Clinical or Counselling Psychologist Older Adults Ward

Clinical or Counselling Psychologist Older Adults Ward

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust

This role is a great opportunity to support older people and provide continuity of psychological care throughout their mental health treatment.

The post will be based on Ward 19 in Dewsbury (older adults mental health and dementia ward) and working as part of the Kirklees Outreach Team (KOT, older adults crisis team), a friendly and welcoming team who are keen for psychology input.

Supervision will be provided by the ward-based Consultant Clinical Psychologist. We prioritise CPD and development opportunities. Full-time preferred, part-time would be possible.

Applications are welcome from newly qualified or third-year trainees for a preceptorship post at Band 7 to join the service and undertake a development plan with the aim of developing the required competencies for an 8a post.

The candidate would need to successfully complete the competency framework before they gain the band 8a, and this would not be achieved solely due to length of time in post.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work closely with KOT, a crisis service providing intensive support to people in their own homes to both avoid inpatient admission and to support discharge from hospital.

There will be opportunities for short- and longer-term input with service users, including supporting them through admissions, and continuing individual work on discharge from the ward and from KOT to the CMHT.

The post holder will also work with staff in KOT, the CMHT, and the ward to encourage strong links and psychological care planning across the crisis pathway, providing psychological expertise when working with people who might be in crisis, with the aim of supporting multi-disciplinary colleagues with risk assessment, formulation, and psychologically informed intervention.

We are looking for someone with a clear interest in working with older people to join our active and growing network of older peoples psychologists in South West Yorkshire.

All employees of the Trust are strongly encouraged to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect patients.

Job responsibilities

This job description is an outline of the main duties of the post. The post holder will be required to undertake other duties commensurate with the grade as directed.

The content of this post will be reviewed in consultation with the post holder when necessary and in line with service developments.

The post holder will provide a high-quality specialist clinical psychology service to clients as part of the multidisciplinary team within the service.

Provide highly specialist psychological assessment and intervention.

Provide advice and consultation on psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and other non-professional carers, working autonomously within professional guidelines, and the overall framework of the team and Trust's policies and procedures.

Supervise and support Psychology Assistants, Trainees, and Band 7 HCPC Registered Clinical Psychologists.

Utilise research skills for audit, policy, service development, and research within the areas served by the team & service.

Offer consultation and supervision when required by other agencies involved in the psychological, emotional, and behavioural well-being of service users.

Provide specialist risk assessment of, and intervention to, service users who may present in local acute settings in line with agreed procedures.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.
• Significant post-qualification experience in a setting relevant to the post.
• HCPC Registration as a Clinical Psychologist.

Special Knowledge and Skills

• Good psychometric assessment skills.
• Exceptional communication skills in verbal, non-verbal, and written modes.
• Ability to empathise and develop good therapeutic alliances.
• Capacity to conduct psychometric assessment.
• Ability to travel around the Trust as appropriate to the role.
• Experience of working with people in crisis.

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of clients across the full range of care settings including outpatient, community, primary care, and inpatient settings.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity.

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.

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust