Assistant Psychologist - Band 5

We have an exciting opportunity for a Band 5 Assistant Psychologist to join the psychology team in City & Hackney Crisis Pathway. The post holder will be based primarily in the Home Treatment team (HTT), working closely with the practitioner psychologist in the multidisciplinary team.

City & Hackney HTT offers intensive support to service users experiencing a crisis in their mental health. The team supports people to be cared for in their community and home environments, avoiding the need for inpatient admission where possible.

City & Hackney is a vibrant, diverse borough, so the successful post holder will be passionate about inclusive ways of working and thoughtfully addressing health inequalities in our work.

There will be opportunities for direct clinical work, including being involved in offering group interventions and one to one. These will be short term interventions that can be useful for service users to gain a compassionate understanding of their current situation and difficulties, support the use of helpful coping strategies and engage with strengths and resources.

Indirect psychological work is also a key part of the role, and the successful post holder will be involved in developing and offering opportunities for psychological and trauma informed ways of working to be integrated into the whole team’s way of working. There will be opportunities to contribute to teaching, training and quality improvement.

Offering direct clinical interventions within your scope of practice to service users.Supporting the team to develop psychological and trauma informed ways of working.Quality improvement of the psychology offer within the HTT.

Clinical:

Be responsible for delivering psychological care to service users under the care of the Home Treatment Team, including assessments, one to one and group interventions, under the supervision of the practitioner psychologist in the team.Provide and receive sensitive, distressing and emotional information in relation to mental health issues.        Communicate across language and cultural barriers.

Administration:

Use computer data entry systems, record clinical input and outcome data. Collate this information and communicate it as appropriate to the responsible clinician or service lead.Contribute to the motoring and audit of work in the service.

Management:

Use information technology in line with Trust and NHS information governance requirements, and maintain up to date knowledge of systems and governance requirements.Engage with supervision and line management, as per trust policies and procedures.To make full use of available teleconferencing and electronic diary scheduling facilities. Attend regular psychological therapy meetings to develop and maintain high standards of professional knowledge and practice in services.

HR:

Participate in appraisal and development planning, identifying and agreeing training needs for self and for other staff as required.Maintain up to date knowledge of relevant legislation, national and local.

Performance and Quality:

Support systems for evaluation, monitoring and development of the directorate’s psychological therapies services to ensure services are delivered in line with Trust policies, national guidance and evidence based practice.  Use skills in undertaking research, audit and evaluation analyse and interpret highly complex data, identifying trends and opportunities for improvement.Partake in and implement service related Quality Improvement and/or academic research or service evaluation projects, and advise/support other staff undertaking research and evaluation activities.  Ensure that relevant clinical research, service evaluation and audit are undertaken in accordance with national and local NHS and professional requirements.

Financial and Physical Resources:

Contribute to the responsible management of equipment and resources required for the ongoing provision of a high standard of psychological service to the directorate.