Highly Specialist Psychological Therapist

Thank you for taking an interest in our Highly Specialist Psychological Therapist post.Please find an overview of Oxleas and the prisons within the Devon Prisons

Oxleas Forensic Psychological Therapies department is an unusually large, long established and nationally well regarded specialty. Psychological therapists are highly valued within the wider directorate and trust and occupy a variety of service-wide leadership roles, including as Responsible Clinicians. Staff in the Forensic Directorate report the highest levels of job satisfaction in a Trust recognised for positive employee feedback. The Psychological Therapies team is warm and friendly, whilst also being dynamic and innovative.

Within the psychological therapies department, there is a focus on attachment, trauma and systemic approaches with expert supervision available for several evidence-based therapy modalities such Mentalisation based Therapy (MBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation therapy (EMDR).

This post is primarily based within HMP Exeter, HMP Channing Wood and HMP Dartmoor.

The postholder will supervise pre-qualified psychological therapists.
- To provide highly specialist psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions.
- To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of community clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans, including taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans with input from clients, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.
- To provide culturally appropriate psychological therapy interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
- To communicate, in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, to clients, family carers and others as appropriate, information that may be contentious or highly distressing concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care.
- To produce reports on clients, in a timely manner, that convey the key findings of psychological assessment and formulation and treatment outcome in a way that does justice to the complexity of the problems described, but that are understandable to the recipients of the reports, including clients and referrers.
- To undertake psychometric and neuropsychological testing as appropriate, including selecting the appropriate tests, administering and scoring the tests in accordance with the manual, and interpreting the findings in the context of all relevant information.

Oxleas - About Us

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people living in South East London and Kent and to people in prison. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,000 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes. We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations across the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent and manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital in Woolwich as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are one of the largest providers of prison health services providing healthcare to prisoners across Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care

Responsibilities forteam and service clinical functioning
- Under the supervision of a senior psychologist, to lead the family and carers strategy for the Directorate.
- To facilitate a family and carers forum.
- To support the inpatient ward team in the effective working of the team and a psychologically informed framework for the team.
- Deliver accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
- To be proactive in challenging discrimination.
- To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
- To liaise with the service/s MDT and other professionals including to liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
- To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research.
- Work within the remit of relevant policies and procedures for the safe running of the service.