We know that a positive work/ life balance brings about huge health-related benefits, which has a positive impact on the care we provide. Please speak to us about flexible working, for example, home-working, part time hours, flexible start/ finish times or anything else. If it works for you and works for the role, we’ll do our best to make it happen.

LIVING & WORKING IN BRIGHTON:

Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns there’s always new experiences to be enjoyed
Great transport links with Brighton train station linking up directly with major cities such as Portsmouth and London, whilst also being a 30-minute train ride to Gatwick Airport
The city is also host to lots of cosy pubs and quirky bars for you to visit
There are also plenty of shops for you to browse during your lunch break or after work, with Churchill shopping centre being the main attraction
Applications are welcome from enthusiastic and experienced psychologists with specialist knowledge and skills of working with severe and enduring mental health difficulties such as complex trauma, psychosis and personality difficulties.
Equally important are leadership skills and the ability to develop innovative practice and play a lead role in service development. We are looking for someone who can contribute at a senior level to the vision of the MHHT as it continues to develop towards an improved service model.
The successful applicant would receive professional supervision and be professionally and clinically accountable to and managed by the Lead Consultant Clinical Psychologist.
Requirements include.
To work as a member of the Mental Health Homeless Team providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to clients, their families or carers. In addition, to support psychological practice within the team through consultation, supervision, formulation and training.
To participate in systematic clinical governance and to offer clinical supervision to assistant, trainee and more junior psychologists and other staff. To utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by the team/service.
To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways.
To be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and to exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients, within the bounds of the service operational policy.
To use analytical and judgment skills and be responsible for taking clinical management decisions in complex clinical issues.
To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate.
To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
Please see the full job description for a detailed description of requirements.

Emily Cooper (Clinical Lead), 07471 034102 or email emily.cooper@spft.nhs.uk
or
Dr Gabriel Schnitzer (Senior Clinical Psychologist), 07887 571686 or email gabriel.schnitzer@spft.nhs.u