Assistant Psychologist | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and dynamic assistant psychologist for the Lambeth and Southwark Care Home Intervention Team, based at Greenvale Unit, 1st Floor Offices, 5 Streatham Common South, SW16 3BT

We also seek to continually improve our service and the lives of residents by using QI methodology in partnership with care homes.

This is an exciting team to join with great opportunity in contributing to developing and shaping our service for the future. We are dedicated to supporting professional development and we will welcome contributions towards team development.

We especially want to hear from applicants who value creativity, innovative thinking, originality and are looking for a role that fits with these values.

We are a multi-disciplinary team who work with people aged 65 and above living in residential or nursing care homes in Lambeth and Southwark. We specialise in understanding the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), and behavours that challenge care staff in the context of a person’s mental health needs.

We also seek to continually improve our service and the lives of residents by using QI methodology in partnership with care homes. We are dedicated to supporting professional development, and we welcome contributions towards team development.

1. Clinical:

1. To provide an assistive and supportive clinical role for the multidisciplinary team (MDT) in assessing, formulating, intervening and monitoring outcome for people who have a diagnosis of dementia or other cognitive impairment and whose behaviour is challenging to manage for care staff.
2. To provide an assistive and supportive clinical role for the MDT in assessing, formulating, intervening and monitoring outcomes for people with mental health needs in care home settings.
3. To administer specialist psychological assessments using interview techniques, psychometric tests, behavioural observation and functional analysis under the direction and supervision of Clinical Psychologists.
4. To liaise about clinical information with care homes, care home staff, and relatives of service users as required and in line with trust confidentiality guidance.
5. To work with care home staff and residents and the MDT to develop specialist clinical formulations and care plans to reduce behaviours that challenge and improve the experience of service users living in, and staff working in, care homes
6. To provide, and assist in the development of, psychological reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate, service users.
7. To travel to care homes as appropriate and across the Trust as required.
8. To communicate skilfully and sensitively highly complex and sensitive information with service users, relatives and care staff, taking account of sensory and cultural barriers to communication.
9. To assess and monitor risk, follow trust policies relating to its management. where appropriate, and communicate risks to other team members/supervisor, and aid senior clinicians in forming risk management plans.
10. To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations e.g., involving severe challenging behaviour and to support others involved in such situations.

1. Teaching, training, and supervision:

1. To assist in providing specialist training to other professions, staff and agencies as appropriate.
2. To receive regular clinical supervision from a Clinical Psychologist according to BPS and Trust guidelines.

1. Research and service evaluation:

1. To contribute to the development of services through assisting and supporting the clinical psychologists in undertaking service evaluation and audit.
2. To assist and support the team in the application of research to improve client care.

1. General Responsibilities:

1. With support from Clinical Psychologists, establish and maintain relevant up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies – appropriate for the role of Assistant Psychologist.
2. To provide clinical assessment, interventions and liaison under the supervision of the Clinical Psychologist in line with the British Psychological Society (BPS) code of conduct.
3. Participate in regular clinical supervision, in line with BPS supervision guidelines, from a Clinical Psychologist.
4. To operate within the BPS code of conduct.

1. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, in line with professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
2. To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up the local population.
3. To undertake various other tasks related and relevant to role of Assistant Psychologist in discussion with Clinical Psychologists.

This advert closes on Monday 4 Nov 2024