Clinical Psychologist / Counselling Psychologist

Job summary

The Clinical Health Psychology team are embedded at the interface of physical and mental health, and work in a truly bio-psycho-social way to alleviate the distress experienced by those with physical health conditions. The appreciation and valuing of psychology and psychological therapies by the renal team has been demonstrated by their willingness to fund an additional psychology post to work alongside our established senior psychologist who will supervise and support this role. We are now looking for a practitioner psychologist or psychological therapist to work with people who are living with kidney disease. The work is a varied and interesting mix of direct client work and indirect work providing via support and training to the medical staff who work in this area. Psychology staff also work to create a trauma-informed environment within the renal team and can help advocate for patients. There are elements to this role, such as working towards completing donor and recipient transplant assessments and some end of life treatment decision making, which may not be so prevalent in other roles, which offers the opportunity to develop specialist competencies. There is some flexibility in working hours and modalities within service constraints.

We welcome applications from both psychologists and other therapists e.g. psychotherapists, family therapists, and from current doctoral trainees who are due to complete their qualifications this academic year.

Main duties of the job

All clinical health psychology staff belong in two teams; the hospital team that they link with and the psychology team they sit in. We are part of DPTs wider strategy of Integrated Psychological Medicine, and have strong links with Talking Health and Liaison Psychiatry. As a service we have been able to offer a wide range of training, clinical and development opportunities. We support our staff to develop their careers and have been very successful in recent years in supporting staff to train in specific therapy models.

About us

About Devon Partnership Trust

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.

We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.

Date posted

16 April 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£46,148 to £52,809 a year Pro Rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Flexible working

Reference number

C9369-25-0322

Job locations

1 Church Lane

Heavitree

Exeter

EX2 5DY

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

The principle purpose of the job is to improve the psychological health & wellbeing of people who attend Renal Services at the Royal Devon University Hospital (RDUH).

This will be achieved in this post by:

1. Supporting the systematic provision of a high quality psychological service in specialist fields of practice, across identified locality area, as a key component of integrated mental/physical health and wellbeing services across Devon Partnership NHS Trust and the Acute Trust.

2. To carry out specialist psychological assessments with donors and recipients with regard to kidney transplants.

3. Carrying a specialist caseload of clients for assessment and intervention, and providing advice and consultancy to patients, family members, carers and professionals.

4. The post holder will be supported by the Principal Clinical Psychologist within the Renal service and the wider Clinical Health and Neuropsychology Service. The post holder will be expected to make good use of the expertise of others within the service to further develop their clinical skills with this client group

5. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and support the systematic governance of psychological practice within the health teams and services they will work with.

6. The post holder will receive regular professional and clinical supervision in accordance to Trust policy and to Professional Practice Guidelines set out by the British Psychological Society or appropriate designated Professional Body

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

Clients, family and carers: To communicate in a highly skilled and sensitive manner with clients who may have specific difficulties in understand and/or communicating and who may be hostile, antagonistic or highly emotionally disturbed.

Multidisciplinary team colleagues: To work closely with colleagues from both Devon Partnership Trust and the Acute Trust in the multi-professional integrated mental health/physical health and wellbeing service on a day to day basis

Health & social care staff: To communicate with a wide range of health & social care staff in hospital and in community settings in a highly skilled and sensitive manner, complex and sensitive information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under the services care. To provide support & guidance in the application of psychological principles and techniques, and to foster reflective practice.

Senior managers & professional staff: To maintain and build good working relationships with senior professional staff and managers across the Trust and the Acute Trust, to foster a positive approach to the integrated mental health and wellbeing service and to enable effective negotiation.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

To provide specialist clinical/counselling psychology expertise and advice.

To provide psychological therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups. Proficiency in in both individual and group therapy approaches is desirable.

To support the Professional Head, General Manager, Practice and Strategic Development Leads and Professional Leads by undertaking service development and redesign projects and coordinating the resulting work within the team.

To provide complex assessment of specialist conditions

Planning and Organisational Skills

The psychology service: To plan and organise own work within the service setting and to contribute to the development and improvement of provision of psychological services within the commissioned integrated mental health and wellbeing service to best meet the organisations strategy and priorities.

The multidisciplinary service: To provide psychology/therapy supervision to the multi-professional planning, development and marketing of mental health and wellbeing services

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

Assessment & intervention: To provide expert psychological therapies, developing specialist psychological formulations and assessments of clients, formulating plans for their psychological treatment and implementing specialist psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, and to demonstrate awareness of diversity issues.

Consultation & guidance: To provide advice, guidance and consultation on psychological aspects of patient care to colleagues, other service providers, patients, supporters and families

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation

The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.

Policy & service: To support policies and procedures for the provision of psychology and therapy services within own service and other services within the Trust.

R & D: To support the R&D activities of the clinical health psychology and neuropsychology service.

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

To be responsible for the safe keeping of equipment under own use.

Responsibility for Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management

Leadership & supervision: To professionally supervise less experienced psychology/therapy staff, trainees and volunteers.

To provide placement responsibilities for trainee staff.

To contribute to the provision of therapy supervision for non-psychology/therapy staff providing psychological therapies within other Trust teams.

To support placements for trainee staff in line with professional guidelines

Responsibility for Information Resources and Administrative Duties

To maintain accurate records, compliant with Trust Practice Standards.

To be responsible for using an email account to generate, monitor, and respond to the e-mail traffic by which the Trust conducts much of its internal communication.

Responsibility for Research and Development

To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work within the individual work within the CHNP service and local integrated psychological medicine services.

To conduct project work including specific areas of audit, research or service evaluation

As a clinician to be responsible for collecting clinical practice and outcome data that contributes to building practice based evidence and service evaluation.