Applied Psychologist in Behcets

Job summary

We have an exciting opportunity for a Practitioner (Clinical, Counselling or Health) Psychologist to join our Clinical Health Psychology Service. This is a part time (0.6WTE or 22.5 hours), 8a role, in a specialist service for Behets Disease. The post holder will be based at City Hospital in Birmingham, with the MDT, in the Behets Centre of Excellence. The Birmingham Centre of Excellence is one of three Specialist Centres in England, supporting patients with this rare condition. The wider MDT place a high value on having a Psychologist as part of their team and as the post is well established, the team are always keen to ensure that the care they deliver is grounded in the principals of good psychological care. The team are research active and so there are opportunities to engage in research, as well as teaching, training, consultation and supervision.

Main duties of the job

The post is also part of the wider Clinical Health Psychology team, within Black Country Healthcare NHS Trust. The aim of our service is to decrease psychological distress, support engagement in treatment and rehab, improve quality of life and enhance wellbeing in those who have a physical health condition, supporting people to live well, alongside their condition. The service offers psychological assessment, formulation and intervention to patients from a variety of medical specialities. The service also offers teaching, training and consultancy to staff from these multi-disciplinary teams to enable them to manage psychological issues with their patients and incorporate psychological principles into their own practice.

We use stepped or matched care models based on clinical guidance, with physical health psychology offering direct work with the most complex patients and supporting the team to work with lower-level distress via teaching and training, supervision and consultation.

There is good professional support and supervision in place, from a Principal Clinical Psychologist and also from the wider Clinical Health Psychology Team.

The Clinical Health Psychology team comprises a large group of Clinical, Counselling and Health Psychologists working across Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton with a wide range of physical health conditions. There are good opportunities for peer support and development.

About us

BCHFT employs a very large number of Psychological Professionals across, Adult Mental Health, Older Adults, Learning Disabilities and Children's Services. So, there is an excellent structure of professional support and opportunities for development. The Trust has recently invested in a fully funded CPD package for Psychological Professionals that would be available to the successful applicant.

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose

• Accountable for own professional practice in the delivery of highly specialist psychological care to clients with highly complex mental health or learning disabilities which may include challenging behaviours.

• To be compassionate in meeting the needs of clients, their carers and families.

• To promote at all times a positive image of people with mental health or learning disabilities.

• To promote at all times a positive image of the service and the wider Trust.

• In line with the banding of the post and its service context to:

Exercise supervisory/professional responsibility for other psychological therapists

Provide leadership in multi-disciplinary training and development

Provide leadership in service audit and development

provide leadership in service evaluation and research

Ensure that a psychological perspective is brought to service redesign and cultural change