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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

1. Job overview

a)       To lead our specialist psychology service to patients living with diabetes within the community diabetes service, Diabetes Care for You.  You will provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy at the same time as offering advice and consultation on clients’ psychological care to GP’s, secondary care diabetes and mental health services, non-psychologist colleagues and to other, non-professional carers.   Working autonomously within professional guidelines and the overall framework of the service’s policies and procedures, you will be accountable for the psychological service delivery including responsibility for the day-to-day management of the other psychotherapy team members.

You will assist with the holistic care of patients living with diabetes and the provision of clinical health psychology services to adults with diabetes within the Brighton, Hove, High Weald, Lewes and Havens (HWL&H) catchment area.  This will entail providing psychotherapy in a variety of community settings across East Sussex and virtually as appropriate. Service provision within this scope will involve liaison with more than one team and travelling to different sites in Brighton and the High Weald Lewes & Havens part of East Sussex.

You will be required to utilise research skills for audit, policy and service development and research within the area served by the service. You will also be involved in networking with other relevant services and offering training and consultation with regards to psychological aspects of diabetes care where appropriate.

You’ll be a member of the Trust’s Psychological Professionals Forum, which offers professional and peer support with other psychological practitioners working in a variety of health care settings.  We ensure there are additional opportunities to join peer supervision groups and attend CPD events.

2. Communication and working relationships

a)      Liaise with other team members and partners, including other psychological practitioners and mental health professionals, primary care, secondary care mental health services, physical healthcare providers, family members/ carers and other relevant agencies responsible for the client’s care.

b)   Provision of a psychotherapy service to patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes within our consultant-led, multi-disciplinary team (MDT). Working alongside other psychological practitioners and health care professionals (ie consultants, diabetes specialist nurses, dietitians, podiatrists, and support staff) within Diabetes Care For You (DCF) to provide time limited evidence based psychological assessments and therapy. Regularly liaising between team leads of the various disciplines and contributing to the wider service development as a member of the DCFY senior management and leadership team.  To advise both operational and clinical management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing and identify how changes can be managed and implemented.

c)   To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care. This will include assessment of risk both of own patients and of those within the psychotherapy team. Providing support and guidance alongside regular clinical professional supervision to members of the psychotherapy team.

d)   To deliver presentations and specialist training on issue specific to psychology and mental health as required to various audiences. Provision of psychological advice and clinical consultancy to other members of the MDT and senior professional colleagues as appropriate.

3. Main tasks

a)      To provide specialist psychological assessments of clients with diabetes referred to DCFY based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological and psychometric 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.

b)      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.

c)      Implement a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups within and across teams. Adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models.

d)      To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

e)      To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans.

f)       To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

g)      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 holder’s professional and service manager.

h)      To become a member of the trust Psychological Professions Forum, attend CPD events and to contribute to internal CPD/ peer learning events as appropriate.

4. Main responsibilities

a)    To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team’s operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

b)    To undertake project management, including complex audit and service evaluation, with colleagues to help develop service provision. Work alongside operational and professional management on quality improvement opportunities of the service. To provide regular audits reflecting the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the psychotherapy team within DCFY.

c)    To manage the workloads and clinical supervision of the psychological practitioners in the team such as assistant, graduate and trainee clinical psychologists, psychotherapists and psychological wellbeing practitioners (PWPs) within the framework of the Trust’s policies and procedures.

d)    To be responsible for the DCFY psychotherapy team, ensuring current appropriate accreditation, alerting operational team where there are concerns.  Day-to-day management responsibility for the team alongside involvement by operational / management team as required. To be involved in the recruitment of psychological positions within the team. To exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the team. To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

e)    To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychological therapies within the service and the Trust, by continuing to develop the skills of a reflexive and reflective practitioner in the context of the evidence based and NICE guidelines.  Take part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines.

f)      To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry (SystmOne) and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with the professional registration aligned to the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) or other governing bodies and Trust policies and procedures. To input and maintain appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Manager/ Clinical Lead when necessary.

g)    There is no financial responsibility with the post however the operational team will require guidance and recommendation for equipment and resources to be purchased that are relevant to the psychotherapy team.

h)    To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

5. Organisation chart