Clinical Psychologist

Job overview

This is an exciting role located in our CAMHS Inpatient Unit, The Beacon Centre. This General Adolescent Unit sits within our CAMHS Crisis Pathway, which offers services to young people on the edge of crisis or in crisis. There is a dynamic therapies team (psychology, systemic therapy, art therapy and music therapy) who work within a multi-disciplinary team, supporting young people (13-18yrs) with complex needs including trauma. The Unit is expanding to offer 15 beds to young people, and the therapies team is growing to meet that increased need.  The role will be supervised by a senior psychologist within the unit and supported by a wider MDT of experienced practitioners. There is an opportunity to supervise an assistant psychologist on the Unit.

Main duties of the job

The job is ideal for someone who is interested in working to engage young people who are in crisis and need support to draw out their strengths and hope for the future. The role involves building consistent, supportive relationships with young people and being able to help a young person generalise those relationships to other adults around them. There will be some psychological assessment, for the purposes of formulation driven intervention with young people on the unit. The unit has an current psychology group program which this role would support with the ongoing delivery and development of. Skills in risk and crisis management are essential, and work with wider networks is required to support a young person in a holistic way.

The role will also involve sharing psychological thinking within the clinical and nursing teams via formulation, training, and consultation, and using audit and service development skills for the purposes of Quality Improvement. There are plans to further develop co-production on the unit in order to improve the experience young people have during their stay and for future young people. The role includes opportunities for CPD as part of the North London Partnership’s psychological therapies pathway.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To conduct psychological assessment, formulation and care planning with young people in mental health crisis who require a hospital admission, in conjunction with other team members.
• To deliver individual and group psychologically informed interventions, either jointly with the therapies team, or autonomously.
• To engage young people on the ward, and implement cognitive-behavioural and emotional regulation approaches, aimed at helping service users to improve their well-being and functioning.
• Support with risk assessment and safety planning, in conjunction with the wider inpatient team.
• To use skills in service evaluation and audit to evaluate and inform service development within the team. To lead on or contribute to quality improvement projects
• To contribute to MDT discussions, formulations, and CPD sessions and to provide teaching where required, as well as providing formal and informal consultation to other staff, to contribute positively to the therapeutic milieu
• To engage with the rest of the therapies team to consider packages of care offered to young people, and the development of a well-rounded therapies ‘offer’
• To consider the validity and use of outcome and feedback measures within an inpatient context
• To be involved in co-production and supporting the feedback of young people to be heard and used to impact service delivery.