NHSJobs.com

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical and Client Care

• To provide specialist assessment and clinical formulation to individuals, couples, families and social networks where the identified client has complex mental health needs including mood disorders, anxiety, psychosis, personality disorders, and difficulties with parenting or in relationship with children in the context of a parental mental health problem.
• To select and administer specialist assessments as appropriate.  This would include creating genograms and/or eco-maps, analysis and assessment of multiple levels of contextual meaning, deconstruction of current interactional patterns of behavior and meaning around mental health issues and complex relationships, through the use of live team observations, DVD analysis and other systemic assessment tools.
• To provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users and their families
• To select and deliver evidence based specialist therapeutic interventions, drawing from a broad spectrum of systemic models, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions as necessary, based on the highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, couple, family or group.
• To be responsible for psychological interventions with carers (or families as appropriate) of referred clients (e.g. family members, partner, significant others).
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• To communicate skillfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers, family members and colleagues taking account of communication needs.
• To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities we serve in Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon and Lewisham. At all times to work in ways that are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds, and to be aware of and sensitive to the different contexts that families may be acting out of
• To provide psychological support to clients and their families who are emotionally distressed, either due to the serious consequences of their illness or due to other traumatic events in their lives.

Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically and systemically informed framework for the service area.
• To advise other members of the service on specialist systemically informed psychological care of clients.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
• To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in clinical work and work with other team members.

Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work.
• To identify any aspects of the service which could be improved and propose changes to practices or procedures.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.
• To participate in clinical governance initiatives as agreed by the Directorate clinical governance committee and team.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users and their families in planning and delivering services.

Care or management of resources

• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the day-to-day supervision or co-ordination of an agreed workload of trainee family therapists/family therapy honoraries, as required, under supervision from a more senior systemic family therapist.
• To provide clinical supervision for psychological work undertaken by trainee family therapists as appropriate
• To supervise Family Therapy trainees after completion of the relevant Training Course’s Supervision Training.
• To assist in the short-listing and interviewing of family therapy honoraries if required.
• To provide supervision for the psychological work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate.

Teaching and Training

• To provide specialist training in systemic approaches to care to other professions as appropriate
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
• To provide advice and consultation where appropriate to other health, social care, voluntary sector and education staff working with the client groups

Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

Research and development

• To undertake regular complex service evaluation and audits
• To carry out appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research within the service.
• To contribute to the development and implementation of systematic outcome measurement and assessment, and assist other staff in the implementation of same.

Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior systemic psychotherapist according to UKCP, AFT and Trust guidelines.
• To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with AFT and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the UKCP ‘Continual Professional Development’ policy
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with the UKCP ‘Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct’ , and ensure professional development in line with these.
• To adhere to the UKCP’s ‘Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct’ and Trust policies and procedures.

General 

• To travel to home visits, community placements, meetings as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations (put in appropriate for service, such as challenging behaviour, abuse etc) and to support others involved in such situations.