Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist GSTT Infected Blood

Highly Specialist Practitioner Psychologist GSTT Infected Blood NHS AfC: Band 8a

Main area Psychologist Grade NHS AfC: Band 8a Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 26.25 hours per week (0.7 WTE) Job ref 196-LIS9323

Employer Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site St Thomas' Hospital Town London Salary £61,927 - £68,676 p.a. inc HCA pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 16/03/:59 Interview date 26/03/2025

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity to support the implementation and delivery of the new GSTT Infected Blood Psychological Service (IBPS), based within our well established Haemophilia Centre. This is one of several new services across England, commissioned by NHS England (funded for 4 years initially).

The GSTT IBPS comprises of 1.0 wte 8b Lead Practitioner Psychologist, 0.7 wte 8a Practitioner Psychologist and 0.8 wte Specialist Social Worker. The service provides multidisciplinary care for people and families infected/ affected by contaminated blood products by: a) conducting outreach and psychosocial assessments led by a social worker; and b) providing psychological therapies. It collaborates closely with the GSTT Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), while maintaining a distinct identity as an IBPS.

This predominantly clinical role will mostly involve working therapeutically with people who have been infected or affected by contaminated blood products, within a service design which has flexibility around length and frequency of sessions- in line with the needs of the individual. We encourage applicants who feel confident, excited and committed to working therapeutically over time with people who have experienced longstanding and ongoing traumatic experiences and injustice in the context of accessing healthcare.

We welcome applications from HCPC registered Clinical/Counselling/Health Psychologists with post-qualification experience relevant to this context.

Main duties of the job

• Support the implementation of the GSTT Infected Blood Psychological Service.
• Deputise for the Lead Psychologist as necessary.
• Provide highly specialist psychological assessment, referrals and treatment to the service users as part of an MDT.
• Independently report and manage individual caseload and to support the GSTT Haemophilia Centre MDT based on workload capacity.
• Support the collection and analysis of data and to utilise research skills for audit, research and service development purposes.
• Support outreach and engagement efforts with the service beneficiaries, including considering local peer support pathways.
• Support the Lead Psychologist in the supervision, management and overseeing of the contributions of other professionals (e.g. patient navigator/social worker, admin team) within their competencies as a psychologist and in conjunction with their professional leads and the Consultant Psychologist as required.
• Engage with the service's supervision, training and education activities and to contribute to development and provision of training and education programmes delivered to other healthcare professionals.
• Foster close collaborations with other regional providers of IBPS and with relevant third sector organisations.

Person specification Skills

• Well-developed skills in the ability to communicate effectively, orally and in writing, complex, highly technical and/or clinically sensitive information to clients, their families, carers and other professionals both within and outside the NHS.
• Leadership skills and ability to work effectively as a resource and role model for the inter- and multidisciplinary team, and contribute to effective team functioning with colleagues both within and outside the NHS.
• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.
• Experience and ability to undertake risk assessment of client in relation to self and others, and refer on to appropriate services as necessary.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of policy and guidelines relevant to the care of those infected and affected by contaminated blood products to inform psychological ways of working with both individuals and the wider system supporting them (professionals and significant others).
• High level knowledge of the theory and practice of at least two specialised psychological therapies and how to apply these in a flexible way, according to a person's main and presenting concerns and relevant to the care of those infected and affected by contaminated blood products.
• Highly specialist knowledge of the literature on psychological problems associated with physical health problems, grief and trauma.
• Knowledge of how power may be exercised in discriminatory ways within healthcare, and to show skill in addressing acts of discrimination at the level of the individual and organisation.
• Doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex, multivariate data analysis as practiced within the clinical fields of psychology.
• Received formal training in supervision of other psychologists.

Experience

• Experience of working as a qualified practitioner psychologist at the highly specialist level with clients presenting with a range of psychological needs of a complex nature in the context of physical health problems, grief and trauma.
• Experience of supporting families through distressing experiences over time.
• Experience of providing supervision and management to qualified, pre-qualified and trainee psychology staff.
• Experience of representing psychology within an MDT, showing respect for different approaches and a desire to work to collaboratively enhance team cohesion and support.
• Experience of developing and carrying out audit, research and service evaluation projects.
• Experience of leading an area of service development.
• Experience of the application of psychology in different cultural contexts.
• Experience in the psychological management of haematological disorders and with those infected or affected by infected blood products.
• Experience in the psychological support of traumatic experiences of healthcare and associated impact on relationship to services.
• Experience of working with stigma.

Qualifications/Education

• Doctoral level qualification or its equivalent in Clinical, Health or Counselling Psychology as accredited by BPS.
• Registered with HCPC as practitioner psychologist.
• Training and/or qualification in a specific area of psychological expertise beyond Doctorate.