Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist - Complex Needs Team
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 overview
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Tower Hamlets are developing. We want the very best services for our children and young people. That’s why we are looking for someone like you!
The provision of Child & Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing services in Tower Hamlets takes place within fast changing landscape and the successful candidate will have experience and flexibility in delivering different approaches to assessment, treatment and professional interfaces.
This post is based with 9 sessions in our Complex Needs Team, which includes our early intervention psychosis pathway (EIS) and a clinical pathway for children and young people with other severe and enduring mental health difficulties (e.g. severe emotion dysregulation, complex developmental trauma etc.), requiring moderate to longer term interventions.As these children and young people often struggle accessing services, the role requires a flexible working arrangement within working hours, including assertive outreach and enhanced, evidence based and outcome focused care packages jointly with other agencies.
Main duties of the job
You will also contribute to further developing of the complex needs team. We have strong links with Inpatient Services (through the NCEL CAMHS Provider Collaborative) and tri-borough crisis services as well as to the Tower Hamlets Adult Early Intervention and Early Detection Service and all other core teams in TH CAMHS.
It will be of particular value if you join the service with knowledge, clinical expertise and experience of working with children and young people with early signs of or florid psychosis as well as other complex mental health presentations such as severe emotion dysregulation and/or complex developmental trauma.
We are looking for: good communicators with energy, motivation and enthusiasm; the ability to work with individuals and families with complex difficulties in a potentially high-stress environment and to work effectively with multi-disciplinary and multi-agency contexts; flexibility of approach; commitment to evidence-based practice; and the pursuit of the highest possible quality of service.
Working for our organisation
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.
Our service is based in a modern open-plan office in the vibrant borough of Whitechapel and has adopted a hybrid clinical working model of direct face to face and remote working as appropriate. It embraces continual improvement and wellbeing of the staff as well as the management team, has a high degree of enthusiasm for quality improvement and works together with partner agencies to provide the highest quality service to the population we serve.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for details.
For more information please contact: Dr Hanspeter Dorner, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and CNT Clinical Team Lead ([email protected]) or Dr Ruksana Ahmed, Psychological Therapy Lead in TH CAMHS ([email protected]).
Person specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential criteria- Postgraduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996)
- Registration with HPC
- Evidence of relevant CAMHS training
- Qualifications/ training in specialist skills, e.g. CBT or CBT-P post graduate diploma, DBT etc.
Experience
Essential criteria- Experience of working as a qualified Clinical Psychologist (either with children and young people or within an early intervention service) for a minimum of two years
- Experience of assessing and delivering evidence-based treatments to children and young people who present with complex mental health needs in different community settings
- Experience of assessing and managing risk in CYP with complex needs
- Experience, skills and flexibility to contribute to and facilitate effective working within a multi-disciplinary team setting as well as working independently
- Knowledge and experience of working with safeguarding issues and serious mental health problems
- Experience of working with evidence-based approaches for psychosis, complex trauma, emotional dysregulation, self-harm and suicidality
- Experience of supervising others (particularly in CBT)
- Enthusiasm and experience of using routine outcome measures
- Project management or service development
- Experience of group work
- Experience/knowledge of working in a multi-ethnic community and of working with interpreters
- Supervision training
- Experience of quality improvement and innovative projects
- Experience of assertive outreach
Knowledge
Essential criteria- Knowledge of current guidelines and recent developments in evidence based assessments and interventions for children and young people with mental health problems/disorders
- Knowledge of current guidelines and recent evidence-based assessment and interventions for first episode psychosis, bipolar disorder and EUPD
- Sufficient knowledge of other modalities to engage appropriately with colleagues and their work with clients
- Evidence of continuing professional development as required by professional guidelines
- Knowledge of legislation and its implications for both clinical practice and professional management and mental health in relation to children, young people and their families
- Knowledge of current developments in CAMHS
- Knowledge, understanding and experience with diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and families with a high level of deprivation
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria- Evidence of well developed, clinical skills and knowledge in CAMHS
- Be familiar with case formulation and appropriate care planning
- Specialist clinical skills within in specific therapeutic modalities. In particular, cognitive behaviour therapy and DBT
- Skilled in emergency and crisis assessments
- Ability to multi-task, prioritise and work flexibly according to need
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Able to work effectively across organisational boundaries
- A high degree of self-awareness and an ability to reflect on personal and professional attitudes and accept feedback
- Basic computer skills
- Skills in supervising and facilitating the development of skills in others (e.g. through consultation or training)
Other
Essential criteria- Ability to deal sensitively with stressful situations including staff and /or organisational problems, child abuse, family breakdown, serious mental ill health, and to cope with verbal abuse and to recognise and diffuse potential physical abuse from clients
- Ability to work autonomously, setting appropriate goals, in accordance with professional ethics guidelines and Trust policies
- Understanding of equality of opportunity and related policies and procedures
- Ability to travel and endure prolonged periods of concentration for extended client therapy sessions
- Able to sit in constrained positions for a substantial period of working time
Making Things Better
Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.
We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.
Our Community
We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London.We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.
Aiming High
We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rate 'Outstanding' in 2021.. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.
Staff and Service Users United
We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services.We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.
We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.
Diversity
ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve.Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.
Other reasons to apply
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.
As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.
What Next?
If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!
As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS.We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..
If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made.Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.
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