Senior IAPT Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner Job Vacancy in South Tyneside, England, UK

Job description

Job responsibilities

Key Result Areas & Performance: Clinical:

• To provide screening assessments, case management and treatment (including for more complex cases) at Low Intensity/Step 2, following agreed protocols & under the supervision of a qualified Psychologist/High Intensity Clinician
• To take personal (unprompted) responsibility for achieving agreed clinical activity relating to the number of agreed contact hours per week
• To assist patients in the use of computer therapy programmes as part of their clinical care, and evaluating their use
• To assist specific psychological clinical work with adult patients for example going out with patients in exposure work and relaxation training, and going through self-help manuals with patients, under the supervision of a qualified Psychologist/High Intensity clinician as part of their clinical care
• To coordinate and run Step 2 therapeutic groups..
• To assist in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings where care takes place
• To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings.

Workforce

• To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans
• The majority of referrals to the Hounslow IAPT service come via GPs. Other referral sources are self-referrals or via other agencies.

Financial

• Contribute to the responsible management of equipment and resources required for the ongoing provision of a high standard of psychological service to the directorate.

Partnerships

• To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care. To assess and deliver highly complex, sensitive and contentious information in a hostile, antagonistic and emotional atmosphere, e.g. deciding whether clients are suitable for particular services, or explaining to families about the prognosis, or explaining that a service is not available for a client, or having to break confidentiality and refer them to Social Services because of concerns about harm to children.

Teaching, training, and supervision

• To receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines
• To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current dutie
• To contribute to the training and support of other qualified and non-qualified staff in psychological care, including providing PWP case management supervision cover as and when required (for e.g. cover for supervisory staff annual/sick leave
• To support other IAPT clinicians in the delivery of individual and group CBT

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

• To support the clinical lead/senior team in the operational running of Step 2 relevant aspects of the service
• To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects as required
• To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed
• To liaise with General Practitioners and GP Practice Managers outside of the Trust and attend GP practice meetings.

IT responsibilities

• To create or format databases or spreadsheets using computerised systems where appropriate, such as SPSS, Excel spreadsheets and other packages.
• To enter and retrieve data using the IAPTus system

Research and service evaluation

• Under the supervision of senior members of the team, assist in the design and implementation of audit and service evaluation projects
• To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist qualified members of the IAPT team

General

• To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holders professional and team/operational manager(s)
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures
• To undertake specific administrative duties as required
• To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required from time to time by the Clinical Lead
• To maintain and update psychological treatment and materials.

Confidentiality

• The post holder must ensure that personal information for patients, members of staff and all other individuals is accurate,up-to-date,kept secure and confidential at all times in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998,the Caldicott principles and the common law duty of confidentiality. The post holder must follow the record keeping guidelines established by theTrust to ensure compliancewith the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Data Protection Act

• All staff who contributes to patients care records are expected to be familiar with, and adhere to, the Trusts Standards of Records Keeping. Staff should be aware that patients care records throughout the Trust will be subject to regular audit
• All staff who have access to patients care records have a responsibility to ensure that these are maintained efficiently and that confidentiality is protected in line with the Trusts Code of Confidentiality
• All staff has an obligation to ensure that care records are maintained efficiently and that confidentiality is protected. Staff are also subject to this obligation both on an implied basis and also on the basis that, on accepting their job description, they agree to maintain both patient / client and staff confidentiality
• In addition, all health professionals are advised to compile records on the assumption that they are accessible to patients in line with the Data Protection Act.

Continuous Improvement

• The Trust has adopted a strategy for Continuous Improvement and all members of staff employed by the Trust are expected to play an active role in development and improving services to the benefit of service users
• All employees are required to participate in the annual Personal Development Review activities and any associated training and/or learning opportunities.

Systems and IT skills requirements

• All Trust staff needs to have the essential IT skills in order to use the Trust Clinical Information System as well as other required IT related applications in their jobs. Initial and on-going IT applications and IT skills training will be provided to underpin this requirement.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Training

Essential

• An upper second class honours degree or higher in Psychology.
• IAPT Low Intensity worker/Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner qualification

Desirable

• Training in CBT
• Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
• Further post graduate training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience in working with people with mental health problems and/or other disabilities
• Ability to demonstrate a range of post qualifying experiences (minimum of 1 year) in offering and delivering the range of evidence based IAPT low intensity interventions such as CCBT, Guided Self-help & workshops
• Consolidated & reflective supervised post qualifying experience within an IAPT Service

Desirable

• Experience of paid work as an Assistant Psychologist or Graduate Mental Health worker, with supervision from an applied Psychologist.
• Experience of paid direct care work.
• Experience in providing supervision to others within a therapy/helping profession setting
• Experience of working with clients who present with risk to self
• Experience of working with individuals whose children are subject to Child Protection legislation
• Experience of co-working with staff in other agencies (e.g. health visitors or staff in drug and alcohol services)
• Experience of audit and research

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Knowledge of different models of mental health/mental illness
• Knowledge of NHS Policies, procedures and guidelines
• Knowledge of working sensitively with diversity (including working with black minority ethnic groups)
• Evidence based practice/clinical governance
• Models of assessment (including clinical risk assessment) record keeping and evidence based brief psychological intervention
• An awareness of severe and enduring mental health presentations (including psychosis, bi-polar)
• Ability to work effectively with interpreters
• Ability to effectively manage the demands of working with more complex cases at Step 2
• Knowledge of outcome measures and their use in clinical and audit purposes
• High level of communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context
• Experience using computers for databases or data-analysis, especially Excel and SPSS for Windows.
• High standard of report writing

Desirable

• Ability to carry out a range of evaluation and monitoring techniques

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).