Assistant Psychologist

We are recruiting to an Assistant Psychology post to join the psychology & psychotherapy forensic mental health team at River House, Medium Secure Unit, Bethlem Royal Hospital. We have one vacancy for a permanent part-time Band 4 post, based on Spring Ward. Spring Ward is a 15-bed medium secure forensic service providing assessment, treatment, rehabilitation, care, and support for women, aged over 18, who have a range of mental health difficulties. The post is an excellent opportunity to develop assessment and engagement skills with a complex forensic client group. There will be opportunities to conduct a range of clinical and risk-related assessments and interventions across the service and participate in wider activities including service evaluation and research. We have a strong track record of supporting Assistants onto doctoral training in both clinical and forensic fields. This post is well-suited to applicants with previous experience in Assistant roles especially in inpatient, forensic, or complex needs settings, though a strong understanding of the role and an ability to communicate the relevance of broader experiences will be considered in all applications. We are happy to discuss the post further with applicants shortlisted for interview., The role plays a key part in supporting the psychology provision on the female medium secure forensic ward, and specifically within Spring Ward. Responsibilities include:

• To assist the practitioner psychologist in the delivery of a specialist applied psychology service on the female secure ward, including clinical assessments, risk assessment, and the delivery of group and individual interventions.
• To provide clinical work as required by the service, under the direct guidance, close clinical and professional supervision of a practitioner psychologist. Clinical work may include engagement, clinical and risk assessments, formulation, direct intervention with service users, and consultative interventions within teams.
• The co-delivery of group programmes under close supervision, focussed on psychoeducation, and mental distress.
• To audit and manage the dataset of risk assessments integral to the care of patients detained on Spring Ward and where necessary integrate this into the wider River House dataset.
• To assist in clinically related administration, conduction of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work.
• To work following clinical guidelines and the policies and procedures of the service, while closely supervised and regularly seeking help from clinical/professional supervisor or manager.
  
  The inpatient provision is part of the South London & Maudsley Forensic & Offender Health Pathway within the Croydon and Behavioural & Developmental Psychiatry Operational Directorate.
The three forensic services of SLaM, South West London and St George's (SWLSTG), and Oxleas together comprise the South London Mental Health and Community Partnership (SLP). The SLP's overarching goals centre on bringing care closer to home, improving patient pathways and outcomes by delivering excellent care in better environments. The SLP has a track record of delivering highly effective, clinically informed service developments in order to better meet the needs of service-users. Spring Ward is an integral part of the SLP and there are close links between the MSU and LSU in the pathway, in addition to supported community residential placements, community forensic mental health teams, other mental health services, prisons, and criminal justice agencies. The ward has a multi-professional team that includes dedicated qualified and assistant psychology provision. The post-holder will be aligned for direct clinical service provision to the ward team and will join a wider forensic clinical psychology & psychotherapy team that provides inpatient and community-based interventions.