Senior Clinical Psychologist/Counselling Psychologist/Psychological Therapist

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Senior Clinical Psychologist/Counselling Psychologist/Psychological Therapist: Band 8a, Full time (37.5 hours per week)

We are pleased to be offering two Band 8a Psychological Practitioner posts within our South Inpatients Clinical Business Unit, one in Adult Inpatients and the other in Older Adults Inpatients.

Post 1 Adult Inpatients

We are looking for an enthusiastic Psychological Practitioner to provide specialist psychological input within Adult Mental Health Inpatient Services based at Hopewood Park, Sunderland. This is a split post working 0.5 WTE into a female adult mental health rehabilitation and recovery ward (Clearbrook) and 0.5 WTE into a female adult acute inpatient ward (Longview). This provides an exciting opportunity for the post holder to develop their skills in providing psychology services in both the fast paced acute inpatient environment and the longer stay rehabilitation environment.

Adult Mental Health Inpatient Services provide multi-disciplinary care using a biopsychosocial model for service users over the age of 18. The acute service provides care for service users with acute mental health needs who require assessment and treatment in hospital and the rehabilitation service provides care for service users with complex and enduring mental health needs and challenging behaviours who require intensive rehabilitation over a short to medium term.

Service users admitted to inpatient services are often highly complex and experience a range of difficulties including psychosis, personality difficulties, learning and developmental difficulties, risk to self and others, forensic issues and behaviours that challenge.

The role of psychological practitioners on the wards involves providing expertise in applying specialist psychological assessment, including cognitive assessments, collaborative formulation and interventions with service users and working with teams to embed formulation and trauma informed care on the wards. This includes individual and group based work and involvement of families and carers. It will involve supporting multidisciplinary staff working with service users through team formulation, contributing to understanding complex risk, developing behaviour management plans and providing reflective practice sessions and training to the teams. The role may also involve research, service evaluation and audit. Both wards have assistant psychologists and the post holder may also be involved in their line management and supervision.

The precise duties of the role will depend on the professional background, qualifications and experience of the successful applicant and support will be given to further develop skills and knowledge as appropriate.

Post 2 Older Adults Inpatients

We are looking for an enthusiastic Psychological Practitioner to provide specialist psychological input into our Older People’s Inpatient Services based at Monkwearmouth Hospital, Sunderland. The postholder will work across the organic and functional wards, alongside Consultant Clinical Psychologists. This will allow the post holder the opportunity to maintain traditional therapeutic skills as part of their role as well as gain experience of the wider psychology role in older people’s inpatient services.

Older Person’s Inpatient Services provide multi-disciplinary care using a trauma informed biopsychosocial model for service users with organic and functional difficulties and includes those with early onset dementias.

Service users admitted to Older Peoples inpatient services are often highly complex and often experience a range of comorbid difficulties including, delirium, learning and developmental difficulties, personality difficulties enduring mental health needs and challenging behaviours.

The role of Psychological Practitioners on the Older Person’s wards involves providing expertise in applying specialist psychological assessment, including specialist cognitive and behavioural assessments, collaborative formulation, interventions and training with service users, their families and care providers. This will include individual, family and group-based therapeutic work. It will involve supporting multidisciplinary staff working with service users through team formulation, contributing to understanding individuals within the context of trauma informed biopsychosocial influences on their lives and for service users with organic difficulties, how these factors are interacting in the context of their dementia and its impact on the individual’s functioning. The role also includes completing functional analysis and other behavioural assessments and the development of behaviour management plans within a Positive Behaviour Support framework, including the Newcastle model and assessments such as Dementia Care Mapping. The role also involves providing reflective practice sessions and training to the clinical teams and contributing to the overall development of the wards as a psychologically informed environments. The post holder will also support the transition of individuals during discharge, providing training of care staff, family members and members of the community team to support discharge. The role also involves audit, research and service evaluation.

The precise duties of the role will depend on the professional background, qualifications and experience of the successful applicant and support will be given to further develop skills and knowledge as appropriate.

Both Posts

For both posts previous experience of working in secondary care mental health and /or an inpatient setting either before or during professional training is desirable but not essential.

Both post holders will be part of a strong inpatient team in Sunderland. This team is part of a valued trust wide psychological service providing input into community based and specialist services across the lifespan. Psychological Services have a range of regular meetings and support activities to ensure professional governance and to promote evidence based and innovative psychologically informed care.

Please indicate on your application form whether you wish to be considered for the Adult or Older Adult role or both.

For Further Information Or To Visit Please Contact

Adult Inpatients: Veronica Locatelli-Booth

Consultant Clinical Psychologist, South Inpatients CBU

veronica.locatelli-booth@cntw.nhs.uk

07812 488190

Older Adult Inpatients: Dr Rebecca Courtney-Walker

Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Associate Psychological Services Director, South Inpatients CBU

rebecca.courtney-walker@ntw.nhs.uk

07917 882682