Principal Practitioner Psychologist

Location: Exeter, EX2 5DY
Salary: £53755.00 to £60504.00
Date posted: 7th November 2024
Closing date: 24th November 2024

Our professional responsibility is to reduce the risk of infection to others as far as possible. Getting vaccinated against diseases that can be passed person-to-person in healthcare settings is part of this responsibility. The Trust will provide advice, guidance and support on vaccinations and access to vaccinations where requested.

Job Description:

This post offers a fantastic opportunity for a highly motivated HCPC-registered Clinical or Counselling Psychologist to join an established Psychology Service within the Pain Management Team. This is part of a wider Clinical Health and Neuropsychology department, which works across the mental health and acute physical healthcare systems. This role would suit a candidate with experience in clinical health and/or mental health services.

The post involves working alongside the other psychologists in the pain psychology service in delivering assessments and individual psychological therapies for people with persistent pain. This role is a senior role within that team and would share leadership responsibilities in the team. The psychology team is embedded within the multidisciplinary Pain Management Rehabilitation Team (Occupational therapy and Physiotherapy) and works closely with consultant and nursing colleagues. You will have the opportunity to contribute to MDT meetings, work with other professionals and be involved in delivering group interventions.

Main duties of the job

The principal purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health & wellbeing of people with persistent pain presentations. The main duties will include psychological assessment, consultation, supervision and intervention. This will involve delivering psychological therapy, contributing to MDT work, and supporting the clinical lead with service developments.

The post would suit a clinician who has an interest in developing experience in health psychology based approaches that can incorporate therapies such as ACT, CFT, EMDR, CBT.

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 Trust's 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

Job Purpose

The principal purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health & wellbeing of people with persistent pain presentations.

The role's main tasks are:

• Ensuring the systematic provision of a high quality psychological service to the Pain Service, RDUH Eastern as a key component of the DPT Clinical Health & Neuropsychology Service to the RDUH and related community services.
• Providing clinical leadership/supervision for staff, trainees and volunteers employed by or attached to the psychology service.
• To carry a specialist caseload of patients, and providing advice and consultancy to patients and professionals.
• To work jointly with other members of the multi-disciplinary pain team via consultation and supervision of the MDT, and also via joint clinical assessment and group-based interventions where appropriate.
• To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within professional and DPT guidelines as a specialist member of staff.
• As directed by the Professional and Strategic Leads, embed practice-based evidence and evidence-based practice across service area. This will include implementing and collating data from service outcome measures to support key performance indicators and to demonstrate the impact of the service, as well as working with people using the service to ensure their involvement in service design and evaluation.
• The post holder will work collaboratively to ensure a whole systems integrated approach to service delivery and development, and will support wider Integrated Psychological Medicine (IPMS) developments. All staff within the CHNP services will be responsible for ensuring user involvement and experience, social inclusion and race equality agendas inform and support their work.

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

• 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 from both Devon Partnership Trust and the Acute Trust in the multi-professional integrated mental health/physical 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 Trust and the Acute Trust and to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

• To provide specialist clinical/counselling psychology expertise and advice.
• To provide psychological therapies, 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. Proficiency in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.
• To support the Professional Head, General Manager, Practice and Strategic Development Leads and Professional Leads by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.
• To provide complex assessment of specialist conditions.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• The psychology service: To plan and organise own work within the service setting and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within the commissioned integrated mental health and wellbeing service to best meet the organisation's strategy and priorities.
• The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychology/therapy supervision to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of mental health and wellbeing services.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

• Assessment & intervention: To provide expert psychological therapies, 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, 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.

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation

• The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.
• Policy & service: To implement policies and procedures for the provision of psychology and therapy services within own service and other services within the Trust.
• R & D: To support the R&D activities of the Clinical Health Psychology and Neuropsychology Department (CHPN).

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

• To be responsible for the safe keeping of equipment under own use.

Responsibility for Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management

• Leadership & supervision: To lead and professionally supervise less experienced psychology/therapy staff, trainees and volunteers.
• To provide placement responsibilities for trainee staff.
• To contribute to the provision of therapy supervision for non-psychology/therapy staff providing psychological therapies within other Trust teams.
• To support placements for trainee staff in line with professional guidelines.

Responsibility for 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 CHNP.
• To conduct 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. To participate in service audits and relevant research projects.

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 expert and specialist clinical psychology 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/psychotherapists/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

• Qualified Clinical or Counselling Psychologist (D.Clin.Psychol. or equivalent) and eligible for Chartered Clinical or Counselling Psychologist Status in the British Psychological Society. Registered with HCPC.
• Further training or experience in clinical specialism.
• Further training in related area.
• Further training in at least one (other) psychological therapy.

Experience

• Experience of work in adult mental health services or in physical health services or agencies and working with people with severe and complex mental health difficulties and comorbid physical health needs.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience in undertaking leadership roles within clinical psychology services in the NHS and in contributing to the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies and clinical policies in multi-disciplinary, multi-agency contexts.
• Experience of working with complex trauma and with systems working around people who have experienced trauma.
• Experience of clinical health psychology assessment and awareness of impact of physical health conditions or symptoms on presentation.
• Proficiency in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.

Knowledge & Skills

• Broad knowledge of specialist services and of the services in the NHS where psychology is commonly applied.
• Extensive knowledge of the skills, practice and knowledge base of Clinical/Counselling Psychology.
• Knowledge of the policy context of specialist psychological services within the organisation and of clinical leadership arrangements in both mental health and physical health settings.
• Excellent verbal, nonverbal and written communication skills.
• Strong leadership qualities, resilience and ability to handle ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Skills in managing conflict, negotiation and achieving consensus in complex situations in the pursuit of agreed strategic aims.
• Ability to integrate complex data; make highly skilled evaluations and decisions; and take a long term perspective.

Professional Lead Clinical Health Psychology