Systemic Family Therapist

Clinical To provide specialist assessments to children who are referred to the Team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the child or young persons care. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological/systemic treatment and/or management of the mental health problems of children and young people who are based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of their problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy across the full range of care settings. To be responsible for implementing a range of systemic family therapy l and psycho-educational interventions for individual children, carers, families and groups, within and across teams including community settings employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options for children and their families in conjunction with other professional colleagues, taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family, group or system.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of children whose problems are managed by psychologically-based standard care plans. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to systemic formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan for the children. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically-based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all children, across all settings and agencies serving this client group. To undertake mental health risk assessment and risk management for individual children and young people and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To act as mental health care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under enhanced CPA including the children, their carers, referring agents and others involved the network of care. This includes organising case conferences and professional network meetings where appropriate. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of children under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni
- and multi-disciplinary care. Teaching, Training, and Supervision To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and family therapist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.

To gain additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to psychology/ psychotherapy and/or the service (as agreed with the teams professional manager and team manager) in accordance with the CAMHS Directorates common expectations for P&P staff. To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work as appropriate. To provide, professional and clinical supervision of trainee and assistant psychologists / psychotherapists, as well as contributing to clinical supervision of Band 6 and Band 7 staff working across the local and dedicated services, as appropriate. To contribute to the pre
- and post-qualification teaching and training of staff, as appropriate.

To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings. Management, Recruitment, Policy and Service Development To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the Directorates operational policies and high quality responsive and accessible services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing. To manage the workloads of assistant and trainee clinical psychologists, within the framework of the team/services policies and procedures.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant / graduate psychologists. Research and Service Evaluation To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members in CAMHS. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research. To undertake project management, e.g., audit or service evaluation, in l