Job overview
We are looking to welcome an enthusiastic and compassionate individual to join our Cancer Psychology Team at GWH, to contribute to the specialist psychological care of people affected by cancer.
Direct clinical work will include 1-1 work with inpatients, outpatients and family/carers, as well as the potential for therapeutic group work. Individual sessions will be delivered via a combination of remote (video) and in-person clinics.
The post is a fixed term post for 7 sessions (26 hours) per week. Flexible working hours can be considered and a degree of remote working will be possible.
Main duties of the job
1. Provide specialist clinical input to inpatients and outpatients within cancer services, who are experiencing significant psychological distress.
2. Enhance the quality of psychological care provided to people with care needs related to a diagnosis and treatment for cancer (oncology and haematology disorders) within GWH NHS Trust.
3. Provide specialist psychological advice and consultancy to other health and social care professionals.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. To provide specialist psychological care for people affected by cancer including those on remote monitoring, inpatient hospital treatment and in recovery.
2. To allocate up to 70% of time to direct clinical work.
3. To offer comprehensive psychosocial assessment, with attention to background vulnerabilities and complexities, factors that impact on treatment (e.g. adherence), relationship to care and risk, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources, including self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with patients, family members and others involved in the patient’s care.
4. To develop a formulation of patients’ psychosocial distress & adjustment, and a collaboratively agreed plan of care, and convey this understanding in a clear and practical way to the wider MDT, supporting all staff to provide effective, compassionate, and psychologically-minded care.
5. To work from a broader person-centred, psychological adjustment perspective, drawing flexibly on skills in multiple therapeutic models of psychological care, to deliver a broad range of inputs, from one-off bedside Provide specialist clinical input to inpatients and outpatients within cancer services, who are experiencing significant psychological distress.
6. To be responsible for implementing a range of therapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
7. 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.
8. To work with partners, family members and carers affected by the patient’s illness and treatment, providing specialist psychological care.
9. To work collaboratively and flexibly within the wider cancer service, in coordination with the psychology team, and relating directly to internal and external services and resources to coordinate psychological care for patients and carers, in line with best clinical practice and patient choices.
10. To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all patients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the patient group.
11. To provide clinical care through phone, video clinic and other channels as clinically appropriate and operationally necessary.
12. To keep written records of patient contact in line with the service protocols.
13. To communicate effectively with service users and other professionals.
14. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the cancer psychology service at GWH, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.
15. To contribute to team development and enhance team functioning.
16. To undertake specific projects as agreed with the Lead Clinician.
17. To maintain an up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of relevant local and national networks and services.
18. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing.
19. To attend and contribute to the regular professional meetings of the cancer psychology team, the Department of Clinical Health Psychology and other relevant meetings as required.
