Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist (Perinatal)

A Band 8a psychologist post, half-time, in the community Perinatal Mental Health Service at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. The work centres on specialist assessment and psychological treatment for women during pregnancy and after birth, with systemic support for partners, and includes triaging referrals within a multidisciplinary team. The post also involves building a trauma-focused care pathway for complex needs and audit and service evaluation work. Applicants need doctoral training and HCPC registration as a clinical or counselling psychologist, and visa sponsorship is not available.

What the job involves

• Provide specialist psychological assessment and treatment to pregnant and postnatal women with complex and severe mental health problems, with systemic support for partners
• Assess and manage risk for individual clients and advise other professions on the psychological aspects of risk
• Formulate and deliver evidence-based psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, in line with NICE guidance
• Take autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients on psychologically based care plans
• Carry out psychological assessments using test results, measures, observation and interviews with clients and those involved in their care
• Attend ward and community MDT meetings, triage referrals and signpost clients to other services
• Liaise with midwives, obstetricians, and primary, secondary and third sector care providers
• Give specialist psychological advice, consultation and guidance to other professionals on perinatal mental health
• Work with community psychological therapists to plan psychological care that continues after discharge from the service
• Develop a psychologically informed, trauma-focused model of care, including a care pathway for complex needs with the lead psychologist
• Use research skills for audits, service evaluation and service development
• Communicate assessment, formulation and treatment plans sensitively and monitor progress across uni- and multi-disciplinary care

What’s required

Qualifications

• Doctoral training in clinical or counselling psychology accredited by the BPS, or equivalent for those trained before 1996
• Training covering psychopathology, clinical psychometrics, neuropsychology for clinical psychologists, two or more psychological therapies and lifespan developmental psychology
• Overseas training recognised by the HCPC as leading to UK registration as a clinical or counselling psychologist may be accepted

Registration & licences

• HCPC registration as a Practitioner Psychologist in the clinical or counselling psychologist domain

Experience

• Specialist psychological assessment and treatment across outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings
• Working with a wide variety of client groups across the whole life course and the full range of clinical severity
• Maintaining professionalism with highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and threats of physical abuse
• Working with people who have severe, complex and long-term mental health problems
• At least 50 hours of clinical supervision over a minimum of 18 months as a specialist psychological therapist, or an alternative agreed by the Head of Psychology & Psychotherapies

Skills & knowledge

• Ability to assess and manage risk in the perinatal context
• Understanding of working with complex emotional needs, the challenges of the perinatal period and the interventions available for it
• Proven interest in working with parents and their infants, with knowledge of infant and adult mental health

Checks & eligibility

• Evidence of the right to work in the UK

Nice to have

• Post-qualification training in applied research methodology, staff training or other fields of applied psychology
• Post-qualification training in psychological care in a perinatal context
• Post-qualification training in DBT, MBT or another evidence-based intervention for complex needs or personality difficulties
• Post-qualification experience of working in a specialist perinatal mental health service
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of working in complex needs services such as substance misuse or personality disorder
• Experience of applying clinical or counselling psychology in different cultural contexts

What’s offered

• Specialist clinical and professional supervision
• Opportunities for specialist training, forums and development
• Flexible working
• Career development

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