Assistant Psychologist

To support and enhance the psychological care of men across the Mental Health Service in HMP Aylesbury. This includes providing mental health assessment and interventions under the supervision of a qualified psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures and those of the wider prison service.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
- To participate in clinical governance and utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by the multi-disciplinary team
- To undertake clinically-related administration and project work
- To provide assessments and mental health interventions to clients under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist
- To work independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the clinic’s policies and procedures
- To liaise with other professional services (resettlement workers, probation, CMHT) sharing information where appropriate
- To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.

We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people.
We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more - whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.
- To support psychologists in the assessment of male patients within HMP Aylesbury. This may include using self-report measures, risk assessment, rating scales, direct and indirect observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care. Assessments will involve making judgements involving complex facts or situations, which require the analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options, as well as requiring prolonged concentration
- To work in a highly emotive atmosphere with clients with offending histories and / or mental health problems on a regular basis, and be able to communicate sensitive and complex information, whilst maintaining a high degree of professionalism at all times
- To attend and contribute to multi-disciplinary meetings
- To support psychologists in preparing for and conducting psychological interventions, both group and individual. To co-facilitate groups with both psychology and non-psychology colleagues when appropriate
- To work closely with senior colleagues to ensure information in relation to risk is collected and communicated sensitively and comprehensively
- To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic data entry and recording
- To attend and contribute to other prison meetings, and to present the view of Mental Health Team for relevant clinical issues. To ensure any actions taken from these meetings are met or that the appropriate individual to carry out the action is informed
- To ensure that efficient pathways of care are being created for the clients, including collecting collateral information for new clients and making appropriate referrals into the community when they are approaching discharge
- To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific patient group and mental health.
- To ensure that all aspects of professional activity (e.g. communication with patients, relatives, colleagues as well as in the assessment, development/delivery of interventions) issues of diversity such as race, culture, identity, gender and sexuality are sensitively considered and incorporated to reflect individual differences appropriately.