Clinical Psychologist

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and or wider organisational matters need addressing To contribute to service development initiatives being progressed in the inpatient service. To possess and practice a high level of communication and relationship skills in situations where emotional distress and risk of self-harm and of life threatening behaviour can be expected. To deal effectively with highly distressing service user and family situations (e.g. family breakdown, abuse, verbal aggression, challenging behaviour) and to support other staff in their responses to such situations (e.g. through supervision, consultation, debriefing). To communicate with staff in the Later Life community teams, health, social care, and the voluntary sector in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and intervention plans for people who are under our care. To provide support and guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques and to foster reflective practice at an individual and group level. To be responsible for providing a specialist psychological service to people in later life people presenting with complex physical health problems, psychological disorders and behavioural difficulties. To use theoretical and practical knowledge to perform specialist psychological, psychometric assessments which require specialist analytic and interpretive skills. To draw on multiple sources and a range of theoretical psychological models and knowledge to develop formulations that guides the development of clinical interventions and care plans at an individual and group level. This includes making skilled evaluations and decisions regarding the psychological management of clients, including the management of risk. To write psychological reports for service users, referrers and carers detailing the outcome of assessments and interventions and to communicate such complex information in a sensitive manner. To provide advice and guidance through the process of consultation on psychological aspects of a persons care to the person, colleagues, service providers, paid carers and families. To ensure systematic psychological assessment of patients on admission takes place within a given period. To plan and prioritise workload, exercising autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based care plans. To work primarily within a multidisciplinary approach where a variety of opinion and expertise is brought to bear on a situation. To contribute to service innovation for older people with mental health problems to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities. To be responsible for planning and prioritising own workload and for balancing individual responsibilities for service user work with other roles within and outside the teams e.g. clinical audit, service development, consultancy and training. To lead the day to day delivery of a psychology service for in-patients with organic and functional illness. Being responsible for assessing, formulating and implementing plans for a range of evidence-based psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families, groups and service delivery systems. Being responsible for the adjustment and refining of psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses based upon the analysis of each individual case. In particular to be responsible for providing a direct service for patients whose psychological issues demand more than a standard therapeutic approach e.g. basic CBT may have been tried unsuccessfully, methods and approach may need significant adaptation. In addition, to demonstrate awareness of race, culture and diversity issues. To assess and manage risk within an appropriate psychological framework. To be responsible for providing specialist advice and consultation to other service members on psychological aspects of mental health; including appropriate treatment approaches, complex issues of engaging people with memory difficulties and maintaining change, and working with the wider systems which affect a persons wellbeing (e.g. family, paid carers). To interpret and contribute to the development of policies and procedures for the provision of psychology and psychological therapy services for OPMH. To contribute to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of mental health wellbeing services. To maintain and apply psychometric tests and equipment, and evaluate progress. To supervise assistant psychologists and trainee clinical psychologists. To provide therapy supervision to non-psychology staff providing psychological therapies on the wards. To provide staff with a forum for reflective practice and team formulation of patients. The post holder will be required to compile clinical reports, maintain accurate records using the appropriate IT system and be responsible for any other administrative tasks relating to their clinical work e.g. clinical audit and reports. The post holder is responsible for liaising with other team members and health and social care employees, both in verbal and written form in order to co-ordinate effective and appropriate care for older people using Later Life Services. To ensure that other staff including ward staff and managers across a range of agencies and settings have access to a psychologically based framework for the understanding and care of inpatients through the provision of specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation, and the sharing of psychological research and theory. To carry out research activities as and when required, applying knowledge of research methodology and to contribute research knowledge and expertise to the research activities of other disciplines as required by the service. To take responsibility and develop effective means of auditing and evaluating the outcomes of individual work, team activity and clinics within the service. The post holder will be involved in identifying and implementing service developments which will enhance the treatment opportunities provided to service users and carers, through consultation and collaboration with managers, team members and locality wide facilities. The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within LiveWell South West policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines (HCPC). To work autonomously within clinical professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the governance of psychological practice with the Health and Social Care partnership for Later Life Services. To provide expert and specialist clinical psychologist expertise and advice guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of client care to colleagues, and, other service providers, and families. To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychology is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership. The post holder will ensure that they maintain their awareness of research findings concerning psychology, assessment and therapeutic interventions. To contribute to the supervision of Trainee Clinical Psychologists on D.Clin Psych Course (Plymouth University).

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