Senior Psychosocial Practitioner

Job description

Job responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

• Collaborate closely with the staff team offering the treatment programme in the other parts of the Personality Disorder & Complex Emotional Needs Pathway.
• Be committed to developing thoughtful and reflective relationships with other team members and service users.
• Contribute to the teams engagement with a wide range of stakeholders including staff, service users, their carers and other statutory and voluntary sector agencies.
• Impart complex and sensitive information to:
• Patients and families/carers re assessment, care planning, treatment and review.
• Multi-disciplinary teams to ensure the provision of consistent well coordinated care.
• Primary care teams regarding client care.
• External agencies also involved in the provision of care e.g.: voluntary and private sector, police, social services, housing, employment etc.
• Service user/carer groups.
• Maintain professional working relationships with other members of the multi-disciplinary team and in the support of the treatment of personality disorders in community networks.
• Contribute to the safe and effective day to day operations of the service including the handling of clinical enquiries.
• Present information, some of which may be challenging to patients and their families/carers.
• Provide and receive information, some of which may be contentious, sensitive and highly complex, to and from individuals and their families/carers, where there may be barriers to their understanding.
• Provide a high standard of written and verbal communication, which is clear and in line with professional documentation standards.
• Participate in and chair clinical meetings, professional meetings and clinical risk meetings.
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate in a way that is empathic and reassuring whilst employing negotiating techniques to gain co-operation from highly complex individuals.
• Communicate information in a way that makes it relevant and understandable for service users and carers, working in line with practice standards and operational policies.
• Communicating in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere, including situations where communications which are highly complex, sensitive or contentious and the degree of hostility and antagonism require the use of a high level of interpersonal and communication skills on an on-going basis.

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

• Can understand and acknowledge issues of authority, power, and leadership.
• Can understand the varied reasons for organisational anxiety, the defences which operate to avoid this and ones own role in managing this.
• Work with complex clinical situations requiring thoughtful analysis and interpretation of a range of factors and considerations, such as, safeguarding, risk, challenging behaviours whilst holding in mind unconscious processes and communications.
• Assessing and managing complex risk presentations within a relational and organisational context.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• Convene and attend management and professional meetings as required.
• Actively participate in team and other agency discussions to ensure the identification of need and participate in the development and delivery of integrated local services in line with local need.
• Responsible for planning and co-ordinating own day to day work load in collaboration with the needs of the community and the wider needs of the service.
• Ensure that interventions are planned in an integrated and co-ordinated manner particularly where dependent on other external agencies.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

• Responsible for developing care packages including assessing, planning, intervention and evaluation. Ensuring active involvement of service users and their carers.
• Undertake psychosocial assessments of referred patients and contribute to the formulation and treatment planning.
• Provide specialist advice to referrers/other multi-disciplinary staff in relation to the care of the client.
• Enable communication and engagement of individuals and their carers to ensure that they have a voice about the services they receive and how these are developed. This may include engagement of advocacy services.
• Document clinical activity in a timely and accurate manner, in line with professional guidance and best practice. .
• Participate in safeguarding children to level 3 as set out in Safeguarding children and young people: roles and competencies for Health Care staff.
• Support the care pathway for the treatment of people with a diagnosis of personality disorder.
• Deliver interventions in one to one and group formats.
• Support the care and treatment of people with a diagnosis of personality disorder by other clinicians, teams and services.

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation

• Participate in programmes of audit and research within the team and implement the findings.
• Contribute to professional clinical governance arrangements in order to ensure the quality of the service provided.
• Participate in the development of the Personality Disorder & Complex Needs Pathway.
• Be involved in the development of local systems and processes that promote the implementation of Trust policies.

Responsibility for Finance, Equipment and Other Resources

• Responsible for care of own equipment.

Responsibility for Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management

• Provide clinical supervision for a number of qualified staff.
• In conjunction with Psychotherapists ensure the team makes reflective practice a key aspect of the clinical day.
• Take a clinical lead in the absence of the team leader.
• Mentor students allocated to the team.

Responsibility for Information Resources and Administrative Duties

• Maintain up to date client records in a timely and accurate manner.

Responsibility for Research and Development

• Participate in research and development.

Freedom to Act

• The post holder is accountable for their own professional actions, acting within Trust policies and procedures and Professional Practice Guidelines.
• Interpretation of professional and Trust guidelines, and implementing policies in conjunction with peers, head of Profession and General Manager.
• Work within the operational and service specifications.
• Work without direct supervision and take accountability for your own actions.
• Act autonomously within the health and social care framework to make clinical and non-clinical decisions and consults with senior staff and/or manager in accordance with their professional judgement.

Any Other Specific Tasks Required

• Ensure that statutory training associated with the post is undertaken.
• Participate in own clinical supervision and PDR.
• Undertake any other reasonable management request.
• There is a requirement to work flexibly across both community and Iris sites.

Professional Duties

• Communicate information in a way that makes it relevant and understandable for service users and carers, working to the principles of the functions policy implementation guidelines and practice in line with the standards and values set out in them.
• Ensure a duty of care to your patients and clients, who are entitled to receive safe and competent care. The Service Users wishes, feelings, values and beliefs should be taken into consideration as well as the views of the people close to them.
• Take personal accountability for your own practice. This means that you are answerable for your actions and omissions, regardless of advice or directions from another professional.
• Ensure that you remain professionally competent by participating in your own and others clinical supervision.

Review of this Job Description

This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be amended in the light of changing service needs. This job description is to be reviewed in conjunction with the post holder on an annual basis.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• A core mental health qualification (includes HCPC registered qualifications) e.g. RMN, CQSW/ASW, BSc/Diploma in OT, SROT, Chartered Clinical Psychologist.
• Introductory training in psychotherapy such as psychodynamic approaches, group therapy approaches or demonstrable proven experience of working in a Therapeutic Community, with patients attracting a diagnosis of personality disorder.
• IT Skills

Desirable

• Postgraduate training, qualification or equivalent experience relevant to the treatment of individuals with a diagnosis of personality disorder.
• Experience of working in a therapeutic community setting.

Knowledge

Essential

• A sound theoretical understanding of Personality Disorders.
• Understanding of the emotional impacts of working with people with complex needs likely to receive a diagnosis of personality disorder.
• An excellent understanding of the Mental Health Act, Deprivation of Liberty Act and Mental Health Capacity Act.
• Understanding of recovery principles in mental health.
• Knowledge of the role of psychosocial practice in the treatment of individuals with a diagnosis of personality disorder.
• Understanding of the emotional impacts of working with people with complex needs likely to receive a diagnosis of personality disorder.

Desirable

• Excellent communication skills including the ability to engage with individuals and groups of people who may be antagonistic or highly distressed.
• Knowledge of the principles of a therapeutic community.
• Awareness of community structures and social care options and processes.

Experience

Essential

• Extensive experience of working with people with a diagnosis of personality disorder
• Significant post qualifying experience.
• Experience of working at a senior clinical level.
• Experience of working within a community mental health setting in either the statutory or voluntary sector.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision.
• Work experience of enablement rather than doing for people.
• Willingness to use supervision.
• Ability to manage/experience of managing difficult situations.
• Experience of risk assessment and risk management processes.
• Ability to cope with impact of emotional distress.

Desirable

• Experience of managing staff.
• Experience of setting up or working within a new service.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address

The Iris Centre

Franklyn Hospital

Cowick Lane

Exeter

EX2 9HS

Employer's website

https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

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