We are seeking applicants for a Band 8A highly specialist psychological therapy post across specialist community and inpatient services in Lambeth. Applicants should have significant and demonstrable expertise in relevant specialisms of complex trauma, behavioural and neurodevelopmental, and skills in working with people with psychosis and bipolar. The postholder will work as part of inpatient and community multidisciplinary teams, providing specialist assessment, multidisciplinary formulation, and intervention appropriate to the setting, for service users with complex and severe mental health presentations. The role includes providing support for staff wellbeing, and working to maintain a safe and therapeutic working context.
The post will be immediately supervised, line managed and professionally managed by senior clinical psychology colleagues in the service, working alongside the Team Leaders and service leads. Lambeth Directorate services are part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, which has a diverse specialist workforce and strong academic links, with opportunities for specialist supervision, service development and evaluation and service-oriented research.
To provide a psychological therapy service, as part of a multidisciplinary community team, to service users, and where appropriate, their families and caregivers, including assessment and intervention, multidisciplinary formulation, treatment and placement support and planning, implementation and monitoring of outcomes according to relevant guidance and the evidence base.
- To be proactive in engaging individuals and their carers, who might express some ambivalence about engaging in psychological therapy.
- To support staff wellbeing and contribute to enabling other staff, service users and carers from diverse backgrounds to flourish by working to create a psychologically safe environment.
- To provide consultation as appropriate across services, functioning as a specialist in complex and severe mental health presentations.
- To work flexibly across settings.
- To work as an autonomous professional within BPS and HCPC guidelines and codes of conduct, or equivalent and guided by principles and policies or procedures of the service, taking responsibility for interpreting policies within defined parameters.
- To agree outcomes/results with clinical/professional lead and to decide how they are best achieved.
The second largest inner London Borough with an official population of around 350,000. The local population has needs related to a high level of social deprivation such as unemployment, poor social housing and child poverty. There are also pockets of greater affluence. There are high levels of morbidity, and levels and complexity of mental health problems are above the national average
Lambeth CCG and Lambeth Council want people of Lambeth to have a fully integrated and coordinated mental health system which focuses on people’s strengths and supports their whole health and wellbeing. They have commissioned SLAM NHS as part of the Lambeth Living Well Network (LWN) Alliance to lead, co-ordinate and, in large part, deliver support and services for those experiencing mental health issues in Lambeth.
The Trust: The South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust is part of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and committed to innovation, effective interventions and improved service user outcomes. It provides mental health services to the people of Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon, and some more specialist services to people from across the UK.
Our services operate to an innovative alliance model of healthcare governance and delivery. Posts will be based in Lambeth services in Brixton, Streatham, and Camberwell. Service users are working age adults. The postholder will have experience of working with people with complex and severe mental illness in secondary mental health care, acute inpatient and/or community settings, of team working, and of delivering psychological therapies as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, including cognitive behavioural approaches.
- To provide psychological therapy assessments, formulations and interventions for clients, in the context of complex and severe mental health presentations with specialism and demonstrated expertise in serious mental health problems, including psychosis and bipolar.
- To provide culturally appropriate psychological interventions with carers and families of referred clients when required.
- To assess and monitor risk and draw up appropriate risk management plans.
- To contribute to the effective working of the team or service and to a psychologically informed framework for the service.
- To contribute to the team or service’s delivery of accessible and acceptable services to diverse local communities.
- To be proactive in challenging discrimination and support the development of culturally competent services.
- To advise other members of the service on specialist psychological care of clients.
- To liaise with referrers, GPs and other professionals concerned with clients in order to develop and review care plans.
- To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.
