Assistant Psychologist - London, United Kingdom - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

We are delighted to be advertising for a full time Assistant Psychologist to support the work of Schools Mental Health Innovation and the Maudsley Education Consultation Service (MECS).

This is a new role in a developing area within Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust.

There is exciting work already happening in our SLaM boroughs within Mental Health Support Teams in schools, as well as creative work co-occurring within schools led by National and Specialist CAMHS Teams.

Part of the Schools Innovation and Consultation work is to support coordination and sharing of good practice across all these existing teams, but also to develop new innovations where there are gaps.

One innovation is MECS - a collaboration between educators, CAMHS clinicians, other school mental health and wellbeing providers (including MHSTs), researchers, parents and students, and youth-focused community organisations.

It involves the implementation of a comprehensive mental health needs assessment to inform mental health and wellbeing priorities for education providers.

The Teacher Exchange for Advice and Support (TExaS) project is a research project that aims to help teachers support the CYP in their classrooms who have mental health difficulties through providing training and practical support via an online platform.

This work is led by a Consultant Psychiatrist and senior researchers in Kings College London.

Although the key tasks for this postholder will be within the schools' work, they will have supervision with a Consultant Clinical Psychologist from MECS and have opportunities to develop their clinical skills within the Croydon Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service under a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and with a cohort of psychology peers.

The postholder will have two roles: to support the development and implementation of school mental health innovations; and to develop their clinical experiences in a community team with some opportunities in a national and specialist CAMHS team.

The first role will include coordinating (with senior support) clinical school innovation projects and research work in schools.

This will involve attending meetings with NHS and education and charitable organisations, meeting school stakeholders (parents students, and staff) and will require good liaison skills and team working.

Part of this role will also include conducting focus group work with teachers and school staff, to inform the development of an online psychoeducation programme for staff to support student mental health.

There will be additional new school innovations, which the post holder would support.

There will be scheduled opportunities for clinical development in a community CAMHS team (Croydon) alongside a cohort of psychology peers.

The postholder will do some home working within this role.

They will be required to travel to various schools, community mental health services in Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark and to the Maudsley for meetings.

This is the location of the Trust headquarters at Denmark Hill, less than 5 minutes from the train station (zone 2) and is within walking distance from the beautiful green spaces of Ruskin park and the vibrant high-street that offers great shopping opportunities and with a wide range of restaurants.

To support coordination of schools' work across the CAMHS borough teams and National and Specialist Services and King's College academic department. This will include setting up and attending meetings, writing minutes, liaising with mental health colleagues and teachers and developing relevant resources.
To support new schools' innovations work with MECS, including the TExaS project, involving running focus groups, developing training materials, supporting development of the online platform for teachers. Other innovations may include for example supporting school governor training by preparing resources.
To support the pilot and implementation phases of the Maudsley Education Consultation Service ensuring smooth collaboration between schools, the MECS team and community engagement partners.
To gain clinical experience in Croydon CAMHS. This includes supporting team assessments, writing summaries and contributing to diagnostic reports, and supporting clinical interventions.