Clinical/ Counselling Psychologist

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Psychologist or Psychotherapist to join the multi-disciplinary Community Team in the Camden and Islington Personality Disorder Service in North London Foundation Trust. The post-holder will join the Team Manager, and Consultant Psychiatrists in leading the team which is made up of Social Workers, Occupational Therapists and Nurses.

The main purpose of the role is to bring a psychological perspective to the work of the Community Team, which functions within a framework of psychologically-informed and change-focused case management and provides assessment, consultation and interventions to people with difficulties understood as severe 'personality disorder'. The post holder will also hold a small caseload offering individual and group interventions. The team uses psychologically-informed and change-focused approaches in their work with clients, this includes case management (informed by MBT and SCM) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). The post holder will be part of the DBT Team which works across both the Community Team and the Therapies Team in the service.

As a member of the whole service management group, the post holder will provide senior clinical input for the management of complex cases held by the service and will take a role in supporting the service to manage formal and informal complaints. They will also chair a weekly formulation-based discussion and deputise for Community Team management.

Main duties of the job

The main duties of the role are:

• Screening and responding to Community Team referrals
• Providing assessment to clients and consultation to staff
• Providing psychological interventions to clients within a Dialog + framework (previously CPA)
• Clinically supervising Psychology colleagues and those from other disciplines
• Contributing to the clinical and operational management of the Personality Disorder Service
• Providing training to Trust colleagues and partner agencies
• Service development/QI/research

About us

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

1. We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
2. With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
3. We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
4. We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Job responsibilities

• To provide psychological assessments for referred clients.
• To formulate and devise psychological treatment and management plans for referred clients with a range of problems, severity and complexity, including those with challenging behaviours, and to provide psychological treatment for such clients, using a range of psychological interventions appropriate to the service.
• To provide psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals, to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients.
• To provide reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients.
• To liaise with other health and social care staff, from a range of agencies, in the care provided to clients.
• To provide professional and clinical supervision to junior psychologists, trainee clinical and counselling psychologists and assistant psychologists.
• To provide senior clinical input for the management of complex cases held by the service
• To provide advice, consultation, training and supervision, where appropriate, to other health and social care staff working with the client group.
• To regularly attend and facilitate group supervision.
• Deputising for Community Team manager
• Support with managing caseload and assessment allocations in the team
• Formal and informal complaints

Person specification

Qualifications/ Registration

Essential

• oDoctoral level training in clinical or counselling psychology.
• oCurrent registration with the Health & Care Professions Council as a practitioner psychologist.
• oAdditional post-doctoral training in relevant evidence-based modality

Skills/ Abilities

Essential

• oSkills in the use of a range of methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management for the full range of problems of severity and complexity presented in adult mental health.
• oSkills in providing clinical supervision to colleagues from a range of professional backgrounds.
• oSkills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups
• oSkills in contributing to service development and supporting services through organisational change.
• oAbility to teach and train others, using a variety of multimedia materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.

Experience

Essential

• oExperience of psychological assessment and therapy with people with difficulties conceptualised as personality disorder.
• oExperience of psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings, including community, primary care, and inpatient settings.
• oExperience of teaching and training.
• oExperience of working using therapy models with people diagnosed with personality disorder (such as MBT, DBT, brief psychodynamic models).
• oExperience of working in a multi-disciplinary team that works within Care Programme Approach frameworks or Dialog +.

Desirable

• oExperience of providing clinical supervision to trainee and/or assistant clinical psychologists, and professionals from other disciplines.