Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job summary

Psychologists are integral and valued key members of the Mental Health Care of Older People's multidisciplinary teams (MHCOP) in each borough across East London. Within and across the service, in line with National Guidance, the post holder will be responsible and accountable for the provision of high quality, person-centred and culturally sensitive psychological services to older adults presenting to the service, their families and carers.

Our goal is to alleviate psychological distress and promote psychological well-being, working alongside our multi-disciplinary team colleagues in the community and liaison into the centralised wards, where required through consultation, teaching and training.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will be an active member of Tower Hamlet's Mental Health Care of Older Adult's service including the centralised MHCOP inpatient wards and wider East London MHCOP Psychology and Arts Therapies professional group. They will work closely with psychologists and other professionals in the team, maintaining a standardised approach to the assessment and care of Service Users with complex needs across community and inpatient settings.

As part of this, they will contribute to the provision of a specialist psychological perspective for the work of the team, providing highly specialist psychological advice and consultation to other members of the team as well as consultation into the borough's residential and nursing homes.

They will be responsible and accountable for the systematic provision of a highly specialist psychology service for people with severe, complex and enduring mental health and dementia related difficulties and their families, presenting to the service and across community and inpatient settings.

They will develop working partnerships with other members of psychology services locally and across East London boroughs, relevant statutory and voluntary agencies, locality services and providers/commissioners as appropriate.

About us

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job responsibilities

Kindly refer to the job description and person specification that is attached to the vacancy profile.

Person Specification

Education/ Qualification/

Training · Essential

Postgraduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS (2) Registration with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC). Clinical supervision training for Doctoral trainees Relevant specialist older adult training or qualifications including two or more specialist therapies and neuropsychological assessment skills.

Experience · Essential

Significant experience of work as a qualified Clinical Psychologist in NHS setting- working in a mental healthcare setting with older adults who experience severe mental health problems, complex trauma and dementia including neuropsychology assessment and therapy Use of psychological models for consultation with staff teams, notably relating to behaviours that challenge Experience of providing a clinical service to multicultural populations and use of interpreters Substantial experience of risk assessment and risk management Experience of supervising others' clinical work Substantial experience of delivering teaching and training events

Knowledge and Skills · Essential

Evidence of highly specialist clinical skills and knowledge in older adult mental health, complex trauma and dementia High level ability to plan and conduct assessment and psychological interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, relevant for specialist MHCOP presentations Highly specialist skills in applying theory to work with individuals, couples, families, groups and organisations Skilled in dementia assessments and competence and confidence in selection and administration of cognitive assessment and neuropsychological test equipment Awareness of national policy and guidelines as related to dementia, older adult mental health Able to manage own time and caseload

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) . From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab) .

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).