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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

JOB SUMMARY 

To provide a qualified clinical or counselling psychology service to clients of the Bromley West ADAPT Team within Oxleas Adult Community Mental Health Directorate. This includes:

• providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy

• providing advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers

• working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the ADAPT Team’s policies and procedures

• using research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the areas served by the Bromley West ADAPT Team

KEY RESULT AREAS

Clinical:   

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the ADAPT Team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.

2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

4. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

6. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

7. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

8. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

9. To act as care coordinator, where appropriate, taking responsibility for initiating planning and review of care plans under CPA including clients, their families, referring agents and others involved the in network of care.

10. To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

11. When required to work on an outreach basis, meeting with users of the ICMP Team in their homes, public places or community settings, in accordance with the team’s safety policy.

12. To be prepared to work flexible hours to meet the needs of service users and the service itself.

Teaching, training, and supervision

1. To provide clinical placements for trainee clinical psychologists ensuring the trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to health care and to contribute to the assessment and evaluation of such competencies.
2. To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
3. To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of clinical psychology over and above that provided within the principal area where the post holder is employed.
4. To provide professional and clinical supervision of trainee and assistant clinical psychologists.
5. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or counselling psychology, as appropriate.
6. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

1. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

2. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

3. To manage the workloads of assistant and trainee clinical psychologists, within the framework of the team/service’s policies and procedures.

4. To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of assistant / graduate

Research and service evaluation

1. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

2. To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

3. To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.       

Professional, Legal and Ethical 

1. To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with relevant professional and service manager(s).

2. To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychology across the service, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.

3. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.

4. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.