Assistant Psychologist

• To support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients.
• To provide psychological assessment and psychological interventions under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, work independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team's policies and procedures.
• To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, and development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
• In common with all clinical psychologists, to receive regular clinical supervision in accordance with professional practice guidelines.
• To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS over and above that provided within the principal service area where the post holder is employed.
• To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties.

• To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological theory, including neuro-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 clients care.
• To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a clients problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, in both community and in-patient/residential settings.
• To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups or clinical projects.
• To work with other staff to assess or support service users in residential and day service settings and contribute to multidisciplinary discussions or care guidelines as agreed with the clinical psychologist providing supervision.
• To assist in the development of a psychological based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings where care takes place.
• To create graphs or charts to collate or summarise data on individual interventions or treatment programmes.
• To assist in producing visual or material or user-friendly information for interventions with clients.

• To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects.
• To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.

• Liaises with other psychology members of the team and other disciplines and agencies responsible for clients care.

• To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects with the service as required.
• To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.

• To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological care.
• All roles will involve additional responsibilities to meet the wider need of the psychological therapies team (e.g. carer involvement, Trauma Informed Care initiatives).

• We're Kind
• We're Fair
• We Listen
• We Care

Essential

• A lower second class (2.2) honours degree or higher in psychology. Entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society.

Essential

• Work with people with mental health problems and/or learning disabilities and/or offenders.

Desirable

• Experience of paid work in direct care provision, particularly in the care group of the specialty of this post.

Essential

• High levels of communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be emotive.
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses psychological resistance.
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems/offending behaviour or learning disabilities.
• An ability to apply existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context.
• An understanding of psychology applied to health care.
• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines.
• An interest in working within forensic settings with individuals with mental health problems.

Desirable

• Mental Effort - Frequent concentration required when assessing clients, writing up reports and when undertaking client sessions
• Emotional Effort - Contributes to therapy service working with emotionally demanding clients.

Essential

• An ability to accept and use supervision appropriately and effectively.
• Able to travel throughout the catchment area, without unnecessary delay.

Desirable

• A desire to explore a career in Professional Psychology
• Driving licence & car owner