Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Highly Specialist Psychologist/Psychological Therapist/Psychotherapist/Family and Systemic Therapist to join our unique Family Interventions and Support Service (FISS) in Croydon.

We are looking for a motivated clinician who is passionate about supporting the  families/carers/networks of adults with psychosis and complex mental health difficulties  to join us working in Adult Secondary Care.

The successful applicant  will have good engagement skills, think creatively, work flexibly and have a range of skills in working collaboratively alongside others. The post holder will be a part of providing therapeutic interventions to the families/carers/networks of individuals living with psychosis and supporting the collaboration and presence of family interventions and needs within the wider community teams.  The post will also include the supervision and development of more junior clinicians and provide opportunities to further develop in family approaches for psychosis (e.g. FIp, Open Dialogue).

Main duties of the job

Clinically, you will be: offering a range of family interventions to families/carers/networks and service users living with psychosis; supporting the professional and personal network around service users; supervising junior staff; teaching and offering consultation and support to MDT colleagues. FISS aims to promote the needs of families/carers in Croydon and the community teams, therefore this role also has a strong service development component, including: research and evaluation; developing and refining the existing service;  liaison and joint work with colleagues across the directorate and Trust.

Key duties include:  

• Working with service users with psychosis under the Croydon CMHTs and/or their families/carers/networks.
• Offering family interventions:
  • Assessing and developing specialist formulations and interventions tailored to family/carer needs
  • Co-facilitating family interventions with colleagues
  • Collaboration and communication with service users's professional and personal networks  
• Consultation and liaison with teams and agencies across Croydon
• Supporting, developing and evaluating FISS
• Supporting and directing the work of junior staff in the team (currently  B6 DClin Trainee)
• Provision of staff support within area, including but not limited to Critical Incident Staff Support and Reflect-Support-Resolve (Reflective Practice)

Working for our organisation

The Family Intervention and Support Service (FISS) is based at Jeanette Wallace House in central Croydon, close to local amenities and public transport.  In addition to this post, the team is comprised of a Higher Assistant Psychologist, Trainee Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Therapist/Lead.

This small team was established in 2010 and provides specialist input to service users residing within the borough of Croydon who have received a primary diagnosis of psychosis/bi-polar disorder and have relatives / social network who would benefit from a family approach. The service works closely with all secondary care teams in the psychosis care pathway, offering evidence-based family interventions (Family Interventions for Psychosis, Behavioural Family Therapy), Systemic Family Therapy (with a clinic/reflecting team), individual carer support, carer and sibling groups, Open Dialogue informed network meetings, consultation, supervision and teaching. Psychologist colleagues and care coordinators in the surrounding Community Mental Health Teams work in partnership with FISS to provide additional family intervention resource. 

FISS is part of the broader psychosis pathway services in Croydon (e.g. EIS and individual psychosis service) which provides many opportunities for collaboration, training and learning. Likewise, there are active Psychology and Psychotherapy networks and discipline specific groups within SLaM which are also available to the candidate.