Assistant Psychologist

Job summary

This is a post designed to provide more psychology provision within two different but linked care teams aligned with different trusts (MPFT & NELFT).

There are a myriad of different organizations and NHS trusts offering different components of care to its residents in Thurrock. This job vacancy further highlights how those organizations can engage in partnership working for the benefit of all service users.

The PTS Inclusion team is a team which has been commissioned to offer a therapeutic input to clients whose needs fall between NHS Talking Therapies and secondary care psychology service.

The Clinical Health Psychology Service is a team that is well established in Thurrock and offers a psychology service to clients referred for psychological interventions for underlying physical health difficulties not suitable for the local NHS Talking Therapies team.

Both roles will involve plenty of multi-disciplinary liaison and opportunities for 1:1 therapeutic support in addition to group work.

Please note: This is a hybrid post and that the post holder would be expected to be in-person two days per week.

Main duties of the job

As an Assistant Psychologist you will ensure that PTS & CHPS are supported to provide an efficient and high quality service to patients, families and the MDT.

You will be responsible for organising and prioritising own workload in the day to day allocation of work as directed by supervisors and embedded teams and for providing accurate records of information required by the Trust for audit purposes.

You will complete administration tasks to a high standard and ensure the accurate recording and uploading of patient data and to ensure effective risk management at team level by accident/incident reporting, assessing and controlling risk and ensuring residual risks are added to the Trust register..

About us

Inclusion, created in 2002 is part of the Specialist Services Care Group of Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT). We provide caring and effective services across England, including, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, East Midlands, West Mercia, Thames Valley, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Thurrock, support individuals, families and communities who are affected by addiction, crime, mental health or need treatment for their sexual health. We believe that the individuals and families who use our services should receive high quality, committed and inclusive care, realising all the benefits a modern NHS organisation can work with patients and our staff teams to achieve the best outcomes we can. We invest heavily in training and development, and the wellbeing of our people, both staff and service users is central to who we are. Here at MPFT, we are proud of the comprehensive wellbeing and lifestyle support offer available, in addition to in-house training and coaching services are robustly governed, evidence-based, inclusive, and designed and provided in conjunction with service users. We are committed to providing the best service we can, and if you share our values, we want you on our team

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached job description for the full list of duties and responsibilities. Here is a summary:

Conducting comprehensive psychological screening of new patients using standardised outcome measures and specially developed questionnaires.

Identifying risk factors which might arise during meeting and screening new patients and collaboratively managing these issues along with the qualified psychologists

Under the supervision of qualified psychologists provide short term low intensity individual psychological intervention, to include psychoeducation, guided self-help and brief Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). These sessions may be completed remotely, in a clinic or in some appropriate cases, within the clients home.

Joint assessments with a qualified psychologist.

Assisting the psychology team with tasks related to audit, service evaluation & QI

Collating, recording and managing patient information and outcome data

Analysing, interpreting and presenting outcome measure data to demonstrate service efficacy

Attending regular PTS & Clinical Health Psychology team meetings

Undertaking research and audit when required and as appropriate to grade and competence

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

An upper second class honours degree in psychology or above with graduate basis for registration. (Or evidence of further academic attainment if undergraduate degree lower than a 2:1).

Knowledge

Essential

Demonstrates an understanding of how anxiety, depression and distress may present in primary care, serious mental illness (SMI) services and clinical health psychology services.

Skills

Essential

The ability and skills to act as an advocate for a new service, to engage and foster good professional relationships with all health professionals in promoting the good integration of this service with the wider health care system.

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