Assistant Psychologist

East London Nhs Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

East London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an Assistant Psychologist to join the High Intensity User Team (HIUT) at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. The role involves supporting interventions, auditing service outcomes and coordinating multi-agency plans within a busy ED environment.

Applicants should have a first degree in psychology and be prepared to work under close supervision with clinical staff, contributing to teaching and training while ensuring robust data collection for

Qualifications

• First degree in Psychology (2i or above), conferring graduate basis for registration as accredited by the BPS.
• Desirable: Breakaway Training and specialist short courses (e.g. CBT for Psychosis) or other substantial clinically-focused training.
• Experience of clinical audit and research at undergraduate level.

Responsibilities

• Supporting clinical interventions, and evaluating the service.
• Collating data around people who present frequently to the ED and ensuring that the team receives this data in a timely manner.
• Supporting ED staff in identifying people frequently attending A&E with primary mental health problems, secondary mental health problems, or undetected treatable psychological difficulties.
• Gathering service use history, mental health history and liaising with other professionals.
• Screen suitability of referrals and complete outcome data for audit and service evaluation purposes.
• Provide regular written reports on outcomes to stakeholders and disseminate multi-agency plans.
• Support qualified clinicians on joint visits and deliver teaching and training as directed.

Skills

Psychological research methods

Assessment & interventions

Engagement & rapport

Risk assessment

Cultural awareness

Education

First degree in Psychology (2i or above) conferring graduate basis for registration as accredited by the BPS

Job description

Job summary

We are looking to recruit an Assistant Psychologist to join our High Intensity User Team (HIUT).

The HIUT exists to identify frequent attenders to the Emergency Department (ED) at the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel. To consider any unmet needs that may be increasing their attendance and seeks to ameliorate this unmet need. The post holder will work closely with the HIUT Nurse Team Manager and Clinical Psychologist. This small, supportive and well-regarded team is located within the wider Department of Psychological Medicine.

Our clients are some of the most marginalised service users, who may not easily fit into the current make-up of services. This means we use flexible, creative and person-centered approaches within the team, and ensures a stimulating working environment with lots of multi-agency working.

In your supporting statement, please answer the following questions:

• What experience do you have working with adults presenting in crisis services or adults with complex needs?
• What interests you about working in the Royal London Hospital High Intensity User Team?
• What post-graduate experience do you have with audit and service evaluation?

Main duties of the job

Supporting clinical interventions, and evaluating the service.

Collating data around people who present frequently to the ED and ensuring that the team receives this data in a timely manner.

Supporting ED staff in identifying people frequently attending A&E with:

• primary mental health problems
• secondary mental health problems as a result of persistent physical health conditions
• undetected but treatable psychological difficulty, for example, non-cardiac chest pain, MUS, breathlessness, panic and asthma. May involve teaching and delivering training.

Gathering service use history, mental health history and liaising with other professionals

Screen suitability of referrals

Complete outcome data regarding service use prior to work within HIUT and post discharge, for audit and service evaluation purposes.

Provide regular written reports on outcomes to a variety of stakeholders

Produce, coordinate and disseminate Multi agency coordinated plans.

Support qualified clinicians on joint visits

Complete supervised, low-level, structured clinical work under close supervision from the HIUT Clinical Psychologist.

Support the psychological work of others within the service and associated services through delivery of teaching, training, and advice about specific psychological interventions and assessments, as appropriate to experience and competence and as directed by senior staff.

Follow defined practices and procedures under the management of senior staff.

About us

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description and person specification for full job details and resaponsibilties.

Person Specification

Education / Qualification / Training

Essential

• First degree in Psychology (2i or above), conferring graduate basis for registration as accredited by the BPS

Desirable

• Breakaway Training
• Attendance at specialist short courses (e.g. CBT for Psychosis) or other substantial clinically-focused training

Experience

Essential

• Experience of clinical audit and research at undergraduate level.

Desirable

• Postgraduate experience of working within an adult psychiatric/acute hospital inpatient setting
• Experience of working with challenging behaviour.
• Experience of conducting service related research
• Work in a multi-cultural setting, including working with interpreters.

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Graduate level knowledge of psychological research methodology and statistical analysis.
• Awareness of racial and diversity issues through attendance of relevant training.
• Skills in relevant psychological assessment and interventions that enable working as a pre-qualified practitioner with close clinical supervision.
• Skills in providing supporting teaching and training provided by psychologists or others to other professional groups.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Skills in conducting psychological assessment, formulation and low-intensity psychological interventions tailored to the formulation, under the supervision of the qualified psychologist
• Communication & Relationship skills: Able to provide & receive sensitive or contentious information in a highly emotive atmosphere. Strong skills in engagement and development of a therapeutic rapport.
• Able to use skills of empathy to overcome barriers to understanding and acceptance. Able to confidently liaise with other professionals from a range of backgrounds and share formulations of high intensity use appropriately and with support of qualified colleagues
• Analytical & judgemental skills: Able to draw upon a specific theoretical knowledge and models to develop holistic formulations of the drivers of high intensity use of services, under clinical supervision.
• Able to monitor and evaluate the outcomes of direct clinical work appropriately, through PROMS or qualitative feedback
• Able to assess risk to self, other, and from others; including the HIUT-specific risk of iatrogenic harm; and to be able to seek qualified support responsively should urgent risk arise in the absence of the qualified psychologist

Desirable

• Cultural awareness: Aware of the potential impact of discrimination & disadvantage on mental health.
• Flexibility: Able to be flexible and adapt approach according to need

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.

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).