Bd 7/8a Highly Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist- Perinatal

Job summary

Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist (Band 7/8a) Perinatal Mental Health Service - Community post - Birmingham. 12 month fixed term contract. 32 hours/week

• To provide a high-quality specialist clinical psychology service within the Community Perinatal Mental Health Team to address the psychological needs of perinatal patients.
• To provide specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering supervision, advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, nonprofessional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
• To utilise skills for clinical and service audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the team/service.

Main duties of the job

The main clinical work undertaken is to provide specialist psychological assessment and intervention for mothers and their babies and families in the community. You will work with women with moderate to severe mental health difficulties, including birth trauma, parent-infant work and OCD and depression. You will also have the opportunity to contribute to our service wide group programme.

The role will also involve contributing to the supervision of psychology trainees or psychology assistants working in the community setting. The post holder will act as a member of the MDT, attend meetings and offer advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to team colleagues.

About us

Welcome to Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Our 4000 clinical and support staff help us to improve mental health wellbeing and meet the needs of the 70,000 people we serve each year. We provide a range of mental healthcare services across Birmingham and Solihull, as well as specialised services nationally. We also offer medical, nursing and psychology training and are proud of our international reputation for both research and innovation.

Our population is culturally diverse, characterised in places by high levels of deprivation which create an increasing demand for our services and a necessity for us to make sure everyone can access the help they need. We are a team of compassionate, inclusive and committed people working together to provide excellent care to support our community. If you are looking for a place to belong, where you can make a real difference to people's lives, join our team where our warm welcome is waiting for you.

Job responsibilities

For further information about the main responsibilities please view the attached job description and person specification.

We highly recommend you submit your application as soon as possible, this post may close earlier than the indicated closing date if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Person specification

Training and Qualifications

Essential

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996; HCPC registration) OR If not yet qualified, close to completion of a DClinPsy or similar qualification.

Desirable

• Training/experience in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice related to perinatal mental health and/or infant mental health

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Significant post qualified experience of working as Psychologist. Experience with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and presenting with the full range of clinical severity across the full range of care settings

Desirable

• Experience of working with mothers and their infants, couples and/or families; Experience of working with women with perinatal mental illness.

Skills

Essential

• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups. Formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

Desirable

• Well-developed knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies in specific difficult to treat groups; Knowledge of the long term impact of maternal mental health issues on the infant, the mother infant relationship and the wider family

Other

Essential

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings

Desirable

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.