Psychological Therapist

**Maternal Mental Health Service**:
A fantastic opportunity has arisen to be involved in the development and delivery of a specialist birth trauma and perinatal loss service; the ‘Maternal Mental Health Service’ (MMHS). As detailed within the NHS Long Term Plan (January 2019), the newly commissioned, integrated NHS Maternal Mental Health Service, known locally in Kent and Medway as ‘Thrive - Psychological Support for Birth Trauma and Perinatal Loss’ offers evidence-based assessment and psychological therapy to women and birthing people with moderate-severe or complex mental health difficulties, specifically psychological trauma, directly resulting from or associated with the maternity experience.

Thrive is a 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, community service.The locality for this role is North Kent (Dartford), however the post holder must be willing (and have the ability) to drive across the county (Kent and Medway-wide) as required.

Thrive is not a crisis or emergency service, and does not care co-ordinate.

We, as a service in collaboration with Acute Hospital Trusts, embody a trauma-informed care ethos and culture in line with current national perinatal guidance. We aim to support those who are suffering difficulties such as (but not limited to):

- PTSD following birth trauma
- PTSD following perinatal loss (including early miscarriage, recurrent miscarriage, unsuccessful IVF, stillbirth, neonatal death or termination of pregnancy for any reason, parent-infant separation at birth)
- Tokophobia (severe fear of pregnancy and childbirth)

Evidence-based psychological interventions include Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Tf-CBT), Compassion-Focussed Therapy, as well as trauma-informed consultation, pathway development, support, signposting, outreach, and joint-working with other services within the perinatal mental health pathway as appropriate. The specialist team consists of Psychotherapists/Psychological Practitioners, Specialist Mental Health Midwives/Bereavement Midwives and Peer Support Workers, with robust pathways into other services as required.

**CORE CLINICAL FUNCTION**:

- For all clinical and non-clinical, direct and indirect practice to be trauma-informed to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.
- To provide psychological trauma formulations and interventions as recommended by NICE guidelines and up-to-date literature (i.e. TF-CBT and EMDR).
- Proactively and successfully work with partner agencies, women and birthing people, families, partners and community staff to ensure access/signposting to the most appropriate care.
- Draw upon and conduct specialist and complex assessments using a variety of outcome measures in order to develop psychological formulations that inform evidence-base clinical interventions for individuals, families, groups and other professionals presenting with highly complex problems.
- To effectively communicate, both written and verbally, outcomes of specialist and complex assessments, formulations and interventions to women and people, family / carers and others in a skilled, reflexive and sensitive manner.
- Provide psycho-social intervention, education and support to develop individuals’ understanding of mental illness with the aim of preventing relapse and admission.
- To monitor and evaluate progress during the course of their care.
- Liaise with staff in a variety of settings, ensuring that teams are able to respond effectively and efficiently to the needs of people with mental health problems in their care.
- Attend MDT meetings to provide guidance / advice / consulting / referring / allocation / input / agree care plans.
- Ensure the maintenance of accurate and timely documentation / records on women and people in line with relevant professional codes and Trust policy.
- To undertake psychologically based risk assessment and risk management for women and people and provide advice on the psychological aspects of risk to the multi-disciplinary team
- Document and report incidents as required i.e. risk and health and safety.

CORE NON-CLINICAL FUNCTION (INCLUDING TEACHING, TRAINING, SUPERVISION AND CONSULTATION):

- To work with the team in developing a robust psychology service which adheres to strong clinical governance and offers high quality care in line with current guidance and evidence.
- Ensure junior staff are appropriately inducted, receive appropriate clinical supervision, have an annual appraisal and are compliant with mandatory training requirements.
- Jointly and individually ensure the service meets the agreed key performance indictors/ contractual targets identified by the Trust and adhere to local and government initiatives.
- To contribute to quality improvement for psychological therapies delivered within the locality patch.
- Support the continuing development of a high-quality service that is underpinned