CAMH Specialist Mental Health Practitioner

Integrated Care System; London; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in London seeks a Clinical Psychologist to provide assessments and interventions for children and young people experiencing mental health issues. The role involves working within a multi-disciplinary team to deliver specialist mental health services, and requires a Doctoral level psychology qualification along with relevant experience. Competitive salary of £53,751 to £60,651 per annum offered.

Qualifications

• Experience working with children, adolescents, and their families.
• Post-doctoral training in specialized areas of psychological practice.
• Experience in teaching, training, and supervision.

Responsibilities

• Conduct comprehensive assessments of children and young people in crisis.
• Provide direct work to families and young people.
• Participate in delivery of specialist mental health services.

Skills

Creative problem-solving

Flexibility

Communication skills

Empathy

Education

Doctoral level training in clinical psychology

Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for Psychologist with experience of working with young people and their families to work in Tri-borough CAMHS. This is a full-time Band 7 permanent post in the CAMHS Alliance service. The Alliance Crisis Care Team is an evolving service which aims to provide brief interventions and outreach work to children and young people presenting with acute psychological and mental health problems where intensive support is required to prevent admission to general and psychiatric hospitals. The role offers the opportunity to complete front line crisis assessments and interventions, in addition to working on their soft clinical skills by working on a CAMHS Helpline.

We acknowledge that all staff have their own skills set, therefore will consider how staff can be supported and nurtured to achieve their full potential. Ideally you are someone who has the ability to be creative, flexible, dynamic and have confidence in your ability to problem-solve, make decisions and can grow from this opportunity!

We would be delighted to hear from Clinical or Counselling Psychologists who have some experience working in CAMHS and are interested in this role.

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work alongside other psychologists in the team in addition to holding an individual caseload. You will receive regular clinical, professional, and management supervision from an experienced Clinical Psychologist in the team.

Main duties of the job

The Alliance Crisis Team serves 3 key pathways:

o Acute Trust and out of hours' service

o Intensive community support/ Home Treatment service & Post A&E Review

o The post holders will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, holding a clinical caseload and undertaking the comprehensive assessment of children and young people with mental health needs (including risk assessment and the development of risk management plans) who present in crisis to CAMH Services, hospitals and sites covered by the Alliance Crisis Care.

In addition to providing direct work to families and young people, the post holders will also assist the CAMHS and/or paediatrics team with treatment planning and provide consultation to families/carers and other professionals involved in the life of the young person.

The post holder will participate in delivering the provision of specialist mental health services to children and young people and their families and carers across the West London NHS Trust 3 Boroughs CAMH Service and crisis pathway.

The role will include providing brief interventions and outreach work to children and young people presenting with acute psychological and mental health problems where intensive support is required to prevent admission to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units. This will also include facilitating safe and timely discharges from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Units.

About us

West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse healthcare providers in the UK, delivering a range of mental health and physical healthcare and community services. The Trust runs Broadmoor Hospital, one of three high secure hospitals in the country, with an international reputation.

Our high secure services care for patients from South of England and we provide low and medium secure services across eight London boroughs. The Trust also provides mental and physical healthcare in three London boroughs (Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham). We employ over 5,000 staff, of whom 59% are BME. Our turnover for 2024-25 is over £500m.

The Trust is rated as 'Good' overallby the Care Quality Commission. Forensic services are rated as 'Outstanding'.The Trust is an established partner and contributor in the development of the evolving North West London Integrated Care System and the Integrated Care Board. The Trust leads the NW London Children and Adolescent Mental Health provider collaborative.

Job responsibilities

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. Please view as attached.

The person specification below is not the full person specification, but outlines the criteria against which your application form will be assessed.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology, including specifically models of psychopathology, clinical psychometrics and neuropsychology, two or more distinct psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology as accredited by the British Psychological Society, or equivalent if trained overseas.
• Eligible to work as a Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical / Counselling) as approved by the Health Care Professions Council.
• Pre-qualification training and qualifications in research methodology, staff training and/or other fields of applied psychology
• Post-doctoral/graduate training in one or more additional specialised areas of psychological practice with children and young people.
• Clinical training as part of a CYP IAPT collaborative in a recognised evidenced based approach i.e. DBT, CBT, Parenting Skills or other.

Experience

• Experience of specialist psychological assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and their families across a range of care settings, (e.g. outpatient, community, primary care, in patient settings).
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
• Experience of working with children, adolescents and their families
• Experience of the application of clinical / counselling psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision.
• Experience of working with other agencies including education and social care.
• Experience of assessment and intervention with clients presenting with Neurodiversity
• Experience of working with children/young people and their families with special educational needs, neurodevelopmental difficulties, learning disabilities and challenging behaviour, and co-morbid mental health difficulties.
• Experience of leadership, team and service development.

Knowledge & Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of complex multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public, professional and academic settings.
• Ability to identify and employ mechanisms of clinical governance as appropriate, to support and maintain clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour
• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
• Knowledge and skills in specialist psychological assessment and treatment of specific groups including children with learning disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders and co-morbid mental health
• difficulties, adolescent mental health, trauma, anxiety and mood disorders
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in specific difficult to treat groups (e.g. children with challenging behaviour, dual diagnoses, people with additional disabilities etc.)
• High-level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of legislation in relation to the client group and mental health.

Other Requirement

• Experience of working within a multicultural framework.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

£53,751 to £60,651 a yearper annum inclusive