Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist/Psychotherapist in Cancer

Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist/Psychotherapist in Cancer Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust The post will provide a psychologically informed approach and service as part of the Psycho-oncology Support Team (POST) within Dimbleby Cancer Care, for cancer and palliative care patients and significant involved others at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals. The post will be based at Guy's hospital site (with possibility of some working on St Thomas' site), and is suitable for someone starting out in their career, or is keen to specialise in cancer and palliative care. You will provide highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on clients' psychological care to medical teams, and work autonomously within professional practice guidelines and the overall framework of the psychological support team's policies and procedures. You will see outpatients, and significantly connected others.

Main duties of the job In addition to an individual caseload, you will have an opportunity to contribute to the delivery and evaluation of a psychological skills training programme to oncology staff across Guys and St Thomas hospitals. You will also work closely with a senior practitioner on development of our patient involvement pathway; which will proactively seek meaningful involvement of the people and communities that we serve, value peoples' lived experience, and promote equality and diversity in access to our services.

Our clinical services draw upon multiple therapeutic approaches including a number of psychotherapy models, CBT, systemic, and third wave approaches. You will provide supervision to our AHP and medical colleagues. Forming creative, compassionate and collaborative relationships within POST, Dimbleby and our wider cancer service colleagues is key.

Job responsibilities Clinical:

1. To provide specialist psychological/therapeutic assessment and therapeutic intervention with people with a cancer or palliative diagnosis, their family members and others involved in the clients care. To refer on where appropriate for an alternative therapy approach.
2. To collaboratively use psychological/therapy resource and knowledge to inform a timely response to adjustment and distress within a cancer and palliative care context.
3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological/therapeutic interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams.
4. To evaluate and make decisions regarding options for a person/couple/family following a therapeutic assessment.
5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, ongoing therapy and discharge of clients, liaising with other professionals when and if necessary.
6. To provide specialist advice guidance and consultation to other professionals regarding psychological approaches to managing a persons care.
7. 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.
8. To employ knowledge of safeguarding, undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and families, and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.
9. To communicate in a respectful, considered and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients and to monitor progress within a multi-disciplinary context.

Teaching, training, and supervision:

1. To receive regular clinical professional supervision in line with professional regulatory body.
2. To gain any additional highly specialist experience and skills relevant to the post and/or the service (as agreed with the professional psychology manager).
3. To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to provide supervision to placement trainees according to your level of post qualification.
4. To provide professional and clinical supervision of junior colleagues where appropriate.
5. To contribute to the various patient support programmes across the cancer directorate.
6. To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management and service development:

1. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the teams operational policies and services.

General:

1. To contribute to the development and maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes, in consultation with the post holders professional and service managers.
2. To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in psychological practice across the service, by continuing to develop competencies, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the post holders therapy field and related disciplines.
3. To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self governance in accordance with professional codes of practice.
4. To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.

Person Specification Training and Qualifications

• Doctoral level training in clinical psychology (or its equivalent) OR Counselling Psychologist
• Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Practitioner Psychologist OR UKCP registered Psychotherapist or equivalent
• Specialist training in cancer and/or palliative care e.g. specialist placement.

Experience

• Substantial experience of working at a highly specialist level with people showing a range of psychosocial needs.
• Experience of highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy intervention across a range of care contexts, including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient settings.
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, across the whole life course and with concerns that reflect the full range of clinical severity.
• Experience of maintaining a high degree of professionalism and compassion when being with difficult emotion and associated behaviours which may appear unusual or threatening.
• Experience of exercising full clinical responsibility for a client's psychological therapeutic care, working alongside and sharing your perspective with medical professionals when indicated and needed.
• Experience of managing a complex and busy caseload and being responsive to urgent requests for support/help from colleagues.
• Experience of representing psychological therapy within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience of and willingness to explore the personal professional intersect both in a one:one and group context, and to reflect on the impact of the self on work and work on the self.
• Experience of meaningfully engaging people who find it difficult to access psychology services.
• Experience of facilitating group based psychological therapy and/or education.
• Experience of working in cancer and palliative care/or physical health care setting.
• Experience of providing therapy via phone or video.
• Experience of working with people with appearance related concerns.
• Experience of providing teaching, training, consultation and/or supervision to other professionals within a physical or mental health context.
• Experience of patient engagement work and co-production of services.

Knowledge and Skills

• Skills in the use of complex methods of psychological assessment to inform therapeutic focus.
• Knowledge of how power and privilege may be exercised in discriminatory ways within healthcare and psychology, and to show skill in addressing acts of discrimination at the level of the individual and organisation.
• Ability to communicate complex and/or technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professional colleagues both within and outside the NHS in a non-jargonistic and accessible manner.
• Skill to be adaptive and flexible in your psychological approach.
• Willingness to talk about and be with death and dying using psychologically informed approaches both clinically, and in supervision/training of others, as well as your own supervision and training.
• Knowledge of the theory and practice of specialised psychological therapies in relation to those who show chronic and complex inter-personal ways of relating that may make it difficult for them to engage with medical teams/receive medical treatment/care.
• Interest in learning and developing specialist knowledge about the psychosocial, relational and economic issues associated with physical and mental health concerns.
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies.
• Knowledge of policy and guidelines within cancer and palliative care which inform psychological ways of working with both individuals living with cancer/palliative condition and the wider system supporting them (professionals and significant others).

Other

• Ability to teach and train others, using a variety of multi-media materials suitable for presentations within public . click apply for full job details