Arts Psychotherapist

NHS; Barnstaple; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 50,000

Job description

This is a newly configured role, providing clinical input to our Older Person's Mental Health Ward and Community Team, both based in North Devon.

The successful candidate would be joining passionate, dedicated and supportive MDT colleagues in North Devon. Managed by the Inpatient Psychology Professional Lead, they would also be able to access clinical supervision with a relevant professional and link in with other Arts Psychotherapists across the county based in OPMH and other clinical specialties.

The candidate would deliver group and individual interventions for older people presenting with complex mental health needs.

We are dedicated to developing trauma informed care, supporting others in psychologically informed practice and CPD to help us deliver a responsive and high quality clinical service.

We are committed to providing placements for Trainee Therapists and Practitioner Psychologists and there would opportunities for the candidate to contribute to these.

Join our supportive, friendly Directorate. We are happy to be approached for informal discussions about the role, so do get in touch.

In person interviews are planned for Monday, April 28th.

Main duties of the job

The principal purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health & wellbeing of older people on inpatient wards across the Trust.

• This will be achieved in this post through undertaking the following areas of responsibility:
• Providing a Therapy service to people as a key component of services provided by Devon Partnership Trust.
• Providing local clinical leadership, co-ordination and supervision of trainees and volunteers employed by or attached to the service, under the general direction and supervision of the Professional Lead.
• Carrying a specialist caseload of clients including some with a learning disability, and providing advice and consultancy to patients, family members, carers and professionals.
• The post holder will be supported by senior colleagues within their specialist field. The post holder will be expected to make good use of the expertise of others within the service to further develop their clinical skills with this client group.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/local team.
• The post holder will receive regular professional and clinical supervision in accordance with Trust policy and Professional Practice Guidelines set out by the BAAT. Observe, and abide by all relevant Professional Codes of Conduct and Practice including the BPS. The post holder will be fully registered with the HCPC as a condition of employment.

About us

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.

We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.

Job responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationships

Clients, family and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with clients who may have specific difficulties in understanding and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.

Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues in the multi-professional integrated mental health and wellbeing service on a day to day basis.

Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in hospital and in community settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under the services care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.

Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers across the OPMH Directorate and in DPT to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation.

Planning and Organisation

The service: To plan and prioritise own workload, balancing the demands of patient care, support and guidance of carers and professionals and service research and development activities.

To contribute to the planning and organising of the psychology and therapy services within the locality area and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within services to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities.

The multidisciplinary service: To provide arts therapy knowledge to the multiprofessional planning, development and marketing of mental health and wellbeing services.

Responsibility for Judgement and Analysis

To provide specialist therapy expertise and advice.

To provide art therapy, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups.

To support the Directorate by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

Assessment & intervention: To make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about assessment, treatment and discharge, including the management of risk. To formulate plans for psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues.

Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families.

Policy, Service, Research, Innovation and Improvement

The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.

Policy & service: To support proposed changes for policy and for service development.

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

Careful use of equipment.

Responsibility for Supervision, Leadership and Management

Leadership & supervision: To supervise the work of assistants &/or trainees as required. To provide supervision & consultancy to health and social care colleagues.

To support placements for trainee staff in line with professional guidelines.

Information Resources and Administrative Duties

To maintain accurate records, compliant with Trust Practice Standards.

To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.

Responsibility for Research and Development

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work within the PPT and local mental health services.

To support project work including specific areas of audit, research or service evaluation.

As a clinician to be responsible for collecting clinical practice and outcome data that contributes to building practice based evidence and service evaluation.

Freedom to Act

The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.

To work autonomously within clinical professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the governance of psychological practice within the locality/specialty. Interpretation of professional and Trust guidelines, and implementing policies in conjunction with peers, Head of Profession and General Manager.

To provide specialist Psychological therapy expertise and advice guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families.

Any Other Specific Tasks Required

To ensure all clinical care and treatment provided by psychologists/therapists is carried out under appropriate supervision and leadership.

To ensure that all relevant staff groups continuously update the skills and techniques relevant to their clinical work.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Recognised qualification in Arts Therapy
• Registration with HCPC

Knowledge and skills

• Ability to integrate complex data; make highly skilled evaluations and decisions; and take a long term perspective
• Proven organisational, planning and time management skills
• Presentable
• Calm, methodical approach, friendly but concise
• Good communication skills when presenting / facilitating to varying groups of people
• Ability to work independently and use initiative within a service consisting of a network of teams
• Ability to work as a member of a clinical team
• Ability to tolerate ambiguity, and maintain own morale and motivation in challenging service delivery contexts

Experience

• Broad knowledge and familiarity of specialist services; and of the services in the NHS where psychology and psychological therapies is commonly applied
• Experience of specialist therapeutic assessment and treatment of mental health clients across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings
• Experience, and/or training in diversity awareness and social inequality
• Excellent verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills
• Experience gained during supervised training of working (in specialist area)
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.