Practitioner Psychologist/Cognitive Behaviour Therapist

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Practitioner Psychologist or Cognitive Behavioural Therapist to join our Stepped Care Therapy Team within Older Peoples' Mental Health Secondary Care Services in Cambridge.

The friendly and supportive team comprises Clinical Psychologists, CBT Therapists, Occupational Therapists and an OT Assistant. We regularly host trainees from all disciplines. We are a proactive team who use a broad range of therapeutic approaches and work in a person-centred way.

The role will include assessment, formulation and evidence-based intervention including, where appropriate, specialist neuropsychological assessment. The post holder will also provide supervision and consultation for mental health colleagues and work closely with both mental and physical health staff. The ideal candidate will have a strong team work ethic, sense of accountability, an ability to work under considerable pressure, and have a passion for working with older people.

*For clinical /counselling psychologists appointed a preceptorship agreement for progression to band 8a may be offered*

Main duties of the job

To provide a qualified specialist clinical psychology, counselling psychology or psychological therapy service to clients referred to Older People's Stepped Care Therapies Service in the Cambridge and Ely locality. This is across all sectors of care (in outpatient day service, inpatient, residential care and domestic settings) working with people with functional and organically based mental health problems.

This will involve providing specialist assessment and therapy, including where it is appropriate to professional competence providing neuropsychological assessment.

To offer advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other non-professional carers, taking the main responsibility for psychological input to one of the neighbourhood teams.

To provide supervision and guidance for more junior staff including Trainee Clinical Psychologists, Trainee Cognitive Behaviour Therapists and Mental Health Practitioners where appropriate.

About us

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.

The post holder will be expected to contribute to the clinical activity of the service. This will involve holding a clinical caseload, including:

• Providing psychological therapy interventions for cases referred to the team. This will involve the use of evidence based psychological interventions in both individual and group work formats e.g., CBT.
• Formulating, implementing and evaluating therapy programmes for clients.
• Ensuring treatment delivery remains accessible, convenient and with minimal waiting times as agreed by senior clinicians and managers.
• Providing clinical supervision in the service.
• Undertaking risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and providing advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management
• Communicating, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others, information that may be contentious or highly distressing.
• Producing reports on clients in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.
• Working in partnership with other disciplines including attending multidisciplinary meetings relating to referral or clients in treatment where appropriate.

The post holder will work with senior clinicians and other managers to:

• Ensure that there is a clinical audit programme developed.
• Ensure that all of the required evaluation data is produced in a timely manner.
• Establish local research priorities and develop a research programme in line with local policies.
• Produce reports by using the date which has been collected for the service.
• Help to collate and disseminate the results of clinical audits and service evaluations.

The post holder will contribute to the on-going operation and development of the service by working with the senior clinicians and other managers to be involved with:

• Data collection for the on-going evaluation of the service.
• Promotion of the Older Peoples Therapies Service locally to GP practices and nationally as appropriate.

The post holder will work with the senior clinicians and other managers to:

• Ensure that regular reports are provided for all of the information required for the ongoing and evaluation of the Stepped Care Therapies Service.
• Ensure that all staff complete information requirements as required by local protocols.

The postholder will:

• Participate in regular supervision (clinical or management) in accordance with good practice guidelines and Trust policy.
• Participate in the Trusts annual Appraisal process. attend all relevant mandatory training as and when required to do so.

The postholder will:

• Promote and safeguard the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
• Implement NICE guidance and other statutory / best practice guidelines.
• Be responsible for the prevention and control of infection.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications

Essential

• Doctorate level training in clinical or applied psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan development psychology as accredited by the BPS or a BPS Statement of Equivalence
• A registered qualification in health care at graduate level in nursing, social work, allied health professional PLUS PG dip post qualification further training in a specialised area of psychological practice e.g. CBT.
• Professional training which supports the ability to provide evidenced based psychological therapy clinical interventions.

Desirable

• Eligibility for Chartered Clinical or Applied Psychologist status.
• Undertaken post qualification further training in a specialised area of psychological practice e.g. neuropsychology, CBT, CAT, DBT, solution focused therapy, analytical therapy, systemic / family work etc.
• Undertake training in the supervision of trainees and other therapists.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment, formulation and treatment of clients across the full range of mental health care settings.
• Experience of working in mental health services for older people with experience of holding a caseload, assessment, care planning and delivery of psychological interventions.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of the application of clinical psychology / specialist mental health practice in different contexts.
• Experience of working in mental health services where multi-disciplinary working was embraced as part of service delivery.
• Proven ability to communicate clearly in difficult and complex situations.

Desirable

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified clinical or applied psychologist / CBT therapist

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Full range of skills and competencies as laid out in the competence framework for CBT (Roth and Pilling 2007).
• Skills in individual and group work and in programme planning.
• Planning and organising skills for caseload management.
• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate affectively, orally and in writing. Complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information, including contentious and highly distressing information, to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and nonprofessional groups.
• Capable of being individually accountable for own clinical interventions.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, enabling formation of networks with professionals within the Trust and from other agencies to promote effective team working with clients.
• Able to contain and work with high levels of distress from clients.
• Able to contain and work with organisational stress.
• Interpersonally calm and able to defuse difficult, volatile situations.
• Able to tolerate ambiguity and to take decisions in situations of incomplete information.
• Ability to exercise appropriate levels of self-care and to monitor own state, recognising when it is necessary to take active steps to maintain fitness to practice.
• Motivated towards personal and professional development with a strong CPD record.
• The ability and skills to act as an advocate for a new service, to engage and foster good professional relationships with all health professionals in promoting the good integration of this service with the wider health care system.

Other

Essential

• Recognise people's right to privacy and dignity, treating every person with respect.
• Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours.
• Ability to teach and train others using a variety of complex multimedia materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to articulate and interpret clearly the role of the mental health professional (clinical psychology, psychiatric nurse, occupational therapist etc.) based upon a good understanding of the framework of governance and national professional policy.
• Evidence of continuing professional developments as recommended by the regulating and professional/accrediting bodies.
• Ability to identify and employ as appropriate clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.

Desirable

• Record of having published in peer reviewed or academic or professional journals and/or books.

Employer details

Employer name

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Brookfields Hospital

351 Mill Road

Cambridge

CB1 3DF

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

310-OPAC-6117793#J-18808-Ljbffr

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