Senior Practitioner Psychologist

at  Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Job outline: To work as a member of the Bariatric MDT at St Richard’s Hospital, University Hospital Sussex. To be clinically based with the bariatric team, providing a high quality, specialist applied psychology service to patients across the bariatric surgical pathway. In addition, to support psychological practice within the unit 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. Scope & Authority: To provide a qualified, high-quality specialist psychology service to individuals and groups accessing care from the bariatric surgical MDT, in line with best, evidence-based practice and trust care pathways. To contribute to the development of a comprehensive psychology service which covers pre-surgical assessment and therapeutic intervention pre- and post-operatively where appropriate in alignment with service 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 patients, 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 clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate.
To professionally supervise and, when appropriate, manage, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists 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 work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams 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. To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.
To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service. Key Results Areas: Clinical: 1. To carry out specialist psychological assessments of patients, 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 patients care in order to reach a psychological formulation of the patient’s difficulties. 2.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patients mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patients problems and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings. 3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals and groups across the pathway adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses. 4.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options considering both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, or group. 5. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance, and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to patients formulation, diagnoses and treatment plan. 6.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all patients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the patient group. 7. To undertake risk assessment, formulation and management for individual patients with complex presentations and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management. 8.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation, and treatment plans of patients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care. 9.To promote and participate in multi-disciplinary team working, development and liaison. 10. To promote actively, user and carer involvement in care planning and service.
See JD and PS for full details. For further information please contact Dr Susan Hennessey, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Clinical Lead for Clinical Health Psychology, susan.hennessey@nhs.net

Please refer the Job description for details