Clinical / Counselling Psychologist
Job Description
Job summary
Clinical / Counselling Psychologist. Band 8a.
Hertfordshire Community Perinatal Team (0.5WTE, 18.75 hours per week)
Maternity Leave Cover, up to 12 months.
Applications are invited for a part-time Clinical or Counselling Psychologist post in specialist perinatal services, working within the thriving and well-regarded multidisciplinary Hertfordshire Community Perinatal Team (CPT), to cover a period of maternity leave, up to twelve months.
The CPT serves the county of Hertfordshire, supporting women with complex and significant mental health needs, through pregnancy and the postnatal period as well as working closely with maternity staff and providers of primary, secondary and inpatient care.
The post-holder will have varied responsibilities; offering psychological assessments, the delivery of individual and group evidence-based psychological interventions in order to support the mother-infant relationship, offering supervision and reflective practice to a range of junior psychology colleagues and the wider MDT, service development and audit, teaching and training to MDT and healthcare colleagues as well as liaison and consultation.
Main duties of the job
- To contribute to the ongoing running and development of a highly specialised perinatal psychology service for women who are pregnant, or up to 2 years postnatal, with, or at risk of, a wide range of mental health problems including complex and severe difficulties, such as Complex Trauma, Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder
- To aid in the assessment, formulation and care planning of women in the perinatal period, as well as the mother-infant dyad and to provide and evaluate a range of high-quality, evidence-based perinatal-specific psychological interventions; individual and group, for service users and families. Experience across a range of therapeutic models is essential including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and other models such as Compassion Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, EMDR, Systemic Therapy and Mindfulness.
- To be responsible for offering liaison and consultation to members of the multi-disciplinary team, colleagues within the inpatient mother and baby unit, the community psychology and psychotherapy service, local maternity services, as well as carers and other agencies on matters related to the psychological needs and issues relevant to the service and its users
- To offer high-quality clinical and professional supervision to junior psychology colleagues and trainee clinical/counselling psychologists
- To utilise research skills for audit, policy, and service development and research within the service
About us
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission.
Our family of over 4,500 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:
Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.
Job responsibilities
HERTFORDSHIRE PARTERNSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
JOB DESCRIPTION
Title: Clinical / Counselling Psychologist
Maternity Leave Cover, up to 12 months.
Grade: AfC band 8a (applications at band 7 may also be considered)
Service: Community Perinatal Team (CPT)
Working hours: 0.5WTE
Operationally Accountable to: Principal Clinical Psychologist, CPT
Professionally Accountable to: ACMHS Lead
Professionally Accountable for: Junior psychological therapists, trainee Clinical / Counselling Psychologists, Assistant Psychologists and psychology students.
Base: Prospect House, Peace Drive, Watford, WD18 3XE, and community locations across the county.
Job Summary:
- To contribute to the ongoing running and development of a highly specialised perinatal psychology service for women who are pregnant, or up to 2 years postnatal, with, or at risk of, a wide range of mental health problems including complex and severe difficulties, such as Complex Trauma, Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder and Bipolar Disorder
- To aid in the assessment, formulation and care planning of women in the perinatal period, as well as the mother-infant dyad and to provide and evaluate a range of high-quality, evidence-based perinatal-specific psychological interventions; individual and group, for service users and families. Experience across a range of therapeutic models is essential including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and other models such as Compassion Focussed Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, EMDR, Systemic Therapy and Mindfulness
- To be responsible for offering liaison and consultation to members of the multi-disciplinary team, liaising with colleagues within the inpatient mother and baby unit, the community psychology and psychotherapy service, local maternity services, as well as non-professional carers and other agencies on matters related to the psychological needs and issues relevant to the service and its users
- To offer high-quality clinical and professional supervision to junior psychology colleagues and trainee clinical/counselling psychologists
- To utilise research skills for audit, policy, and service development and research within the service
- To work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of team policies and procedures
- The post holder will be required to commute across sites and attend home visits, as well as offer some remote therapy options
The post holder will need to be HCPC registered. A drivers license and access to a car is essential.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Clinical Responsibility
To provide specialist perinatal psychological assessments of clients referred to the team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complexdata from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the clients care
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients complex mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings
To assess and formulate any difficulties within the mother-infant relationship, including understanding the impact of this on maternal mental health and confidence, and liaise with the MDT in order to plan how to meet these needs
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions including CBT for individuals, carers, families and groups, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses, adjusting and refining the psychological formulation according to the evolving clinical scenario
To assist in the development and delivery of group interventions for parents with mental health difficulties delivering evidence based psychological therapies (such as cognitive behaviour therapy, compassion focused therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy) according to the service users presenting difficulties
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. This evidence-based approach includes monitoring outcomes, modifying and adapting interventions drawn from a range of theoretical models
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility within HCPC guidelines for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans
To provide perinatal-specific specialist psychological liaison and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan, facilitating the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the teams to the client
To contribute directly and indirectly to a ...
