Specialist Clinical Psychologist

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to work within Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust within the Southport Community mental health team. This post is suitable for both newly qualified Band 7's and current band 8a's.

The service will offer relevant training and support to ensure newly qualified applicants are eligible for preceptorship to an 8a clinical psychology post.

The service offers group and individual interventions utilising a range of models including CBT, EMDR, MBT, Psychodynamic, ISTDP, CFT and Psycho-education. Stepped care model is used to provide service users with a range of psychological interventions, appropriate to the level of need. You would be joining a service that includes a Principal Clinical Psychologist, a Consultant Psychotherapist, a Specialist Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Psychologist.

It is a varied role, suited to those who enjoy the challenge of engaging service users in a secondary care setting and who enjoy working in a Multi-disciplinary team. As well as opportunities to do 1:1 and group clinical work, there are also opportunities for consultation, training and reflective practice. Recruits will also be encouraged and supported to supervise Trainee Clinical Psychologists on placement.

Applicants must have a recognised qualification (or in the process of completing). Post-graduate doctoral level training in clinical psychology accredited by the BPS, or its approved equivalent.

You'll work within a team to support people with a range of psychological issues by providing specialist psychological assessment, therapy and interventions to service users and carers, making use of a range of models, where appropriate. You'll also offer specialist advice, leadership and consultation to non-psychologist colleagues and support the development of psychological skills across the whole workforce through specialist training, supervision, mentorship and reflective practice.

Psychological input is highly valued by staff within services, so you'll need experience of working with other services, championing psychological interventions and developing working partnerships.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex 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.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.

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 where appropriate.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment and treatment of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based enhanced care plans.

To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients' formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

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 and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing of care plans under enhanced CPA including clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

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.