Assistant Psychologist in Warrington

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.

Main duties of the job include:

• Supporting psychological assessments and evidence-based interventions under the supervision of a qualified Psychologist.
• Working with the Psychologist in the neuropsychological assessment, formulation, and treatment planning for people with various dementias and complex mental health presentations.
• Promoting the Newcastle Model of care for people with dementias who present with behaviours others find challenging.
• Supporting the development and embedding of the Newcastle Pathway of care on the ward.
• Gaining experience in systemic interventions, which may include reflective practice, delivering care spaces for staff to support wellbeing, and facilitating Positive Behavioural Support (PBS).
• Incorporating immersive virtual reality rooms into therapeutic offers on the ward.

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.

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 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.

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.

Essential criteria include:

• A second class honours degree or higher in psychology or psychology as a main subject.
• Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society.
• A minimum of 12 months previous experience of work with people with mental health problems and/or other disabilities.
• Experience of teaching and training in the application of psychological principles to mental health problems.
• Experience of research evaluation and audit of the application of psychological principles to mental health problems.

Desirable criteria include:

• Further post-graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice, and/or research design and analysis.
• Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
• Previous experience as an Assistant in an NHS setting.
• Experience of psychometric assessment.
• Proven track record of experience of research evaluation and audit of the application of psychological principles to mental health problems.

Essential values include:

• Continuous Improvement
• Accountability
• Respectfulness
• Enthusiasm
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to service users
• Engaging leadership
• Strong customer service belief
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented

Essential skills include:

• High level communication skills (written and verbal).
• Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis.
• Experience of report writing.
• Demonstrated high level ability to communicate sensitive information to service users, carers, and colleagues.
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or other disabilities.
• A demonstrated ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context.
• An understanding of psychological principles applied to health care.
• Undertaken further, relevant post-graduate study.

Desirable criteria include:

• Skills in SPSS for Windows.
• Undertaking further relevant post-graduate study leading to recognised qualification.

Essential personal criteria include:

• Clear experience of interacting effectively with staff from all disciplines.
• An interest in working with people with mental health problems or other disabilities.
• Clear experience of interacting with people with mental health problems.
• Ability to work with a high level of autonomy within the boundaries of the assistant role.