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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES 

1. To provide specialist psychological assessments using interview, formal psychometric and other assessment methods as appropriate, for clients referred from Whittington Health Cancer services.

2. To formulate and provide specialist psychological treatment and management plans for referred clients, working with carers and significant others as needed, using a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches.

3. To manage individual caseload autonomously and professionally.

4. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options taking into account theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical, psychosocial and developmental processes that have shaped the individual, family or group.

5. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the assessment, treatment and discharge of patients whose problems are managed by psychologically based standard care plans and to make appropriate referrals onwards as necessary.

6. To devise and deliver group-based interventions, leading in the development and provision of psychoeducational and other groups as needed.

7. To provide specialist psychological advice, guidance and consultation to other professionals to assist in the formulation, diagnosis and treatment of clients.

8. To provide reports and communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients.

9. To work closely and communicate effectively with the multi-disciplinary teams to ensure the provision of effective and evidence-based interventions.

10. To undertake complex risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management.

11. To attend and contribute to referral, multidisciplinary and service operational meetings. To maximize opportunities for mutual learning with MDT colleagues to inform clinical work.

12. To liaise with other health and social care staff, from a range of agencies within and outside of the NHS, in the care provided to clients.

TEACHING, TRAINING AND SUPERVISION

1. To receive regular clinical professional supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues.
2. To contribute to the teaching and training of non-psychology staff in psychological skills as appropriate.
3. To provide advice, consultation and training to other health and social care staff working with the client group, where appropriate.
4. To provide professional and clinical supervision and leadership to junior qualified psychologists, trainee psychologists and assistant psychologists where required.
5. To participate in an agreed programme of post-qualification training and professional development towards developing advanced knowledge and practice.
6. To develop skills in the area of professional post-graduate teaching, training and clinical supervision and to provide supervision to other MDT staff’s psychological work as appropriate.
7. To provide clinical placements for trainee clinical and/or counselling psychologists, ensuring that trainees acquire the necessary skills, competencies and experience to contribute effectively to good mental health care.
8. To contribute to the pre- and post-qualification teaching of clinical and/or other applied psychologists, as appropriate.
9. To facilitate reflective practice sessions for the Cancer team including working with challenging cases, as needed and requested.
10. To contribute through consultation and training to the psychological understanding and ways of workings of other multidisciplinary and multi-professional teams within the service.

MANAGEMENT, RECRUITMENT, POLICY AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENT

1. To use specialist knowledge, experience and skills to support the development of the service, to provide a key role in psychological aspects of service development across Whittington Health oncology and beyond and to provide a key role in better meeting the psychological needs of patients across Whittington Health.

2. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the oncology services where psychological and/or organisational matters are relevant.

3. To manage junior and assistant psychologists within the service and in training posts within the framework of the team and service's policies and procedures.

4. To be involved in the short listing and interviewing of psychological staff as appropriate.

5. To be an active participant in all multi-disciplinary forums related to the delivery of haematology psychology services g. MDTMs, clinical forums, referral meetings, case discussions and research meetings.

RESEARCH AND SERVICE EVALUATION

1. To bring doctoral level knowledge of research methodology, research design and complex multivariate data analysis as practiced within the field of psychology.
2. To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence-based practice in individual work, group work and work with other team members.
3. To lead on and regularly engage in audit, research and service evaluation activities relevant to service and patient needs.