Clinical/Counselling Psychologist/Psychological Therapist

Job Purpose The principal purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health & wellbeing of people with eating disorders who are referred to the team. This will be achieved in this post through undertaking the following areas of responsibility: 1. Providing an evidenced based psychological therapy service to people with moderate-severe eating disorders 2. To provide local clinical leadership, co-ordination and supervision for trainees and volunteers employed by or attached to the team, under the general direction and supervision of the Professional Lead 3.

Contributing to multidisciplinary team discussions and formulations to ensure that the psychological needs of people referred to the service are fully considered. 4. The post holder will be supported by senior colleagues within their specialist field. The post holder will be expected to make good use of the expertise of others within the service to further develop their clinical skills with this client group.

1. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/local team. 6. The post holder will receive regular professional and clinical supervision in accordance to Trust policy and to Professional Practice Guidelines set out by the BPS or appropriate designated Professional Body.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy Assessment and Intervention : To provide expert psychological therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues. Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families Duties and Responsibilities Communication and Working Relationships Client, Family and Carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with clients who may have specific difficulties in understand and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed. Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues in the multi-professional integrated mental health and wellbeing service on a day to day basis. Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in hospital and in community settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under the services care.

To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice. Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers across the service and in DPT to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation. Planning and Organisation The service: To plan and prioritise own workload, balancing the demands of patient care, support and guidance of carers and professionals and service research and development activities. To contribute to the planning and organising of the psychology and therapy services within the locality area and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within services to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities.

The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychology/therapy knowledge to the multiprofessional planning, development and marketing of mental health and wellbeing services. Responsibility for Judgment and Analysis To provide specialist Psychological therapy expertise and advice. To provide psychological therapies/other therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups. To support the Professional Lead, General Manager, Practice and Strategic Development Leads and Professional Leads by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.

Policy, Service, Research, Innovation and Improvement The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines. Policy & service: To support proposed changes for policy and for service development. Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources Careful use of equipment. Responsibility for Supervision, Leadership and Management Leadership & supervision: To supervise the work of assistants &/or trainees as required.

To provide supervision & consultancy to health and social care colleagues. To contribute to the provision of therapy supervision for non-psychology/therapy staff providing psychological therapies within other Trust teams. To support placements for trainee staff in line with professional guidelines. Information Resources and Administrative Duties To maintain accurate records, compliant with Trust Practice Standards.

To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication. Responsibility for Research and Development To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work within the service To support project work including specific areas of audit, research or service evaluation. As a clinician to be responsible for collecting clinical practice and outcome data that contributes to building practice based evidence and service evaluation. Freedom to Act The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.

To work autonomously within clinical professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the governance of psychological practice within the locality/specialty. Interpretation of professional and Trust guidelines, and implementing policies in conjunction with peers, Head of Profession and General Manager. To provide specialist Psychological therapy expertise and advice guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families. Any Other Specific Tasks Required To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists/therapists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.

To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.