Job Description

Are you a Practitioner Psychologist, currently working in CAMHS or Acute Adult Services, and looking for a challenge in leading on the development of a new CAMHS service?



We are seeking to recruit an experienced and creative Psychological Practitioner to provide clinical intervention, leadership, supervision and training to the Psychological Professions to the CAMHS Acute Care Service. You will be involved in an exciting new development of the enhanced crisis / home treatment 7 day a week service, as an alternative to inpatient admission for Children and Young People experiencing acute mental health difficulties.



You will be part of developing the service to give children and young people living in Sussex a more appropriate and integrated range of services to meet their clinical needs. As the Practitioner Psychologist, you be an integral part of the multidisciplinary team ensuring that young people and their families receive timely, targeted assessment and effective Psychological interventions as part of an overall crisis / home treatment care plan.



The aim of the Sussex CAMHS 'hospital at home' is to provide an alternative to admission to support the local network around the young person (aged 12-18) whilst they are in the acute stage of mental health difficulties. You'll be working closely and supporting the Psychological Professions staff, as well as nursing, psychiatry, occupational therapy, family therapy, social worker, mental health practitioners and support workers.



To clinically supervise assistant psychologists, trainee psychologists and junior psychologists, psychological therapists or counsellors and other staff as appropriate. To professionally supervise and, when appropriate, manage, assistant psychologists and trainee psychologists To provide consultation, mentorship, supervision and advice about psychological issues to other members of the team/service and other professionals working with service users, across a range of agencies/ settings as appropriate. To work autonomously within professional guidelines and exercise responsibility for the systematic governance of psychological practice within the service/team. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the team's operational policies and services, through the deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation and audit, and to advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and/or organisational matters need addressing. To utilise research skills to undertake service evaluation, audit and research as appropriate and disseminate the results in the service and nationally.

To propose and implement policy changes within the area served by the service



Join Sussex Partnership and you'll be part of an NHS trust that allows you to thrive and, in turn, thrives because of you. We believe in the vibrancy of our fantastic people. And how that leads to even better support for the people who use our services.



1. To carry out specialist psychological assessments of clients referred to the service, based upon the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex psychological data from a variety of sources including psychological and neuropsychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales, direct and indirect structured observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care, in order to reach a psychological formulation of the client's difficulties.



2. To formulate and implement plans for the formal psychological treatment and/or management of a client's mental health problems, based upon an appropriate conceptual framework of the client's problems, and employing methods based upon evidence of efficacy, across the full range of care settings.



3. To be responsible for implementing a range of psychological interventions for individuals, carers, families and groups, within and across teams employed individually and in synthesis, adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing upon different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provisional hypotheses.



To provide specialist assessments of clients presenting with cognitive impairment due to a variety of causes or organic conditions, including pre-assessment counselling and neuropsychological and functional assessments, and to be able to adjust psychological interventions to work effectively with people presenting with complex needs due to cognitive impairment and organic disorders