Art Therapist Southall, England
Job description
We are looking for a highly motivated art therapist who is interested in developing effective, innovative, trauma-informed arts therapies approaches. This post will be located at lakeside Mental Health Unit, part of our Acute Mental Health service. Clinical work will be focussed on provision to the inpatient wards. Your work will have a positive impact on individuals at a highly distressing and vulnerable time in their lives.
The post holder will develop strong links with the ward teams. They will provide on-ward groups and also individual interventions. Within the constraints of this part time post they will also contribute to care planning and risk management, working collaboratively with service users and the ward team.
The arts therapies are an established part of provision in West London Mental Health Trust, working across the three boroughs of Ealing, Hounslow and Hammersmith and Fulham, managed by a Head of Arts Therapies. The postholder will be supported by links to the wider arts therapies and psychological therapies service and by links to local multi-disciplinary teams.
Tuesdays are a core team day so the postholder will be expected to work Tuesdays.
The postholder will offer interventions to service users on the psychiatric wards at lakeside mental health unit. Most interventions will be groups but there will also be scope for some individual work. In addition to direct clinical work you will support the wider team to work with service users e.g. through formulation.
You will need to be able to work independently to develop your part of the service in liaison with inpatient and community teams and to supervise trainees on placement. You will be line managed by the head of arts therapies and supported by a structure of meetings with arts therapies colleagues and clinical supervision.
All arts therapists are active in developing the evidence base for their work through the use of outcome measures, clinical audit and research.
West London NHS Trust is one of the most diverse providers of mental health, community and social care in the UK.
Our 3,982 staff care for people in hospital and in the community, helping them to recover and go on to lead full and productive lives. We aim to be the best organisation of our kind in the country.
We provide care and treatment for more than 800,000 people living in the London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow, delivering services in the community (at home, in GP surgeries and care homes), hospital, specialist clinics and forensic (secure) units.
We’re rated good overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Together, we’re committed to promoting hope and wellbeing, working with patients, service users, carers, families and partners across the communities we serve.
We are keen to ensure that our workforce reflects the community it serves, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, LGBTQ+ and experience of mental illness.
The postholder will work within acute mental health services for Hounslow, providing group and individual art therapy interventions to individuals in acute mental states. This will include supporting the service to deliver its commitment of a minimum of one weekly ward-based arts therapies group per ward.
They will keep appropriate clinical records in accordance with trust policy, completing discharge reports at end of therapy, summarising process, outcomes and any recommendations. They will work collaboratively with other members of the multi disciplinary team to support safety, autonomy and recovery for service users. They will also participate in evaluation, audit and research.
The postholder will provide clinical supervision for trainees on placement and for less experienced staff. They be available for consultation and will act as a source of information about the arts therapies and about the psychological therapies, informing other staff, service users and carers about the arts therapies, giving presentations to teams, devising written information and offering specialist advice to other staff on complex cases.
They will participate in clinical and managerial meetings and will assist in management and service development and in liaison with external agencies such as universities and the third sector.
