Assistant Psychologist (2-year Fixed Term Contract)

Options for Care is looking to recruit an exceptional Assistant Psychologist (2-year Fixed Term contract) passionate about working with individuals with severe and enduring mental health diagnoses. The successful candidate will work in our existing mental health inpatient unit at Montague Court, based in Edgbaston, Birmingham.

Our two established hospitals, Montague Court and Dartmouth House, have supported the needs of individuals with mental health diagnoses. Stanford Court, a high dependency unit, has recently opened. We also have Orchard House, our recovery home, which provides a safe and supportive environment for individuals on their journey to mental health recovery.

Dartmouth House is a 16-bed male long-term complex care mental health inpatient unit based in Handsworth Wood, Birmingham. Montague Court is an 18-bed male long-term complex care mental health inpatient unit based in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Stanford Court is a 23-bed male mental health inpatient unit based in Highgate, Birmingham, consisting of 19 high dependency beds and four self-contained recovery flats to enable assessment of daily living skills in preparation for discharge. Orchard House is an 8-bed residential step-down service based in Erdington, Birmingham, which allows extension of the long-term complex care pathway.

Overview of main duties

The Assistant Psychologist will work independently on a day-to-day basis according to a service plan agreed with their clinical supervisor, Senior Clinical Psychologist and the multidisciplinary team. The primary objective is to support and enhance the psychological care of service users who have complex mental health and behavioural needs. As an Assistant Psychologist, you will provide psychological assessment, formulation and intervention under the supervision of a qualified Clinical Psychologist. Additionally, you will engage in clinically related administration tasks, the conduct of audits, collection of statistics for the development of audit, service evaluation and research projects, and support the delivery of staff training. All work must be performed within the framework of our policies and procedures, and you must understand and implement the organisation’s mission, vision, and values.

About us

Options for Care provides mental health recovery services in Birmingham. Our primary objective is to empower service users and help them realise their full potential through improvements in their quality of life and a steady progression towards recovery, culminating in successful discharge. We are proud to share our unwavering commitment to our mission, vision, and values.

Mission

We offer best-practice interventions to enable personal recovery and well-being.

Vision

We strive to create inclusive, supportive, and empowering spaces for all individuals to thrive.

Values

The individual is at the heart of everything we do. We inspire, stimulate and empower people to achieve and grow through compassionate, supportive and protective relationships. We deliver and continuously evaluate high-quality service whilst respecting differences, promoting dignity and supporting the privacy of others.

At Options for Care, we understand the importance of delivering personalised holistic support to our service users. Our dedicated team is committed to providing relationship-centred interventions that are grounded in evidence-based practices. We strongly believe that our approach helps individuals lead fulfilling lives and attain their personal objectives. To ensure that we consistently meet our service users’ needs, we use recognised assessment tools to track outcomes and make adjustments as needed. Our goal is to empower our service users to live in the least restrictive setting feasible while maintaining their dignity and independence.

Job Description

As an Assistant Psychologist your role will involve providing support and enhancing clinical psychology services to service users under the guidance of qualified psychologists. This will include undertaking structured assessments and therapeutic interventions, as well as clinically related administration, audit, research, teaching, and service improvement projects. You will be responsible for conducting psychological assessments of adults with complex and enduring mental health difficulties, using various clinical methodologies and working closely with the multidisciplinary team to develop care plans and provide low-intensity psychological interventions. Additionally, you will assist in managing service users’ risk and problem behaviours, planning and coordinating therapeutic groups, and attending multi-disciplinary meetings. As an integral member of our team, you will work alongside psychiatrists, mental health nurses, healthcare assistants, occupational therapists and psychologists, and receive support and supervision from qualified clinical psychologists.

Qualifications

To be considered for the role of Assistant Psychologist, you must hold a Psychology degree with a minimum of 2:1 honours, which is recognised by the British Psychological Society. Additionally, you need to have experience working with individuals who have mental health challenges and/or learning disabilities, as well as physical health issues or cognitive impairments.

Benefits

In return, at Options for Care, we recognise the immense value of our team members. Our staff are the foundation of our success and we appreciate their dedication to our clients. We prioritise employee development and are committed to supporting our staff at every stage of their career journey. Our workplace is warm and welcoming, with necessary assistance and supervision to ensure a positive work environment. Our comprehensive staff health benefits package further demonstrates our commitment to the well-being of our staff. We offer an incremental pay system tied to our appraisal process, reflecting gratitude for dedication to service users, hard work and commitment to quality care.