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Principal Clinical / Counselling Psychologist & Psychology Lead

Job details
Posting date: 13 May 2024
Salary: Not specified
Additional salary information: £66,718 - £76,271 pro rata per annum inclusive of inner London HCAS
Hours: Part time
Closing date: 12 June 2024
Location: London, SW17 0QT
Company: South West London and St Georges Mental Health Trust
Job type: Permanent
Job reference: 6299464/294-MHCA-6299464-JB

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Summary

A Vacancy at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.


We are looking to recruit a clinical or counselling psychologist - 0.4 wte (15 hours/week) to lead the psychology team within our Neuropsychiatry Service. The Neuropsychiatry Service is a regional outpatient service that provides assessment and treatment for adults over the age of 18 with neurological illness or head injuries who have associated psychiatric problems.

The service offers assessment and treatment for patients with:

• Psychiatric and psychological consequences of neurological conditions, e.g. stroke, head injury, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis or movement disorders.

• Functional neurological disorders, including somatoform and dissociative or conversion disorders, e.g. functional non-epileptic attacks, non-organic movement disorders.

• Organic psychiatric illness, e.g. early onset dementia, schizophreniform disorders with organic brain changes.

• “Grey zone” disorders which straddle neurology and psychiatry, difficult to diagnose or various rare syndromes.

The service is closely allied to the regional neuroscience centre based at the Atkinson Morley Wing of St. George’s Hospital. The service is led by Dr Niruj Agrawal, a nationally recognised expert consultant neuropsychiatrist and researcher, who heads a multi-disciplinary team consisting of consultant psychiatrists, neuropsychiatry and neurology trainees, a specialty doctor, a specialist nurse, as well as two psychologists, a CBT therapist, and an assistant psychologist.

The post holder’s main role will be totake a lead role in the strategic planning and delivery of psychological interventions within the Neuropsychiatry Service,to provideclinical supervision and training to members of the psychology team, and tooffer specialist psychological therapy (CBT, incl. trauma-focused CBT, and EMDR) to patients referred to the service. The service currently offers both individual and group psychological treatments. The current post would be suitable for someone looking to develop professional management and leadership skills as well as highly specialist clinical skills in the specialist area of neuropsychiatry.

We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.

We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’ - we aspire to be ‘outstanding’.

This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services.

We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.

We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.

1. Working within a highly specialised Neuropsychiatry Service, to provide highly developed specialist psychological assessments of clients based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological (and where appropriate to the professional, neuropsychological) tests, self-report measures, rating scales direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care.

2. To formulate plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy. To be responsible for implementing a range of highly specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, reflecting the current evidence-base for the treatment and management of functional neurological disorder and other neurological conditions with associated mental health difficulties, employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

3. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

4. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the psychological treatment of relevant clients, ensuring appropriate assessment, formulation and interventions, communicating with the referral agent and others involved with the care on a regular basis.

5. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals and external agencies contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

6. To ensure that all members of the clinical team have access to a psychologically-based framework for the understanding and care of clients of the service, through the provision of advice and consultation and the dissemination of psychological knowledge, research and theory.

7. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for relevant individual clients and to provide both general and specialist advice for psychologists, psychotherapists other professionals and external agencies on psychological aspects of risk assessment and management.

8. To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care.

9. To provide consultation about the psychological care of the client group to staff within, and staff and agencies outside the service.


This advert closes on Sunday 2 Jun 2024

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