Psychology Assistant - Inpatient, Older Adults Edinburgh, Scotland
Job description
NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.
Psychology Assistant Band 4
2.0wte – Lothian Older People’s Psychology Service (LOPPS)
Edinburgh OPMH Inpatient Psychology Team
The Lothian Older People's Psychology Service (LOPPS) provides a highly specialist clinical psychology service across the NHS Lothian area to adults predominantly aged 65 and over and includes those of any age with a diagnosis of dementia.
We are seeking to recruit to 2.0wte Band 4 Psychology Assistant hours on a fixed term (24 months) basis as part of a new Edinburgh OPMH Inpatient Psychology Team.
The Edinburgh OPMH Inpatient Psychology Team will cover 6 specified mental health and dementia wards, currently based across 3 sites in Edinburgh. The team includes a full time Band 8b Senior Clinical Psychologist/Team Co-ordinator, 2.5wte Band 8a Clinical Psychologists in addition to the current Psychology Assistant posts. The team will also host clinical placements on the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme.
The current psychology assistant posts will support 4 inpatient older people’s mental health wards at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital site. Eden and Harlaw wards provide acute mental health assessment and care for a range of mental health conditions; Canaan and Fairmile are dementia assessment wards. Each ward will have 0.5wte psychology assistant and they will work with both the Clinical Psychologist allocated to each ward and the wider multidisciplinary team. Although each ward has their named and allocated members of the psychology team, it would be expected that team members cover any immediate needs on a ward where a team member is not present, for example, due to annual leave.
These are newly developed roles in our inpatient wards although LOPPS have a strong track record of supporting psychology assistant roles in the service. The post holder will have significant day-to-day contact and supervised input with both the patients on each ward and the MDT team and will support the Clinical Psychologist and MDT with assessments, behavioural observations and individual and group based psychological and psychosocial interventions for people presenting with acute, severe and/or chronic mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and psychosis or those with dementia to support recovery, distress reduction and timely and successful discharge from hospital. This could also include contact and work with carers and family members The psychology assistant will also support the qualified team with audit, evaluation and quality improvement projects, in addition to staff training.
The post holder’s main base will be at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, although they will be required to travel to other clinical bases across NHS Lothian, as required, for example to support training events. LOPPS monthly meetings are on the first Tuesday of the month, therefore with the sessional hours on offer, being able to work on a Tuesday is required.
You must have an Honours Degree in Psychology eligible for BPS. Please be aware that, due to anticipated high level of applications, the post may close before the advertised date and therefore early applications are encouraged.
There are two full time (1.0wte) posts available with each full time post expected to cover 2 wards. There is scope however to offer posts at 0.5wte.
Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for additional detail. However, should you wish to discuss the post in more detail, please contact either, Dr. Donna Gilroy, Consultant Clinical Psychologist/Professional Lead for Older People’s Psychology or Dr Danielle Wilson, Clinical Psychologist for REH dementia inpatient wards on 0131 537 6901.
This post requires the post holder to have a PVG Scheme membership/ record. If the post holder is not a current PVG member for the required regulatory group (i.e. child and/or adult) then an application will need to be made to Disclosure Scotland and deemed satisfactory before they can begin in post.
**Please note we anticipate a high level of interest in this position and may close the vacancy early once a sufficient amount of applications are received. Therefore, please make sure you complete and submit your application at an early stage**
***Please note: As a part-time post the salary will be pro-rata.***
