Band 5 Assistant Psychologist - Salisbury

Job description

Job overview

Beechlydene unit is a 21 bedded acute mental health unit for males and females.

Main duties are to assist qualified psychologists in the delivery of psychological services within the acute care pathway (acute inpatient units and intensive services), including psychological assessment and intervention under the supervision of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist, working independently within the limits agreed. The postholder will support the delivery of individual and group evidence-based psychological interventions, to service users within the acute care pathway. They will also support the Practitioner Psychologists in the facilitation of team formulations, for example reviewing and summarizing the clinical record in preparation for the team formulation session. The postholder will support the qualified Practitioner Psychologists in the evaluation of the service provided, and in undertaking relevant QI projects.

Right to Work in the UK: This position is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants must already hold the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application, as the organisation is unable to support sponsorship for this post.

Main duties of the job

To provide psychological assessments and psychological interventions (group and individual) under the direction of the team's Clinical Psychologist.

To collect and analyse data on these and other services as requested.

Under direction and guidance of your clinical supervisor to help develop psychological approaches, interventions, tools and resources to be used service users and their families and carers.

Under supervision, collate information to support audit and evaluation processes, and the use of psychometric assessments. As well as contributing to the service's annual reports.

The postholder will be required to hold a good BSc Psychology degree which conveys graduate basis for recognition. Experience of working with people with mental health difficulties in an inpatient setting is desirable as well as clinical experience working as an assistant psychologist or other applied psychology.

Working for our organisation

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description for full description of the jobs duties, including the AWP PRIDE values.

Person specification

Education and Qualification

Essential criteria

• An honors degree in Psychology (2:1 or 1st)
• Eligibility for graduate membership of the BPS

Desirable criteria

• Introductory training in a psychological therapy or talking therapy

Experience and Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Experience of working in a previous Assistant Psychologist post or equivalent health professional role.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in an acute or inpatient mental health setting
• Experience of developing and delivering training
• Audit or research experience.

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Excellent organisational and IT skills
• Excellent written and verbal presentation skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with other staff
• Ability to work and value diversity

Other requirement

Essential criteria

• Empathy for individuals who have experienced mental health problems and ability to cope with behaviour which may be challenging at times.

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with 'lived-experience' of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,- we are a 'Disability Confident Employer' offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

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