Assistant Psychologist London, England
Job description
The newly developed adult Autism Assessment Service for Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon is looking for an Assistant Psychologist to be part of the team. The post holder will contribute to initial screening of referrals, diagnostic assessments, post-diagnostic support and audit and service evaluation, under the supervision of a qualified Clinical Psychologist.
About our team:
You will be joining a new and evolving team that already has highly skilled and experienced staff who can provided a safe and supportive place for you to develop and to support the service users we work with. This is an AHP lead service with a senior management team made up of skilled and experience OTs, SALT’s and Psychologist.
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
To support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients referred for autism assessment in Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon. The roles will include offering psychological assessment and psychologically informed post-diagnostic interventions under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the service policies and procedures. The postholder will assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
CNWL is a major provider of Community and Mental health services across the South East of England. It manages in many settings from hospitals (over 1,000 beds), clinics, prisons, people’s homes.
We employ approximately 7,500 staff who provides more than 300 different health and social care services across 150 sites and a number of other community settings.
Our Vision in action:
The trust vison is Wellbeing for life. We work in partnership with all who use our services to improve health and wellbeing, and this is not different within our ASD program as work to imbed peer support and co development as the cornerstone of the service we develop. We are implementing a scheme to ensure that we are offering work opportunities to those form our nondiverse communities. Together we look at ways of improving an individual’s quality of life, through high quality healthcare and personal support.
What we offer:
We offer a flexible working program and believe that we need to support you both at work and at home to deliver the best health care we can. We will support you to develop your skills, and invest in you, you will have an opportunity to access specialist training, supervision and mentorship that will help you progress in your career.
Clinical:
1. To complete triage screenings for people referred for autism assessment, under the supervision of the Lead Psychologist
2. To support psychological assessment of clients. This may include supporting trainee and qualified psychologists in administering neuropsychological, tests, completing self-report measures and rating scales, carrying out observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
3. To manage and complete some therapeutic work and interventions with clients referred to the service, who need psychological input following a diagnosis of autism
4. To use appropriate assessment tools for assessment and monitoring of input.
5. To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.
6. To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings and CPD programmes.
Teaching, training and supervision
1. In common with all clinical psychologists, to receive regular clinical supervision from a qualified psychologist in accordance with professional practice guidelines.
2. To gain wider experience of professional psychology within the NHS as agreed with the psychologist to whom they are accountable.
3. To develop skills and competencies that assist in the delivery of current duties
4. To contribute to the training and support of other staff in psychological principles as applied to the care of people with learning disabilities
Management, recruitment and service development
1. To assist in the design and implementation of service development projects within the service as required.
2. To attend meetings in which service developments are planned and discussed.
IT responsibilities (other than those used for research)
1. The post holder will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Manager/Head of Specialty when necessary.
2. The post holder will engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.
Research and service evaluation
1. To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects on a regular basis in order to help develop and improve service provision. This may include complex audits / service evaluation using qualitative or quantitative methods.
2. To undertake data collection, analysis, the production of reports and summaries, using IT and statistical programmes.
3. To undertake searches of evidence-based literature and research to assist qualified professional psychologists in evidence-based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
4. To familiarise themselves with, and to comply with the Trust’s requirements on research governance.
IT responsibilities
1. The post holder will input and maintain, appropriate computer and manual clinical records and statistical data and provide this to the Service Manager/Head of Speciality when necessary.
2. The postholder will engage in relevant computer and IT training as required.
3. To assist in the development, design and implementation of relevant IT projects.
4. To utilise computer software to develop or create documents,
General
1. 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 team/operational manager(s).
2. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Health Professions Council, British Psychological Society and Trust policies and procedures.
3. To prepare test materials and visual aids as required.
4. To undertake specific administrative duties as required.
5. To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required from time to time by their manager.
