Practitioner Psychologist / Senior Psychotherapist - Early Intervention for Psychosis

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Part time

Job summary

A healthcare trust in the UK is seeking a qualified psychologist or CBT therapist for a fixed-term position in their Early Intervention for Psychosis Service in Liverpool. This 9-month role, part-time at 22.5 hours per week, involves providing specialist psychological assessments and interventions, focusing on service users experiencing their first episode of psychosis. The position includes comprehensive supervision for skill development within a supportive team environment.

Qualifications

• Qualified as HCPC registered practitioner psychologist or BABCP accredited CBT therapist.
• Experience in delivering CBT to individuals experiencing first episode psychosis is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and manage psychological practice effectively.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to the team.
• Implement plans for the psychological treatment of service user's problems.
• Evaluate and monitor progress, making skilled evaluations and decisions.

Skills

Delivery of CBT

Autonomous professional practice

Research skills

Education

HCPC registered practitioner psychologist or BABCP accredited CBT therapist

Job description

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust celebrates diversity and promotes equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQIA+ people that are under‑represented in our workforce. We also welcome applications from reservists and ex‑armed forces personnel as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. Please share your equality information with us.

Overview

This is an exciting fixed‑term opportunity to be a part of the psychology team within the Early Intervention for Psychosis Service in Mersey Care, based at Baird House, Liverpool. The post is open to applicants who are qualified as HCPC registered practitioner psychologists and/or BABCP accredited CBT therapists and a major part of the role will be the provision of CBT to service users experiencing first episode psychosis. The role is 0.6 wte (22.5 hrs/week) over a 9‑month period to cover maternity leave within an established and highly regarded Early Intervention service working in a specialist multidisciplinary community‑based team to support the recovery of people who have experienced a first episode of psychosis. High‑quality supervision is available to support further development of your clinical skills whilst working in a friendly and caring team environment that is both supportive and rewarding. The post provides an ideal development opportunity for someone wishing to build their knowledge and skills in working with this client group.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide specialist psychological assessments of service users referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self‑report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi‑structured interviews with service users and others involved in their care.
• Formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a service user's psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy.
• Be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining provisional hypotheses.
• Evaluate, monitor progress and make highly skilled evaluations and decisions about treatment options taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual or group.
• Exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service users whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.
• Provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to service users' formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans.
• Ensure that all members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically based framework for understanding and care of service users, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological research and theory.
• Undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual service users and provide both general and specialist advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
• Communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, highly complex information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of service users under their care where there may be conflicting views, high emotion and significant barriers to understanding and change, and monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni‑ and multidisciplinary care.
• Provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the treatment team.

Qualifications & Experience

• Qualified as HCPC registered practitioner psychologist and/or BABCP accredited CBT therapist.
• Experience in delivering CBT to individuals experiencing first episode psychosis (preferred).
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for systematic governance of psychological practice.
• Strong research skills for audit, policy and service development and ability to propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the team.

Application Information

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

All information regarding your application will be received through the official NHS Jobs platform; please use the email account from which you apply for all correspondence.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received a sufficient number of applications to make a shortlist.

About Mersey Care

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands. We offer specialist inpatient and community services and are one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities. Our commitment to "perfect care" means that care is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families and carers to design and develop future services together.