The eating disorders inpatient unit is looking for an enthusiastic systemic therapist with appropriate experience to work at a senior level for two days per week. You will be joining an evidence generating service and a diverse and passionate team committed to supporting people with eating disorders. The role involves providing a highly specialist systemic psychotherapy service to patients, their friends and families, disseminating information about available support for friends and family, delivering remote specialist skills workshops and monthly support group.
Job Purpose:
To provide a highly specialist systemic psychotherapy service to the eating disorders inpatient service including specialist assessment, treatment, planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes.
To provide clinical supervision and consultation as appropriate . To contribute to service evaluation, audit and research.
To work as an autonomous professional within AFT and UKCP / HCPC guidelines and guided by relevant principles and policies or procedures, taking full responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters .
As part of the Psychological Medicine and Older Adults Directorate, the Eating Disorders Service is within the South London Partnership and provides inpatient treatment for local and national patients. The Gerald Russell Unit is an 18-bed, all-gender inpatient service based in the newly built Douglas Bennett House at the Maudsley Hospital. Patients may be admitted voluntarily or detained under the Mental Health Act.
The service supports individuals with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, ARFID, and OSFOED. Evidence-based treatment programmes are tailored to the needs of service users and their carers, with the service receiving a high volume of referrals each year.
We have developed innovative pathways to support people at different stages of illness and with varying comorbidities. These include FREED (early intervention), PEACE Plus (for neurodivergent patients), STRIDE ( trauma), a diabetes pathway for people with type 1 diabetes, a carers pathway supporting families and carers, and additional specialist support for people with personality disorders.
Our specialist tertiary service provides intensive treatment in inpatient, day patient, and outpatient settings, including for individuals with complex comorbidities. Interventions may include individual, group and family therapy, dietetic input, and comprehensive risk management for needs that cannot be safely or effectively managed within primary or secondary care services.
Key Responsibilities:
KR 1 Clinical and Client Care
To provide highly specialist assessment and clinical formulation to individuals, couples, families and social networks where the identified client has complex mental health needs, including comorbidities alongside an eating disorder such as neurodiversity, personality diso rders , trauma and diabetes . As many of the friends and families we work with live at a distance from the ward, you will need to be flexible and creative utilising virtual sessions to engage friends and families in this work.
To utilise specialist pathways such as our PEACE pathway for neurodiversity, diabetes pathway for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus and eating disorders, personality disorders pathway and the carers pathway which provides support across our inpatient, outpatient and day services .
To select and administer specialist assessments as appropriate . This would include creating genograms and/or eco-maps, analysis and assessment of multiple levels of contextual meaning, deconstruction of current interactional patterns of behaviour and meaning around mental health issues and complex relationships .
To organise and co-facilitate specialist eating disorder specific carer skills workshops and support groups for friends and families in person (where appropriate) and virtually .
To meet with families during the admission process and orientate them to carer support on the ward .
To provide reports, including relevant formulation, opinion and interventions, in order to inform referrers and, where appropriate , service users and their families.
To select and deliver evidence-based specialist therapeutic interventions, drawing from a broad spectrum of systemic models, monitoring outcome and modifying and adapting interventions as necessary, based on the highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, couple, family or group.
To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
To provide psychological support to clients who are emotionally distressed. Either due to the serious consequences of their illness or due to other traumatic events in their lives.
To communicate skilfully and sensitively complex and sensitive information with clients, carers, staff, referrers and community services taking account of communication needs.
To ensure that all services provided are acceptable and accessible to the diverse communities which make up the eating disorder population and a t all times to work in ways that are sensitive to and appropriate for the needs of families from a wide range of racial, cultural and religious backgrounds, and to be aware and sensitive to the different contexts that different families may be acting out of .
KR 2 Contributing to team or service clinical functioning
To contribute to the effective working of the eating disorder service and MDT, and to a psychologically and systemically informed framework for the service area.
