Assistant Psychologist in Primary Care - Chronic Pain Service Ammanford, Wales
Job description
This is a fixed term/secondment post until 31/03/2025. If you are a Hywel Dda University Health Board employee and are applying for this post as a secondment, agreement for the secondment is needed from your current manager prior to application.
The Amman Gwendraeth Primary Care Cluster is seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and innovative Assistant Psychologist to join our multi-disciplinary Chronic Pain Service.
We are looking for a psychology graduate who is highly motivated, with excellent communication and empathy skills who can work independently and integrate into the multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Service, as well as being proactive in establishing links with other Secondary and Primary Care services and local third sector organisations.
We have strong links with the South Wales Clinical Psychology Programme and encourage participation in local special interest groups. For more information on what Hywel Dda can offer as well as a wonderful place to live, please visit our website.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Chronic Pain Service aimed at working with people who would benefit from a bio-psychosocial approach to pain management. The successful candidate will contribute to and be a part of an evolving Chronic Pain Service and a wider Clinical Health Service within the trust and will support and work directly under the clinical supervision of a clinical psychologist to help enhance the psychological aspect of pain management within Primary Care. This will include carrying out assessments, facilitating group and individual interventions, and contributing to service evaluation.
A high level of service evaluation skills will be required to produce clinical reports, assist with development of systems, and evaluate the projects through the use of IT. The role involves working across various sites within the region therefore the ability to travel and adopting a flexible working week is essential. Applicants must have a recognised undergraduate degree in Psychology and have the Graduate Basis for Registration with the British Psychological Society. Experience of working with clinical populations and being able to speak Welsh would be beneficial.
Hywel Dda University Health Board is the planner and provider of NHS healthcare services for people in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and its bordering counties. Our 11,000 members of staff provide primary, community, in-hospital, mental health and learning disabilities services for around 384,000 people across a quarter of the landmass of Wales. We do this in partnership with our three local authorities and public, private and third sector colleagues, including our volunteers, through:
- Four main hospitals: Bronglais General in Aberystwyth, Glangwili General in Carmarthen, Prince Philip in Llanelli and Withybush General in Haverfordwest;
- Seven community hospitals: Amman Valley and Llandovery in Carmarthenshire; Tregaron, Aberaeron and Cardigan in Ceredigion; and Tenby and South Pembrokeshire Hospital Health and Social Care Resource Centre in Pembrokeshire;
- 48 general practices (four of which are managed practices), 47 dental practices (including three orthodontic), 99 community pharmacies, 44 general ophthalmic practices (43 providing Eye Health Examination Wales and 34 low vision services) and 17 domiciliary only providers and 11 health centres;
- Numerous locations providing mental health and learning disabilities services;
- Highly specialised and tertiary services commissioned by the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee, a joint committee representing seven health boards across Wales.
The Chronic Pain service has the patient at the heart of everything that it strives to deliver. We believe in enabling people to make informed choices about their health and care, encouraging them to live the best lives possible. We are a three county service, spanning the entire Health Board. Remote working has enabled us as a service to continue serving our population and maintain a standard of care throughout the pandemic.
Hywel Dda University Health Board is situated in West Wales, which offers breathtaking scenery from stunning vast mountains, beautiful green landscapes, lush secluded forests to vast expanse of stunning golden sandy beaches. It’s not just all wonderful surroundings with excellent links to the M4 you are never that far away from the cultural city centres of Swansea and Cardiff. Ferry links are on the doorstep enabling easy access to Ireland.
The Amman Gwendraeth Cluster is one of the seven Primary Care Clusters in Hywel Dda University Health Board and is located in Carmarthenshire, which is mainly an agricultural county, apart from the south eastern region which includes Llanelli and towns in the Amman and Gwendraeth Valleys, which are situated on the South Wales Coalfield. The Cluster comprises of 8 General Practices, of which 2 are Health Board Managed Practices. In addition to the 8 Practices, there are 4 branch surgeries. We are an innovative Cluster who are always looking at new and novel ways to improve patient care in their communities. We have commissioned several worthwhile projects in recent years and are delighted to be able to work alongside the established secondary care Chronic Pain Service to develop this new and exciting Chronic Pain team in our Cluster.
The Health Board is committed to supporting its staff to fully embrace the need for bilingualism thereby enhancing patient and service user experiences. In our commitment to increase the number of staff who are able to communicate in Welsh with patients and professionals, we welcome applications from Welsh speakers.
The ability to communicate in Welsh is desirable for this post. If you do not meet the Welsh Language requirements specified, the Health Board offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal desirable requirements during the course of your employment with us.
Interviews will be held on 28/06/2023.
