Assistant Psychologist (with Dietetic responsibilities) Cambridge, East of England, England
Job description
We are currently looking to recruit enthusiastic and motivated Assistant Psychologist to join our Psychological Medicine Service for Children, Young People and their Families, based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge and employed by CPFT. This is a large team comprised of Clinical Psychologists, Counsellor Practitioners, a Family Therapist and a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. This unique post will also be jointly under the paediatric dietetics team at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
Based at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, the post holder will provide a specialist support to people accessing a new Paediatric service called ‘CEW’, Complications related to Excess Weight.
The post holder will deliver psychological and dietetic aspects of care within the paediatric multi-disciplinary service. They will be supervised and working closely with a Clinical Psychologist and Dietitian providing support to patients and their families. They will work closely with a well-established team of Consultants, Nurses and Dieticians and the wider multi-disciplinary team to support and develop psychological understanding of patients’ presenting difficulties. The role will entail individual and group interviews, research and audit.
The post holder will have excellent communication, clinical and team work skills and will have demonstrated ability to work effectively in teams in an acute care setting.
The ideal candidate will have a strong team work ethic and sense of accountability, accompanied by ability to work under considerable pressure at times. They will need to be prepared to work in a responsive way to the demands of a number of teams. The post holder will be very well supported and the post offers a diverse range of CPD and supervision opportunities.
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.
Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.
To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.
Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities
The role of the assistant psychologist with additional dietetic responsibilities is:
- To support and enhance the professional psychological care of clients referred to the CEW service.
- To support with psychological assessment and intervention 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 team’s policies and procedures.
- To support with the development and facilitation of group interventions for children, young people and their families.
- To develop appropriate resources for use within clinical work with children, young people and families under the care of paediatric medical teams within Addenbrooke’s
- To work alongside the Paediatric dietetic team and in conjunction with the advanced paediatric dietitian assist in the provision of specialist dietetic services to the CEW Service.
- To work within a multi professional framework and contribute to a first class dietetic service through evidence based clinical practice, management, education, research and audit.
- To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, and development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
1. To undertake protocol based psychological assessments of clients applying psychological tests, including self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care, under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
2. To assist in the formulation and delivery of care plans involving the psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s problems, under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist, in both community and hospital settings.
3. To assist in the coordination and running of therapeutic groups.
4. To assist in the development of a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings where care takes place.
5. To support with nutritional and anthropometric assessments and interventions under the supervision of an Advanced Paediatric Dietitian, working independently according to a plan agreed with the dietitian and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures.
6. To use frameworks, protocols, guidance and support from the advanced paediatric dietitian to ensure effective implementation of dietetic treatment programmes for patients.
7. To support the advanced dietitian with the monitoring and management of individual nutritional therapy programmes including modifications to programmes where indicated, using an agreed framework
8. To carry out accurate nutritional assessments, taking diet histories and assessing food record charts both manually and using a computer software package such as Dietplan 6.
9. To be proficient in performing accurate anthropometric measurements where required.
10. To work with the Advanced Paediatric dietitian to develop and deliver a 4-6 month dietetic led education programme for children and young people with CEW. Programme to include topics such as energy balance, portion sizes, food labelling, triggers, behaviour change, routine and activity.
11. To collate and report audit data.
12. To attend and contribute to appropriate multi-disciplinary meetings.
13. To have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, and be able to communicate effectively within the MDT and external agencies
Research & Service Evaluation
1. To assist in the design and implementation of audit and research projects.
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 clinical psychologists and Advanced Dietitian in evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members
