Advanced Psychological PractitionerNHS

Job summary

We are welcoming applications for the post of Advanced Psychological Practitioner, working in Mersey Care's Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team (CRHT).

The post-holder will be an experienced psychological practitioner/psychological therapist with a recognised qualification in an area of psychological practice/therapy.

The postholder will work and be line managed within CRHT and will receive clinical supervision from the Mental Health Urgent Care Psychology Team, with whom they will work closely alongside. The focus of the role will be to provide psychological assessment, formulation, and intervention for patients in crisis, supporting the MHUC intervention pathways. There will also be opportunities to deliver training on psychological concepts, supervise others, and provide consultation for practitioners across MHUC.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will provide crisis-focused assessment, formulation, and brief intervention for patients currently under CRHT. They will also provide training, supervision, reflective practice, and consultation across MHUC to both non-psychology and psychology colleagues. They will be responsible for a clinical caseload and will receive regular clinical and management supervision.They will work alongside the CRHT multidisciplinary team, and will be required to work autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service's policies and procedures. There will be opportunities to contribute to audit, service development and research within MHUC.

Training and development is key in both CRHT and the MHUC Psychology Team, with recent training accessed by staff including, CFT, reflective practice skills, CAT, and DBT skills.

Job description

Clinical:

To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the team based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety ofsources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the service users care.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a clients psychological problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the clients problems, and employing methods based upon evidence ofefficacy.

To be responsible for implementing psychologically informed interventions for individuals, possibly carers, families, and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining formulations.

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

To exercise autonomous professional responsibility within the MDT context, for the assessment, treatment and discharge of service user whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

To provide specialist psychologically informed advice, guidance and consultation tootherprofessionals contributing directly to service user formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all service users of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group.

To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and riskmanagement according to Mersey Care Trust policies and procedures.

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

To check understanding of information where there are often barriers to effective communications due to distress or psychiatric symptoms in service users or where there is resistance in staff. This may include situations where English is not the first language.

To liaise with other professionals offering services within and outside of the service to ensure good communication and high standards of service user care. Where appropriateto job role take responsibility for the safe administration of medication to service users ensuring that the Trust policies and procedures and the Nursing & Midwifery Councilsregulations are adhered to.

To have accurate and up-todate knowledge of the Mental Health Act / Mental CapacityAct and other relevant legislation.Teaching, training, and supervision

To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a practitioner psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.

To continue to gain wider post-qualification experience of psychological therapy over and above that provided within the principal service area where the postholder is employed.

To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training andsupervisionand to provide supervision to other MDT staffs psychological work, as appropriate.

Where appropriate to regularly provide professional and specialist psychologicalclinical supervision of individual and group-based cases for e.g., Assistant Psychologists

To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of all relevant staff, asappropriate.

To provide advice, consultation, supervision and training to staff working with theclient group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development:

To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit including managing own referral system and reporting regularly on waiting times.

To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.

To be involved, as appropriate, in the shortlisting and interviewing of junior staff.

The post holder will be expected to make full use of IT packages available within the work area, for example, Microsoft office, email, internet and statistical packages.

To provide leadership and management as required. This will include tasks such as management of attendance, annual leave and the use of Trust policies where required and appropriate.

To use skills gained through qualification and experience to communicate with membersof your team in the implementation of change and in the interest of good, cohesive team working.

Supervise and monitor the clinical record entries made by staff under your management and/ or clinical supervision through performance management and audit.

Service Governance:

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature, and research to support evidence-basedpractice in individual work and work with other team members.

To undertake research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research as appropriate.

To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation,with colleagues within the service to help develop service provision.

To undertake a defined role in local division Service Governance structures as agreed.

General:

To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standardsof practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training anddevelopment programmes, in consultation with the postholders professional and service manager(s) in line with the priorities of the service and PDP objectives and to provide evidence of CPD undertaken, e.g., in the form of CPD logbook.

To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice inpsychotherapy/psychology across the service.

To maintain 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, other professional bodiesand local division and Trust policies and procedures.

To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to mental health.

To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required by their Head of service.

To facilitate service user and carer involvement in the ongoing development and evaluation of the service.

About us

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 and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

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. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.