Senior Psychological Therapist - HMP Downview

at  Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust is a Top Employer Award Winner and works in partnership to provide responsive and dependable primary care, mental health, intellectual disability and substance misuse services to the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.
In our quest to deliver patient-focused quality care we are looking to recruit a highly motivated, innovative and enthusiastic Senior Psychologist or Psychological Therapist to join our forward thinking, friendly and expanding Mental Health In reach Team at HMP Downview .

We are keen to recruit someone with a passion for working with women in custody, and those who have experienced trauma, adversity and offending. In our women’s services we provided a wide range of therapies (CBT, MBT, EMDR, Psychodynamic counselling, arts therapies) and actively work with partners to provide timely and trauma informed systems of care. You will be helping provide and develop these services at HMP Downview.

• To work as a key member of the multi-disciplinary team, supporting a psychological and trauma informed service to the women at HMP Downview and leading the on the psychological therapy provision within the team.
• To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy as well as offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other members of the clinical team.
• To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the Health & Justice Services Directorate.
• To provide clinical supervision to the team’s psychological therapists, Assistant Psychologists and trainees and other members of the team when appropriate.
• To contribute to the reflective practice and critical thinking of the team on a case-by-case basis (e.g. complex case reviews) and in service improvement.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures

By joining CNWL’s Health & Justice Directorate you will be joining a large department of psychologists and psychological therapists that provide a variety of mental health and OPD services across prisons, the youth estate, secure hospitals and the community. Our staff are dynamic and welcoming and the networking and CPD opportunities are central to our services ethos. We have active research forums and promote our services and work through academic and clinical forums. All staff receive regular supervision and are supported with career aspirations and progression.
All of our sites in Surrey offer free use of the onsite leisure facilities and free parking for staff.
Click here to find out more about working within the psychological professions at CNWL and here to see what our Health & Justice staff say about working within our award winning teams.
To carry out specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological 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 clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client’s difficulties.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’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 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 provide specialist assessments of clients presenting with cognitive impairment due to a variety of causes or organic conditions, including pre-assessment counselling and neuropsychological and functional assessments, and to be able to adjust psychological interventions to work effectively with people presenting with complex needs due to cognitive impairment and organic disorders.
To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.
To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulations, diagnoses and treatment plans.
To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
To undertake risk assessment, formulation and management for individual clients with complex presentations and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment, formulation and management.
To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.
To promote and participate in multi-disciplinary team working, development and liaison.
To promote actively, user and carer involvement in care planning and service development.
To be up to date with both de-escalation, physical breakaway and PMVA techniques appropriate to the service environment.

• To work as a key member of the multi-disciplinary team, supporting a psychological and trauma informed service to the women at HMP Downview and leading the on the psychological therapy provision within the team.
• To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy as well as offering advice and consultation on service users’ psychological care to other members of the clinical team.
• To utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the Health & Justice Services Directorate.
• To provide clinical supervision to the team’s psychological therapists, Assistant Psychologists and trainees and other members of the team when appropriate.
• To contribute to the reflective practice and critical thinking of the team on a case-by-case basis (e.g. complex case reviews) and in service improvement.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedure