Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities:

Clinical Responsibility:

·     To provide specialist perinatal psychological assessments of clients referred to the team, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, 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.

·     To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client’s complex mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client’s problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.

·     To assess and formulate any difficulties within the mother-infant relationship, including understanding the impact of this on maternal mental health and confidence, and liaise with the MDT in order to plan how to meet these needs

·     To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions including CBT for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.

·     To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account both theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group. This evidence-based approach includes monitoring outcomes, modifying and adapting interventions drawn from a range of theoretical models

·     To exercise autonomous professional responsibility within HCPC guidelines for the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans

·     To provide perinatal-specific specialist psychological liaison and consultation to other professionals contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan, facilitating the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the teams to the client

·     To contribute directly and indirectly to a psychologically based framework of understanding and care to the benefit of all clients of the service, across all settings and agencies serving the client group

·     To be familiar with safeguarding policies and be able to share concerns with the team

·     To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients, including perinatal-specific considerations of risk, and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management

·     To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping and report writing, according to professional and Trust guidelines, including electronic data entry and recording

Supervision, teaching and training:

·     To receive regular clinical and professional supervision from local senior professional colleagues.

 ·     To provide regular and high-quality professional and clinical supervision of junior psychology colleagues, trainee and assistant clinical psychologists, as well as the supervision of psychological work and ideas implemented by other MDT colleagues

·     To contribute to the development of perinatal-specific knowledge and skills base within the team and wider Trust by maintaining an active awareness of current developments in perinatal psychology and national policy developments and by implementing knowledge gained

·     To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision, including in-house perinatal specific training within the CPT and other local teams

·     To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical psychologists, as appropriate

·     To provide perinatal-specific training to staff working with the perinatal population across a range of agencies and settings, including maternity settings

Leadership and Staff Management Responsibility

• To participate as appropriate in staff recruitment, both in the short-listing process and as a member of interview panels for assistant, trainees and qualified clinical/counselling psychologists.

Financial Responsibility

• To ensure that resources are appropriately and efficiently utilised within the service.

• To check equipment and report equipment failures to line management as appropriate.

• To work within HPFT financial policies, procedures, and budgets.

Service Development and Improvement

·     To contribute to perinatal-specific service development projects within the CPT, wider Trust and other relevant agencies as required. This can involve contributing to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the service operational policies or other organizational issues, by initiating and using one’s professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit.

·     To identify any aspects of the service which need to be improved and to advise both service and professional management on appropriate changes.

·     To contribute to the consultation and engagement of service users in planning and developing services

·     To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and to provide advice and supervision to other staff towards the same

·     To contribute to the development of services through proposing, initiating, undertaking and supervising service evaluation and audit. This includes the development of outcome measurement, assessment/implementation and assisting other staff in the implementation of same

·     To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff

·     To disseminate research and service evaluation findings through presentations and published articles

Communications

§  To promote and maintain good working relationships with psychology- and multi-disciplinary colleagues within and across teams throughout the Trust and agencies within the wider county setting

§  To promote and maintain good working relationships with clients, their families, carers and other external agencies

·     To communicate effectively and skilfully highly complex and sensitive information with clients and carers, taking into account sensitive cultural barriers to communication, concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care and to monitor progress during the course of both uni- and multi-disciplinary care

·     To communicate effectively and skilfully with other professionals within and across teams and the Trust, statutory and non statutory agencies/partners relevant to the client’s care and management (including for the purposes of safeguarding and liaison)