Job summary
- Main area
- HIV
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 150-KB1421-CC
- Employer
- Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Morley Street
- Town
- Brighton
- Salary
- £53,755 - £60,504 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 02/01/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Practitioner Psychologist HIV
Band 8a
Job overview
To work as a core member of both the Community HIV Specialist Service and ME/CFS Service
To carry a clinical caseload and to ensure the systematic provision of a high-quality specialist therapy to patients living with HIV and/or ME/CFS.
To offer specialist advice and consultation regarding patients’ psychological care to To provide consultation, training, and support to the MDT and to other professionals working with patients with HIV and/or ME/CFS, and to mainstream mental health teams
To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practiceutilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research
To propose and implement policy changes within the Community HIV Specialist Service and the ME/CFS Service.
To offer specialist interventions to patients who have drug and alcohol issues in addition to referring to local substance misuse providers such as Change Grown Live and Alcohol Anonymous/Cocaine/Crystal Meth Anonymous.
The post holder is expected to drive between patient visits using their own car and will be required to travel to other office/ hospital-based locations across the Trust for meetings, training and supervision. If no access to a car then the post holder needs to clarify how they are going to travel and/or reach patients who may live in rural isolation, such as telephone work or via Microsoft Teams online work or using public transport
Main duties of the job
a Assesses and treats own specialist caseload of patients and maintains associated records.
Provides, develops, and manages highly specialist interventions
Contributes to the support of the specialist HIV nurses and Allied Health Professionals within both services
Works in the community with individuals, families, and other teams and services involved
Co-ordinates provision of a specialist service and provides specialist advice and consultation to other professions
Working for our organisation
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex. Our 6,000 staff serve a population of 1.3 million providing essential medical, nursing, and therapeutic care to adults and children.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community, helping people plan, manage, adapt to changes in their health, supporting avoidable hospital admissions and reducing hospital stay times.
We have opportunities for everyone across our wide variety of services including medical, clinical, support and corporate services.
Why work for us?
- Positive 2023 NHS Staff Survey results, scoring highly in compassionate culture & leadership, and staff wellbeing support
- Variety of working environments across the community, in patients' homes, within our community hospitals and bases across the county
- Supportive flexible working patterns such as: part time, flexi time, annualised hours, and flexi retirement options
- Excellent training and development opportunities
- Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove and Brighton
- EMBRACE, Disability and Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+ and Religion Spirituality and Belief staff networks
- Level 3 accredited Disability Confident Leader, committed to creating inclusive workplaces
- Veteran Aware Trust, achieving accreditation from Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA)
- Located in stunning Sussex, with easy access to the South Downs and the coast
- Access to a wide range of benefits and discounts for NHS staff
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To provide specialist psychological assessments of patients referred to the ME/CFS Service and the Community HIV Specialist Service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations, and semi structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the patient’s care.
To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a patient’s diagnosis, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the patient’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.
To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.
To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment, and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by psychologically based interventions
To undertake risk assessment/risk management and safety planning for individual patients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk management and safety planning
To work in a flexible, creative and sensitive manner that maximises engagement with service users and encourages the development of a therapeutic relationship
Person specification
Other requirements
Essential criteria
- UK driving license and car driver with access to a car for work purposes. Otherwise, the ability to access often rural locations by own form of transport.
Qualifications and/or professional registration
Essential criteria
- A registered/accredited psychological professional
- HCPC registered Clinical or Counselling Practising Psychologist; BACP or UKCP accredited (or equivalent) Psychotherapist/Counsellor; and/or BABCP accredited CBT Practitioner
- Evidence of continuing professional development
- Clinical Supervision training or equivalent
Desirable criteria
- Specialist training relevant to Trauma, substance use and stigmatized groups including motivational interviewing & attachment-based interventions.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience of working as a qualified psychologist (or equivalent)
- Post qualification experience of working with a range of adult and/or CYP mental health problems including complex, severe and chronic psychological problems.
- Maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, verbal abuse and the threat of physical abuse.
- Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for clients’ psychological care and treatment, both as a professionally qualified Psychological professional and also within the context of a multidisciplinary care plan.
- Well established knowledge and skills in using a broad range of advanced assessments and tests relevant to neurological clients.
- Specialist knowledge and experience of interpretation and writing up a range of neuropsychological assessment tests.
- Experience of delivering teaching and training to other professionals and senior staff in other agencies.
- Experience of providing clinical supervision to trainee clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists and other members of the MDT.
- Experience of representing psychology within the context of multidisciplinary care
- Experience of working within a multicultural framework
- Research and audit experience leading to publication.
- Experience of working together with service users to ensure that they are equal partners in service design, and evaluation, research, and training
- Specialist understanding of the importance of professional boundaries and how to manage and maintain them
Desirable criteria
- Commitment to continuing professional development
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment, intervention and management frequently requiring sustained and intense concentration.
- Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, highly technical, and clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS
- Knowledge of the theory and practice of highly specialised psychological therapies and assessment methodologies relevant to psychology and neuropsychology.
- Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non- professional groups
- knowledge of research design and methodology, including complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of psychology
- Evidence of continuing professional development as recommended by the BPS/HCPC/BABCP.
- Knowledge of legislation and national policies relevant to adults with progressive and acquired neurological conditions.
- Project management.
- Adhering to the principles of confidentiality and the Data Protection Act.
- Ability to take a systemic view of service needs and resources
- Excellent organisational skills
- Negotiation and influencing skills
- Ability to lead and implement successful change and management
- Ability to synthesise complex information and to present options and recommendations in a manner that is clear and acceptable to clients and col- leagues.
- Ability to work under pressure and to achieve deadlines.
- Ability to identify, provide and promote appropriate means of support to carers and staff exposed to highly distressing situations and severely challenging behaviours
- Ability to identify, and employ, as appropriate, clinical governance mechanisms for the support and maintenance of clinical practice in the face of regular exposure to highly emotive material and challenging behaviour.
- Ability to develop and use complex multi-media materials for presentations in public, professional and academic settings.
- Excellent IT Skills.
Desirable criteria
- Understanding of the biopsychosocial models of work
- The belief that people with physical and mental illness have the capacity for personal growth and learning and the same goals as any other person.
- The belief that service users have the intrinsic right to be involved in all aspects of their care, including the development and evaluation of the service.
- Commitment to empowering service users and carers at all levels.
- Commitment to and enthusiasm for multidisciplinary team working.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Rachel Saunders
- Job title
- Interim Operational Head of Service
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01273 265962
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