Assistant Psychologist

Health and Justice Services part of GMMH Specialist Service Care Group are looking to recruit a committed and dynamic assistant psychologist to work within the multi-disciplinary mental health team, which implements a stepped-care model to provide mental health and psychological care across HMP Styal.

We are seeking a full-time Band 4 assistant psychologist to support the current psychological provision in providing psychological and formulation driven understanding of mental health, emotional distress, complex personality presentations and trauma responses.

The post holder would be expected to work under direct supervision of the practitioner psychologist to provide assessment, formulation and intervention and to work closely with the current PWP staff and wider multi-disciplinary team.

Working within a prison environment can be a challenging place to work, we are seeking someone with strong clinical and interpersonal skills that are able to manage and respond to the dynamic needs of the team, the client group and the environment, to ensure that provision is accessible and appropriate.

To work alongside service users, multi-disciplinary mental health team and the wider prison staff to improve psychological well-being and reduce the risk of harm of the offender population.

To contribute to the gathering of information for integration into individual formulations. This will include meeting with individual service users and developing formulations for sharing within the prison staff group.

To support the development of specialist understanding of need, including conducting semi-structured psychological assessments and on occasion neuropsychological assessments.

To contribute to the evaluation of the Talking Therapies provision completing pre-and post-follow up measures and interviews.

To use skills to motivate and support others to participate in and utilise the Talking Therapies services.

To contribute to the multi-professional understanding of service-user presentation and support the development of a psychologically informed environment for the services-users to reside within.

Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 6,400 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 160 locations.

We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.

Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.

Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.

Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.

To support the development of psychologically informed ways of working with individual service-users and by supporting staff within the MHIT and the wider establishment.

To contribute to the development and delivery of training packages on mental health, personality and complex trauma for the purposes of workforce development within the prison.

To work with a wide range of complex dynamics within the environment and host organization. This will require the post holder to take a proactive and reflective approach in order to work effectively alongside clinical, operational, and strategic leads

To contribute to effective risk management strategies that ensure liaison with all relevant stakeholders in an individual’s care and incorporate service-user involvement where possible.

To communicate any changes to a service-users risk profile in a timely manner, both operationally and clinically and to report adverse incidents and ensure documentation is detailed and up-to-date.

To administer, score and interpret individual and climate measures in relation to the evaluation of the service and wider environment as required

To facilitate external research activity, e.g. visits from research teams

To collect data for research purposes and service evaluation as required by the team.

To collate information relating to the service user for the purposes of formulation pathway planning and tracking progress. To support the liaison with internal and external colleagues as required.

To attend and contribute to multi-disciplinary team meetings as required.

To support the clinical and operational lead with ongoing research and service development opportunities.