At a Glance
- Tasks: Join our Psycho-oncology Support Team to provide specialist psychological care for cancer patients.
- Company: Be part of Dimbleby Cancer Care, a leader in compassionate cancer support.
- Benefits: Enjoy a competitive salary, flexible working hours, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborate with a dynamic team and contribute to innovative patient support programmes.
- Why this job: Make a real difference in patients' lives while developing your skills in a supportive environment.
- Qualifications: Doctoral level training in clinical psychology or counselling psychology required.
The predicted salary is between 58133 - 65261 £ per year.
The post will provide a psychologically informed approach and service as part of the Psycho-oncology Support Team (POST) within Dimbleby Cancer Care, for cancer and palliative care patients and significant involved others at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. The post will be based at Guy's hospital site (with possibility of some working on St Thomas' site), and is suitable for someone starting out in their career, or is keen to specialise in cancer and palliative care. You will provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to medical teams, and work autonomously within professional practice guidelines and the overall framework of the psychological support team's policies and procedures. You will see outpatients, and significantly connected others.
Main duties of the job include:
- Providing specialist psychological/therapeutic assessment and therapeutic intervention with people with a cancer or palliative diagnosis, their family members and others involved in the clients care.
- Collaboratively using psychological/therapy resources and knowledge to inform a timely response to adjustment and distress within a cancer and palliative care context.
- Implementing a range of psychological/therapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams.
- Evaluating and making decisions regarding options for a person/couple/family following a therapeutic assessment.
- Exercising autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, ongoing therapy and discharge of clients, liaising with other professionals when necessary.
- Providing specialist advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals regarding psychological approaches to managing a person's care.
- Contributing 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.
- Employing knowledge of safeguarding, undertaking risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and families, and providing advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
- Communicating in a respectful, considered and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients and monitoring progress within a multi-disciplinary context.
Teaching, training, and supervision responsibilities include:
- Receiving regular clinical professional supervision in line with professional regulatory body.
- Gaining any additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to the post and/or the service.
- Developing skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and providing supervision to placement trainees according to your level of post qualification.
- Providing professional and clinical supervision of junior colleagues where appropriate.
- Contributing to various patient support programmes across the cancer directorate.
- Providing advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.
Management and service development responsibilities include:
- Contributing to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team's operational policies and services.
General responsibilities include:
- Contributing to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes.
- Maintaining the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice.
- Maintaining up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.
Person Specification:
Training and Qualifications
- Doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent) OR Counselling Psychologist.
- Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist OR UKCP registered Psychotherapist or equivalent.
- Desirable: Specialist training in cancer and/or palliative care e.g. specialist placement.
Experience
- Substantial experience of working at a highly specialist level with people showing a range of psychosocial needs.
- Experience of highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy intervention across a range of care contexts, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
- Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and with concerns that reflect the full range of clinical severity.
- Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism and compassion when being with difficult emotion and associated behaviours.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for a client's psychological therapeutic care.
- Experience of managing a complex and busy caseload and being responsive to urgent requests for support/help from colleagues.
- Experience of representing psychological therapy within a multi-disciplinary team.
- Experience of facilitating group-based psychological therapy and/or education.
- Desirable: Experience of working in cancer and palliative care/or physical health care setting.
Knowledge and Skills
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment to inform therapeutic focus.
- Knowledge of how power and privilege may be exercised in discriminatory ways within healthcare and psychology.
- Ability to communicate complex and/or technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues.
- Willingness to talk about and be with death and dying using psychologically informed approaches.
Other
- Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of multi-media materials suitable for presentations.
- You understand and can work within the framework of clinical governance for psychological therapies and the NHS.
- Willingness to work across to Guy's and St Thomas' hospital sites if needed.
Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist in Cancer employer: National health service
The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment that prioritises patient safety and service improvement. With a strong commitment to employee development, including leadership training and apprenticeship programmes, staff are empowered to grow their skills while contributing to the health of London. The Trust's inclusive culture and focus on quality management ensure that employees feel valued and supported in their vital roles.
