Assistant Psychologist

An exciting opportunity has arisen for two Band 4 Assistant Psychologists to join the Adult Mental Health Inpatient Psychology Team at The Harbour, Blackpool. These are 12-month fixed-term posts supporting psychological input across the two male acute wards, Orwell and Churchill.

The Harbour provides inpatient care for adults with complex mental health needs, supporting people at a point of crisis in the least restrictive and safest way. The main focus of these posts will be the delivery and evaluation of a brief CBT-informed psychological intervention for male acute inpatients who may experience high levels of distress, emotional and behavioural dysregulation and/or substance use challenges.

The post holders will join an established and growing inpatient psychology service at The Harbour. The current psychology team includes two Consultant Clinical Psychologists, two Principal Clinical Psychologists, one Clinical Psychologist and two existing Assistant Psychologists working into the female acute wards. The service is also due to expand further later this year with the addition of two Clinical Psychologist posts., The post holders will deliver structured individual intervention sessions and facilitate three group-based psychological intervention sessions per week. The role will also involve completion of clinical documentation and report writing, administration and scoring of outcome measures, collation of clinical activity data and contribution to audit and service evaluation.

The successful applicants will work under the supervision of a Principal Clinical Psychologist and within agreed clinical plans, intervention protocols and Trust policies relating to Assistant Psychologists. They will also work alongside each other and provide some support to the wider psychology service at The Harbour, including supporting Consultant Clinical Psychologists with clinical, audit, evaluation, administrative, report-writing and service-support tasks as required.

We are looking for suitably qualified and experienced individuals with a genuine interest in working with adults in an acute inpatient mental health setting. Applicants should have good verbal and written communication skills, be able to work effectively with colleagues and enjoy working as part of a busy multidisciplinary team., The role will involve close working with ward-based multidisciplinary teams and supporting psychologically informed care within the ward environment. Applicants should be reflective, well organised, able to maintain appropriate professional boundaries and able to engage service users who may be distressed or ambivalent about engaging in therapeutic work.

We are looking for applicants with a 2:1 degree in Psychology and eligibility for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society. Applicants must also have relevant experience within an adult acute or PICU inpatient setting and/or experience of working as an employed Assistant Psychologist, supervised by a qualified Clinical Psychologist.