Lead Clinical Psychologist, Outlook Appearance Concerns

Practitioner Psychologist in Outlook,
A vacancy has arisen to join a team of psychologists at Southmead Hospital working in the Outlook service for appearance concerns, part of larger grouping of psychologists in the ASCR division of North Bristol NHS Trust. The work involves 1:1 interventions, support and liaison with multidisciplinary teams at the hospital and elsewhere. It includes group work, training and supervision of colleagues, service evaluation and
development. There are strong links with the centre for appearance research at the University West of England and with post-graduate training of practitioner psychologists, particularly the doctoral training course for clinical psychologists at University of Bath. There is potential for additional sessions covering two days of maternity leave from January and in other psychology teams based at Southmead Hospital. Both part time and job share applications are welcome., This post is part of a team providing high quality, compassionate psychological care for patients with appearance concerns from across adult age-range which may have arisen from a variety of possible causes/origins, often brought into focus through their contact with other specialists and perhaps undergoing complex surgical procedures, or coming to terms with life-altering health issues. The post holder will be expected to provide intervention expertise for issues such as trauma, inter-personal and social phenomena related to appearance, depressive and adjustment reactions, other longer term self-care matters; the training and supervision of professional colleagues. and advising multidisciplinary teams and the care planning process., 1. To undertake specialist psychological assessments and interventions with individuals and their families referred to Outlook.
2. To co-ordinate with other members of Outlook, referrers and MDTs regarding delivery of care through MDT care planning meetings, observing all relevant service standards in the provision of interventions, linking with refers and others. This will involve liaison, supervision and consultancy to other health professionals, working with in-patients and out-patients.
3. Provide specialist supervision to trainee Clinical Psychologists on placement from regional doctoral training courses, coordinating the provision of placements with the organisation of psychologists across NBT under the Trust Advisor for Psychology.
4. Take responsibility for ensuring the quality and safety of psychological input in all aspect of work. This may include partnership working, for example with patient volunteers, where the post holder is expected to understand and maintain agreed terms of co-working and an appropriate balance of responsibilities.
Professional:
Participate in the professional organisation of practitioner psychologists within North Bristol NHS Trust including the support of the regional training of Clinical Psychologists with clinical placement supervision, research supervision, and clinical teaching coordinated through the Psychology Advisor for NBT.
Working for your organisation
All staff should communicate effectively in their day to day practice with patients and should support and enable patients/carers to make choices, changes and influence the way their treatment or care is provided. All staff, managers and Board members should work to promote effective patient, carer and public involvement in all elements of their work., 4. To work collaboratively, knowing when to engage other disciplines e.g. working jointly or referring on (e.g. for evaluation of psychotropic medication or regarding the management of risk).
5. To administer and interpret formal standardised psychological assessment procedures.
6. To effectively communicate the findings of psychological assessment and the rationale for interventions, potentially in an atmosphere of conflict involving clients, their relatives, and healthcare professionals. This includes caution and vigilance regarding the way that expert psychological opinion or evaluation findings may be misinterpreted or misrepresented by others.
7. To provide individual and group-based therapeutic interventions using evidence-based approaches, providing appropriate indicators of outcomes.
9. To manage competing work demands in a rational way by organising and prioritising a patient workload with other pressures including supervision, training, governance, and professional commitments, in circumstances where these vary unpredictably, and often exceed the available time and resources. This includes an open and cooperative approach with service leads for managing fluctuating demands on the overall service.
10. Competency for using IT equipment for the purposes of communication, record keeping and governance and other matters such as test administration and clinical research.
11. To provide teaching/training on psychological matters within the MDTs and elsewhere as may be relevant to service provision.

1. Fully qualified as a practitioner psychologist with a doctorate degree and associated professional status in clinical psychology (or its equivalent) recognised by the Health and Care Professions Council (HPCC) and the British Psychological Society (BPS) Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP).
2. Registered with the HCPC as a Practitioner Psychologist.
3. Knowledge of and experience of psychological interventions in traumatic physical injury and broadly in the specialty of clinical health psychology.
4. At least the equivalent of one year full time relevant post-qualification experience including senior role experience in an MDT in acute care. This incudes inter-professional liaison and an experience with the demands of integrating psychological care with other facets of emergency/acute hospital care and coordinated team work.
5. Extended knowledge and experience of the application of psychological models of health and illness for the purposes of assessment and treatment. This is acquired through post-doctoral professional development.
6. Knowledge and experience of establishing, developing, and closing therapeutic relationships with individuals, relatives and groups.
7. Knowledge of the evidence base for psychological assessment, interpretation, rationale for intervention, and outcome evaluation strategies, as applied to the field of clinical health psychology, reflecting up-to-date knowledge of clinical guidance and relevant clinical research literature.
8. Experience of communicating sensitive and complex information, both verbal and written, where such information is difficult to convey, (e.g. explaining the complexities and relevance of complex family dynamics or differing reactions to distressing events in care planning).
10. Knowledge and experience of undertaking regular clinical supervision, recognising the need for this and observing the appropriate professional practices involved. The arrangement of the frequency and records of clinical supervision to be agreed with the professional line manager.
11. Post-doctoral knowledge/ experience of psychometrics as applied to the clinical context, including the screening and evaluation of cognitive impairment.
Skills Required:
1. This role involves exposure to severe injury, pain and psychological distress and sometimes high levels of complex psychological disturbance. This requires personal psychological resilience for working with the severe psychological distress of patients and relatives. This is the main characteristic of the role and a main reason for people being referred to the service. It encompasses a wide range including depressive withdrawal, post-trauma psychological effects, suicide threat, and intense anxiety/panic. It requires the ability to make appropriate use of clinical supervision. The post holder is therefore required to have a high level of self-awareness and emotional composure, to be able to maintain a high degree of professionalism in what are often rapidly evolving situations in clinical care.
2. To be able to draw together multiple sources of assessment information, identifying critical components, in reaching an interpretation and rationale on which interventions can be planned and carried out. This requires that the post holder will at times formulate a rationale for intervention where no evidence base has been developed.
3. To convey sensitive and complicated information to colleagues, clients and relatives, where barriers exist, such as the non-acceptance of personally devastating information to a client. This is also a main characteristic of clients and the reason for referral to this service, i.e. where an individual is in severe difficulty facing a need for major behavioural/ emotional adjustment. This requires the highest level of interpersonal and communication skills. Experience to include working through interpreters to undertake interventions with individuals whose first language is not English.

If you apply for this vacancy and have not received a communication from North Bristol NHS Trust within three weeks of the closing date, please assume that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.
Please note that North Bristol NHS Trust does not reimburse travel expenses relating to interview attendance.
If you feel you meet the requirements of the Disability Act / Two Ticks scheme and require further support/advice, please contact us on tel .
North Bristol NHS Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
The successful applicant(s) will normally commence at the minimum of the scale unless they have previous NHS service at the same band. Progression through the scale is by annual increments.
At North Bristol Trust (NBT), we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT's workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.
Please note that stringent pre-employment checks are undertaken on all successful applicants prior to commencement in post.