Assistant Psychologist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust in Winwick

We are looking for an Assistant Psychologist to work as an integral part of our Later Life and Memory Service (LLAMS) inpatient ward team. This is an exciting opportunity for an Assistant to join a new service and contribute to new and innovative interventions.

Successful candidates will support and enhance the professional psychological care of service users working as part of a multi-disciplinary team including psychology, psychiatry, nursing staff, occupational therapy, and activities staff. The team regularly works with other services including social care and community mental health teams, based on individual need.

The role will involve supporting psychological assessments and evidence-based interventions under the supervision of a qualified Psychologist. Assistant Psychologists will work with the Psychologist in the neuropsychological assessment, formulation, and treatment planning for people with various dementias and complex mental health presentations.

Assistant Psychologists will work alongside the therapy and nursing team to promote the Newcastle Model of care for people with dementias who present with behaviours others find challenging, and to support the development and embedding of the Newcastle Pathway of care on the ward. They will be given the opportunity to gain experience in systemic interventions, which may include reflective practice, delivering care spaces for staff to support wellbeing and facilitate Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) when working with behaviour that challenges.

As part of the psychology offer, the ward is involved in a project using immersive virtual reality rooms. The Assistant Psychologist will be able to incorporate the Immersive room into their therapeutic offer on the ward and contribute to the ward’s understanding of its potential in enhancing care.

The successful applicants must have a degree in psychology, which confers Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership with the British Psychological Society (BPS). Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ - care that 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. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles. We are also looking for someone with excellent communication and people skills and a passion for improving the lives of clients and their families.

You may be expected to audit and evaluate a range of outcomes in terms of the benefit for service users, staff and the wider service. Furthermore, within the team, we are keen to encourage research submissions to relevant conferences and for publication. An active interest in research and publication will therefore be an advantage.

There will be opportunities to support inpatient services in audit and research, in order to inform service development and support best practice. The Assistant Psychologist will deliver group interventions for service users on the ward, which can include groups such as Managing Emotions, Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST), Relaxation and Recovery through Art.

This is a well-respected role for Assistants wishing to gain further experience of inpatient services, in a supportive and welcoming team.

To undertake psychological assessments of service users under the supervision of a qualified psychologist which may include, as appropriate, a range of psychometric tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with service users, carers and others involved in the client’s care.

To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist.

To work with other disciplines to assess inpatients, outpatients, day patients or residents and review their care in preparation for multi-disciplinary reviews. To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings as directed by the qualified psychologists.