Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist | South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust in Teddington

We are seeking an HCPC registered Band 7/8a Clinical/Counselling Psychologist to join our well established multidisciplinary mental health and memory assessment services within Older People’s Services in Richmond (0.5) and Sutton (0.4). You will be joining other established Clinical Psychologists based within the same services, providing psychological therapies for older people and neuropsychological assessments for dementia, along with providing psychological expertise to contribute to good MDT working including consultation, complex case discussions, and supporting staff training.

Psychology is highly valued within our services and you will be well supported within Older People’s Psychology, where CPD and career development are encouraged. We have specialist pathway psychologist leads in Therapies, Neuropsychological Assessment, and Distressed Behaviour in Dementia, and you will receive regular individual supervision and support from senior psychologists in the service as well as opportunities for regular peer supervision and CPD. Our psychologists practice a range of therapeutic models and we have BABCP accredited CBT therapists and psychologists working towards the Specialist Register of Clinical Neuropsychologists.

The service has strong links with the University of Surrey Clinical Psychology Doctoral Training Program, providing regular placements and program teaching. Within the Recovery & Support Teams you will provide direct therapeutic work for service users age 70+ with severe and enduring mental health problems and their families. Within the Memory Assessment Services, you will work directly with service users of any age with suspected dementia, providing neuropsychological assessments of dementia and therapeutic work. Both roles involve MDT working including providing consultation, complex case discussions, and supporting staff training.

You will be encouraged to contribute towards service improvement, either by supporting local Quality Improvement Initiatives or larger Trust wide projects. The post is funded as 8a, however we are happy to consider newly or recently qualified applicants who may not yet meet 8a criteria. An applicant appointed at band 7 will be supported through a preceptorship model including a professional and clinical development plan and support for CPD to acquire the knowledge, skills and experience that meet the person specifications for the post at band 8a. Where these conditions are met the post holder will be expected to progress to band 8a subject to successful interview.

We are happy to consider applicants interested in working part-time in only one of the teams (Richmond 0.5 or Sutton 0.4) or as a job share and offer agile and flexible working opportunities as part of our new ways of working, which we are happy to discuss at interview stage.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’. We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients 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 clients, family members, and others involved in the client’s care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.