To provide consultations to other clinical staff on the use of family therapy and systemic psychotherapy techniques and, where appropriate , to jointly work with other team members in the provision of therapeutic interventions
To represent family and systemic therapy work in weekly ward rounds and CPAs.
To take a proactive stance in challenging racism and discrimination and support the development of a culturally competent service.
To contribute towards the provision of advice and consultancy to local teams/services for clients . In this respect, to advise on the development and integration within the team of systemically based assessment and intervention techniques that might at a systems level be incorporated within the team’s operational policy, and be applied on a routine basis by other team members
To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans and to arrange and lead network meetings as appropriate .
To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in clinical work and work with other team members.
To participate in helping develop services to family and carers of service users
KR 3 Policy and service development
To implement policies and procedures in own area of work.
To identify aspects of the service that could be improved and initiate and implement service development projects.
To participate in clinical governance initiatives as agreed by the Directorate clinical governance committee.
To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users and their families in planning and delivering services.
KR 4 Care or management of resources
To take care of, and use carefully, the Trust’s equipment and physical resources.
To ensure that the post-holder has sufficient resources by estimating future needs and requesting or ordering supplies as needed.
KR 5 Man agement and supervision
To contribute to the appraisal of more junior family therapists, family workers , systemic practitioners and assistant psychologists .
To participate in the recruitment of more junior family therapists, family workers or systemic practitioners, and assistant psychologists as appropriate
To provide professional and clinical supervision to junior family therapists, family workers or systemic practitioners , honoraries and trainee family and systemic psychotherapists for all aspects of their work
To provide supervision for the systemic and family work of other multi-disciplinary staff as appropriate .
KR 6 Teaching and Training
To contribute to the development of the knowledge and skills base within the eating disorders inpatient service by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in the field of systemic practice and eating disorders a nd by implementing knowledge gained in practice
To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles.
To provide training in family/social network inclusive practice to multi-disciplinary teams
To deliver in-service training workshops and seminars on systemic topics for practitioners (e.g. nurses, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, paediatric staff etc.), and to contribute to multidisciplinary training events which may be organised by other staff within the Trust.
KR 7 Record-keeping and Information Governance
To ensure that all information generated by own work is recorded as required by Trust policies and local procedures.
To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry.
KR 8 Research and development
To initiate , undertake and supervise regular complex service evaluation and audits
To initiate and carry out appropriate research and provide research advice and supervision to other staff undertaking research within the service.
To provide expertise in a specialist research area which will contribute to eating disorders se rvice s .
To initiate and implement the development of outcome measurement and assessment and assist other staff in the implementation of same
Initiate and participate in evaluating systemic approaches within particular areas of the service.
To utilise and contribute to current research in the service such as the PEACE Plus pathway for neurodiversity.
KR 9 Maintaining professional standards and continuing professional development
To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from a more senior family and systemic psychotherapist according to UKCP and Trust guidelines.
To ensure own Continuing Professional Development in line with AFT and Trust Personal Development Plan requirements and the UKCP ‘ Continual Professional Development ’ guidelines
To maintain an up-to-date knowledge of current developments in professional and clinical practice and of relevant legislation and policies.
To comply with UKCP ‘Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct’ and ensure professional development in line with these.
To adhere to the UKCP ‘Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct’ and Trust policies and procedures
KR10 General
To travel to other eating disorder services, community mental health teams, other professional sites as appropriate and across the Trust when required .
To be aware of risk relating to aggressive and challenging behaviour amongst the client group, and follow trust policies relating to its management.
To respond appropriately and professionally to emotionally distressing situations such as admission under MHA; receiving nutrition via NG tube, high levels of emotional distress and physiological risk ; self-harm and challenging behaviour s , and to support others involved in such situations.
To work flexibly which may include offering some regular commitment to offering sessions outside working hours to enable working friends or family to access , support within the overall Job Plan.
