Music Therapist

Job summary

We are looking to recruit a passionate, enthusiastic and motivated Band 6 Music Therapist to work as part of psychological services, supporting patients across the acute and crisis mental health inpatient wards and Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team at Antelope House (Southampton).

This post will be fixed term for 6 months, part time, 22.5 hours per week, to support a wider music therapy project taking place in the service.

The Acute & Crisis psychology team at Antelope House consists of practitioner psychologists, assistant psychologists, and music therapist working collaboratively to provide assessment, brief interventions and consultation for adults with severe and/or enduring mental illness, requiring short-term admission to hospital or support from our crisis resolution and home treatment team to either avoid admission or support discharge.

This is an exciting opportunity for an early career music therapist to develop specialist skills within an acute and crisis mental health setting. The post has support from an experienced Music Therapist, regular supervision and opportunities for professional development with a supportive multi-disciplinary environment.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide music therapy assessment and intervention for service users within the acute and crisis services delivering both individual and group therapeutic work. They will be responsible for co-ordinating music therapy interventions within the multidisciplinary approach, both with the wider MDT and the psychology team, and contribute to holistic care within the inpatient and crisis teams.

The role offers valuable experience working with adults with complex difficulties, who may struggle to engage and communicate, and who may present with active symptoms of severe and/ or enduring mental illness.

About us

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides joined-up mental and physical healthcare for around two million people across our communities. With over 13,000 staff working in the community and local hospitals, we deliver care at every stage of life, helping people live their best and healthiest lives.

Our mental health services include community-based support and early intervention in psychosis (EIP) for both adults and young people, alongside a network of specialist inpatient wards covering forensic, learning disability, eating disorder and older person's care.

We deliver extensive physical health services too, from urgent community response teams helping frail and older patients remain safely at home, to hospitals at home teams providing acute-level care in familiar surroundings. Our neurological services offer rehabilitation and treatment for conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Motor Neurone Disease, Head Injury, Cerebral Palsy and Stroke. Across Hampshire, our community hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation as a step down from acute care, and our dedicated teams also staff Treetops Sexual Assault Referral Centre in Portsmouth, offering expert, compassionate support.

Everything we do is underpinned by our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect and excellence

Job responsibilities

Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.

We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• MA/MSc or equivalent in Music Therapy
• Met conditions of full membership Professional Association (British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT)
• Post-holder must be HCPC registered.

Desirable

• Post-graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of practice.
• Membership of a relevant professional association.

Experience

Essential

• Supervised clinical experience with those with complex presentations, including risk to self and others, and their families
• Skills in the use of complex methods of mental health assessment, intervention and management.
• Ability to form good working relationships with others in a multidisciplinary and multi-agency setting.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice.
• Can demonstrate effective team working
• Self-motivated and able to work without supervision.
• Ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively

Desirable

• Knowledge of the theory, practice and assessment of Music therapy in specific difficult to treat groups.
• Experience of the application of Music therapy in different cultural contexts
• Experience of delivering group programmes.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Current knowledge of relevant legislation and ethical issues (e.g. Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults).
• Interest and ability to contribute to service development.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Knowledge of research methodology, research design and data analysis, as practiced within the clinical field of adult mental health.
• Experience of delivering music therapy for adults with severe and enduring mental illness

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Knowledge of music therapy, drawing on a variety of approaches and/or models, as appropriate to the needs of patients, carers and families presenting with multi-complex difficulties.
• Ability to use this knowledge and skill with a highly complex client group.
• Knowledge of problems faced by those with mental health problems and their families
• Skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Flexible and adaptive working style; an ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of patients and families from a wide geographical area and across services, as required.
• Calm under pressure. An ability to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Highly organised and able to maintain competing demands.
• Diplomatic and empathetic manner.
• Able to maintain confidentiality.
• Attention to detail.