Specialist Clinical/Counselling Psychologist: Bentley House Adult CMHH

Job overview

Harrow Adult Mental Health is looking for a highly motivated and passionate Psychologist to join our expanding therapies team. This popular post is offered within our innovative Adult Community Mental Health Hub (CMHH, Bentley House) which provides intervention to adults presenting with a range of secondary care mental health difficulties, including psychosis, Complex Emotional Needs and PTSD.

The successful candidate will play a key role in the provision of highly specialist psychological assessment, collaborative formulation with service users, and consultation to the team, to support the development of creative, personalised and multi-disciplinary care plans that support individuals under the care of the CMHH to move forward. They will also provide specialist psychological intervention that draws on a range of evidence-based modalities.

The post-holder will be expected to take a leading role in the ongoing development of Harrow’s Trauma-Informed Approaches (TIA) model for the adult mental health services. Over the last year, our CMHH has rolled-out TIA, and trained the full MDT in Power Threat Meaning Framework formulation and Psychological Stabilisation interventions. This project builds on Harrow’s innovative TIA work in its acute services over the last six years, which has been recently published (Nikopaschos et al. 2023) and is now also influencing National Policy (see NHSE Guidelines for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Care for Adults and Older Adults, 2023).

Main duties of the job

Bentley House CMHH works closely with the rest of the Harrow mental health system (including the Home Treatment and Inpatient teams) to provide holistic intervention to adults with severe and enduring mental health difficulties. The post holder will join an expanding therapies team, committed to providing highly specialist and trauma-informed psychological care. They will work closely with the full range of MDT professionals, including psychiatry, nursing, occupational therapy and peer support. They will play a key role in assessment and formulation, the development of creative multi-disciplinary care plans, and the provision of psychological intervention that follows service users across the Harrow system.

The post-holder will be expected to work as a senior member of the MDT, including the provision of consultation, co-working, teaching, training, supervision and research as well as developing specific training to enhance the systematic provision of psychological interventions offered to service users by all members of the team within a ‘stepped-care’ framework. They will make a leading contribution to the learning culture of the team and wider service, and play an integral role in the further development and embedding of TIA.

Specialist supervision is offered in EMDR, DBT, NET, CBT, Open Dialogue, CAT, systemic and psychodynamic models.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

KR 1      Clinical and Client Care

• To provide specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions for clients under the care of the Bentley House CMHH.
• To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers or families of referred clients when required.
• To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
• Where appropriate, to act as named worker and take responsibility for initiating planning and reviewing of care plans and co-ordination of multi-professional meetings.

KR 2      Contributing to team or service clinical functioning

• To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
• To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
• To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
• To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.

KR 3      Policy and service development

• To implement policies and procedures in own area of work, and to propose improvements or beneficial changes.
• To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and delivering services which meet the needs of local communities.
• To contribute to service development through undertaking and participating in appropriate projects.

KR 4      Care or management of resources

• To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
• To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.

KR 5      Management and supervision

• To be responsible for the allocation and/or clinical supervision of the work of an assistant psychologist if required, under supervision from a more senior psychologist.
• To supervise trainee applied psychologists within own area of specialism after completion of the relevant Training Course’s Supervision Training.

KR 6      Teaching and Training

• To provide occasional specialist training in psychological approaches to care to other professions as appropriate.
• To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.

KR 7      Record-keeping and Information Governance

• To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.

KR 8      Research and development

• To undertake regular complex service evaluation, audits or research relevant to service needs.

KR 9      Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development

• To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior psychologist according to HCPC and Trust guidelines.
• To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with BPS and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the HCPC ‘Standards for Continuing Professional Development’.
• To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
• To comply with the HCPC ‘Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics’ and ‘Standards of Proficiency’, and ensure professional development in line with these.
• To adhere to the BPS’s Professional Practice Guidelines and Trust policies and procedures.

KR 10    General

• To travel within the Harrow area for home visits as appropriate and across the Trust when required.
• To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
• To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations and to support others involved in such situations.