[Hiring] Assistant Psychologist @Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Role Description

An assistant psychologist for the Primary Mental Health Treatment Requirement Team provides low-intensity (usually CBT-informed) interventions for service users who have been court ordered to take up mental health treatment as part of their community sentence. We work with low mood, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, sleep problems, and other symptoms of psychological distress.

Our work is all about being adaptable, responsive, and caring in working with a population that is often overlooked. We are passionate about being inclusive and are constantly looking for ways to improve our diversity and our accessibility, both in how we increase our referrals from under-served populations and in how we offer our interventions in different ways to accommodate different needs.

• You will assist with presentations to different teams to help them to understand our work, why they would refer a service user to us, and how to complete a referral.
• You will manage the admin of referrals, including passing them on for screening to the Clinical Lead, completing screening assessments, liaising with various court-related personnel and probation staff, and tracking the data associated with the referrals.
• You will assess if service users are likely to benefit from our service and support them in completing risk assessments.
• You will complete 12-week programmes of one-to-one interventions based on the specific needs and goals of each service user.
• You will support and facilitate our Emotional Coping Skills Group.
• You will audit our data and prepare for service evaluations.

Qualifications

• Experience in delivering low-intensity psycho-educational interventions.
• Knowledge of CBT and willingness to develop skills in ACT, CFT, and DBT-based interventions.
• Ability to work with a diverse population and adapt interventions accordingly.

Requirements

• Ability to manage a personal caseload of approximately 15 service users.
• Flexibility to conduct sessions in-person, by video, or by telephone.
• Willingness to participate in the development of a DBT-informed skills group for Emotional Coping Skills.
• Capability to make presentations about the service to colleagues in Probation and Liaison and Diversion services.

Benefits

• Supportive work environment focused on professional development.
• Opportunity to work with a dedicated team committed to making a difference.
• Access to peer support and additional skills work.

Company Description

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

• Our family of over 4,500 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health, and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk.
• We deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.
• The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families, and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence, and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout.

Our Trust values are: Welcoming, Kind, Positive, Respectful, Professional.