Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Job Overview

The post-holder will work as a member of the multidisciplinary team within the Brent & Harrow Perinatal Mental Health Service, providing specialist psychological assessment and evidence-based interventions for women experiencing a range of mental health, social and emotional difficulties during the perinatal period. Interventions will be adapted to the needs of women and their infants and will include individual and group-based work within the community.

Job Overview

The post-holder will work as a member of the multidisciplinary team within the Brent & Harrow Perinatal Mental Health Service, providing specialist psychological assessment and evidence-based interventions for women experiencing a range of mental health, social and emotional difficulties during the perinatal period. Interventions will be adapted to the needs of women and their infants and will include individual and group-based work within the community.

The post-holder will contribute psychological perspectives to assessment, formulation, care planning and risk management, and provide specialist advice and consultation to MDT colleagues and the wider professional network. They will also provide appropriate support and signposting to families and carers.

Working autonomously within professional guidelines and service policies, the post-holder will participate in team meetings, case discussions and reflective practice, and contribute to the development of effective, recovery-oriented models of care.

The post-holder will work closely with relevant local services, including maternity, Talking Therapies, mental health and children’s social care services, to support coordinated and seamless care pathways.

They will contribute to service development, audit and research relevant to perinatal mental health, and provide shared clinical supervision to trainee and Band 7 psychologists and other professionals.

Main duties of the job

To provide highly specialist psychological assessments of women referred

to the PMHS and meeting criteria for specialist perinatal psychological interventions. The specialist assessment will be based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources, including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, the assessments will also include a formal evaluation of the parent infant relationship within the family/social network.

To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

To be responsible for developing and delivering evidence-based treatment protocol for severe and complex psychological disorders occurring in the perinatal period (e.g. severe maternal OCD, depression, anxiety, medically unexplained symptoms) and, when appropriate, for parent‑infant relationship disturbances (e.g. Video Interactive Guidance). Adjusting and refining psychological formulations, drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

Working for our organisation

Our vision

Wellbeing for life: We work in partnership with all who use our services to improve health and wellbeing. Together we look at ways of improving an individual’s quality of life, through high quality healthcare and personal support.

Our values

Compassion: Our staff will be led by compassion and embody the values of care outlined in our Staff Charter.

Respect: We will respect and value the diversity of our patients, service users and staff, to create a respectful and inclusive environment, which recognises the uniqueness of each individual.

Empowerment: We will involve, inform and empower our patients, service users, carers and their families to take an active role in the management of their illness and adopt recovery principles.We will ensure our staff receive appropriate direction and support, to enable them to develop and grow.

Partnership: We will work closely with our many partners to ensure that our combined efforts are focused on achieving the best possible outcomes for the people we serve.

Person specification

Training & Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Good Honours degree in Psychology (2.1 or above) giving eligibility for Graduate membership of BPS.
• Post-graduate doctorate in Clinical or Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996 or those in lateral transfer) as accredited by the BPS and giving eligibility for membership of the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC).
• The post holder must be registered with HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist
• The post holder must be eligible for chartered status with the BPS.
• In addition to routine CPD and supervision, has demonstrated a clear commitment to developing a specialist area of expertise through significant training, personal study, experience, and/or research, as evidenced by CPD log, appraised during IPR/PDR process.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with adults with complex mental health problems.
• Experience of working with perinatal presentations.
• Experience of working with families impacted by mental health
• Experience of working with trauma, loss and grief
• Trained in EMDR/ trauma focused CBT.

Knowledge & Skills

Essential criteria

• Very high level of interpersonal and communication skills enabling written and oral presentation and receipt of complex and sensitive information, to facilitate acceptance, and relate effectively in an emotive and hostile environment.
• Assessment and therapeutic skills related to complex and severe Mental Health Problems.
• Ability to provide consultation to other non-psychology colleagues, and teaching and training skills.
• Skills developed through formal training in supervision of other psychologists.
• Demonstrate further specialist training/experience through having received substantial supervision whilst working as a clinical psychologist. (This would equate to 50 hours of clinical supervision over a minimum of 18 months.)
• Ability to make judgements in complex clinical situations through assessment, analysis and interpretation of information and deciding on appropriate action from a range of options.
• Ability to plan and organise tasks, activities, or programmes and adapt these to changing needs and circumstances.

Desirable criteria

• Ability to prioritise complex work demands

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