CAMH Clinical Social Worker

West London NHS Trust; London; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading mental health trust in the UK focused on childhood psychotherapy. This role offers the opportunity to work with young individuals experiencing complex emotional behaviors through specialized Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, contributing to service improvement and clinical excellence.

Qualifications

• Accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy required.
• Experience with children, adolescents, and families is essential.
• Continuous professional development evidence needed.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist DBT interventions for young people ages 12-18.
• Contribute to service evaluation, policy development, and research.
• Manage own caseload and provide group skills training.

Skills

Communication

Analytic skills

Emotional intelligence

Risk assessment

IT skills

Education

Good relevant honours degree

Postgraduate accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy

Membership eligibility for ACP

Other related academic qualifications to Masters or Doctorate level

Job description

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This is an exciting opportunity to join and help shape a new service. West London NHS Trust is recruiting to a new Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Service for Hounslow, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham CAMHS. The team will undertake Intensive DBT training together in November 2024, provided by British Isles DBT.

The service will provide assessment, treatment; training and consultation in relation to young people aged 12 to 18 who present with persistent self-harm and suicidal behaviour, which may be in the context of emotional dysregulation. Many of the young people seen will present with complex needs including high risk behaviours. All young people seen will have a comprehensive assessment to inform decision making and planning for the future. Each team member will have a small caseload and the team will support each other via consultation meetings and supervision.

Within the DBT service each clinician will play an active role in all aspects of theservice, including assessment, treatment (individual therapy, skills group, phonecoaching) teaching, training, research, and service development.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be required:

•To provide specialist DBT to the service users of the WL CAMHS DBT Service, including specialist assessment and intervention for young people referred to the service. Contribute to service evaluation, policy development, audit, evaluation, and research in the area of self-harm and emotional dysregulation. Provide clinical supervision, teaching and consultation as appropriate.

• To use and maintain skilled standards of professional clinical practice in the treatment modalities required by the children and young people attending the DBT service and be a resource to the whole service in maintaining the skills of others.

•To manage their own caseload and provide specialist DBT interventions for young people. They will be responsible for the provision of skills training groups for young people and parents/carers.

•To work in partnership with schools, social services departments, as well as local and national services to support integrated practice and service delivery.

Working for our organisation

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.

Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.

We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.

Together, we’re committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.

We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental health concerns.

You would be joining a welcoming child and adolescent psychotherapy team in West London who are committed to service improvement, staff well-being, and who value diversity in our workforce.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

CAMHS is a fast growing, friendly and proactive service. We offer staff benefits which are outlined in the candidate pack and a great level of job satisfaction.

The Candidate Pack provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required and the link below will also provide useful information.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Good relevant honours degree, or a recognised equivalent.
• Other related professional qualification or equivalent.
• Postgraduate accredited training in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
• Eligibility for full membership of Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP).
• Keyboard skills (physical skills)
• Other related academic qualification to Masters or Doctorate level

Experience

• Pre-qualification professional experience with children, adolescents and families (e.g. clinical/educational psychology, teaching, social work).
• Substantial experience of work with complex family situations where there is a threat of abuse and breakdown.
• Substantial experience of work with parents and infants at high risk.
• Substantial experience in working in multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, multi-cultural context.
• Substantial experience of work with therapeutic groups of children.
• Substantial experience of work with families where the parents are mentally ill.

Knowledge

• Good knowledge of relevant theories, practices and research in the field of child and adolescent development and psychotherapy and ability to apply them to relevant work situations.
• Knowledge of adult mental health problems.
• Evidence of continuous professional development as recommended by the ACP.
• Knowledge of research methodology.

Skills

• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with patients, staff, administrators and managers about highly complex and sensitive matters in situation of potential conflict or psychological/emotional pain, and where mental health problems affect relationships.
• Capacity to listen to other points of view effectively about highly complex issues through reports, publication or public presentation.
• Good level of analytic skills and understanding of unconscious processes and their impact on the individual, group and institutional processes.
• Ability to remain still and maintain intense concentration in clinical settings with children, adolescents, parents/carers and families where there may be high level of distress, verbal and physical aggression or chaotic activity.
• Ability to integrate available highly complex clinical information into a coherent formulation and to apply it in treatment and clinical management.
• Ability to monitor and assess risk and act accordingly.
• Writes clear records and observes policies, procedures and guidelines.
• Ability to plan and organise own workload and time.
• Ability to plan and organise own workload and time.
• Ability to plan, co-ordinate and organise aspects of service activities.
• IT and internet research skills.
• Ability to conduct audit and research.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to plan, evaluate, monitor and develop services.

Other Requirements

• Must be able to contain anxiety without recourse to premature action.
• Personal experience of Psychoanalysis
• Has a good judgement about when to act to ensure safety.
• Works independently but can involve colleagues appropriately.
• Continues to think clearly in situations of high level of emotion and stress.
• Can process own emotional reactions as possible information about the patient’s or family’s emotional state
• Contains and works with organisational stress and ability to ‘hold’ the stress of others.
• Familiar with and works within ACP’s Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics
• Work autonomously within overall framework of policies and procedures.