Clinical Psychologist (British Red Cross Partnership)

Job Title: Clinical Psychologist (British Red Cross Partnership)

Location: Leicester and/or Derby Red Cross Office with travel between sites part of working time and subsidised.

Responsible to: Director of Therapy

Hours: Full time for two years and six months, applications for part-time welcome and we will consider one site per part-time position (extension of programme likely)

Salary: £46,000 p.a

Benefits: 27 days holiday (pro rata) plus 4% matched pension contribution

BACKGROUND

The Helen Bamber Foundation is a busy charity supporting asylum seekers, refugees, victims of human trafficking and other human rights violations. Our specialist team of therapists, doctors and legal experts hold an international reputation for providing therapeutic care, medical consultation, legal protection, and practical support. The Helen Bamber Foundation is committed to safeguarding vulnerable adults and children.The British Red Cross (BRC) is part of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent humanitarian network and is a movement that connects human kindness with human crisis. Following an incident or emergency in the UK, the BRC helps people cope by providing practical and emotional support to individuals affected.

The Helen Bamber Foundation is looking for a Clinical Psychologist to join our therapy team to spearhead a new partnership with the BRC. The partnership aims to increase access to trauma focused interventions for those fleeing conflict (particularly the conflict in Ukraine), trafficking, torture and other forms of human cruelty and who find themselves in locations where they have little access to much needed mental health treatments. The BRC’ Psychosocial Mental Health Team alongside the BRC’ Refugee Support caseworkers will, in partnership with the Helen Bamber Foundation deliver direct casework, psychological assessment, formulation and diagnosis, and treatment support into two BRC Refugee Support service offices in Leicester and Derby over the course of two years.

Working together the project will:

• deliver trauma focused treatment to individuals, in particular to those impacted by the Ukraine conflict, who would most benefit from direct treatment and would not receive appropriate treatment elsewhere. increase through the provision of triage and casework support, assessment and diagnosis, access to local health care provision;
• and build the capacity and confidence of local health care providers to increase access to trauma focused treatment, including those impacted by the conflict in the Ukraine.

The partnership has been designed to meet the needs of individuals who have experienced complex trauma as well as address the needs of BRC’ Refugee Support teams who have recognised a significant unmet need in local mental health service provision for these individuals. The partnership will be implemented in Leicester and Derby due to the higher levels of those presenting to the BRC (and who are in the community) who are providing support to those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine as well as other nationalities.

OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE

As the Clinical Psychologist delivering the partnership with the BRC you will be based in two BRC Refugee Support services in Leicester and Derby but will remain part of the Helen Bamber Foundation Team. You will be responsible, with support from the Director of Therapy and Executive Director of Clinical and Counter-Trafficking, for delivering assessments of individuals referred by the BRC Senior Psychosocial Practitioner. You will support effective referrals into local mental health services, and, where treatment cannot be provided elsewhere and would have significant benefits, deliver a range of therapeutic interventions to a small number of BRC clients. You will provide and support outreach and training of local health care providers in order to increase their capacity to support trauma survivors.

This role will include delivery of highly specialised psychological assessments for both medico-legal and clinical purposes, provision of appropriate evidence-based therapies, delivery of training to local mental health providers as well as to staff from non-clinical backgrounds who have significant client contact, internal relationship and partnership building, monitoring of outcomes, and potentially the supervision of a trainee clinical psychologist on a final year specialist placement. The role will include input into partnership development, policy, research and fundraising.

We are looking for someone who is committed to working therapeutically with individuals who have experienced human rights abuses and who have developed trauma spectrum disorders as a result. In addition to proven experience in working therapeutically with this client group, the candidate will have a passion for human rights work beyond the individual client work, and a desire to contribute to effecting change at a policy level. This role requires the ability to react and respond creatively and appropriately to the needs of the service and the partnership. You will be required to travel to London monthly to participate in meetings, professional development and other activities (this travel will be reimbursed).

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide specialist psychological assessments and deliver psychological therapies to clients of the BRC Refugee Support services in Leicester and Derby (and where approved other services in the East Midlands);
• Contribute to the monitoring of activity and outcomes from the partnership;
• Work closely with the BRC’ Senior Psychosocial Practitioner to develop training and outreach for the local mental health providers and where appropriate the BRC Refugee Support service teams;
• Train in the preparation of medico-legal reports and contribute to the preparation of these reports for clients of the East Midlands BRC’ Refugee Support services;
• Develop and carry out audits and research projects relevant to the Helen Bamber Foundation or the partnership (in collaboration with the BRC’ Senior Psychological Practitioner and the Director of Therapy and Executive Director of Clinical and Counter-Trafficking);
• Provide internal and external training in collaboration with the Director of Therapy;
• Supervise junior staff; and Liaise with other non-statutory and statutory organisations on matters of clinical care and policy. Where applicable, to input into policy and position statements with other members of the Helen Bamber Foundation and the British Red Cross and to promote the partnership at conferences and other events.

PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Annual performance Review and Personal Development Planning.

• Ensuring your Continuing Professional Development requirements of the Health and Care Professions Council and other governing bodies.
• Working within the expectations of relevant governing professional bodies.
• Ensuring you are up to date with relevant literature and research relevant to the client group of the Helen Bamber Foundation and attend appropriate training as necessary.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

The successful candidate will be a HCPC registered clinical psychologist who is passionate about working with survivors of human rights abuses, delivering evidence-based therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems, as well as understanding the unique social and political context our clients are living in and the effect of this on their psychological wellbeing.

You will need the right to work in the UK and unfortunately we are unable to sponsor people to work in the UK.

Although the post involves direct work only with adults over the age of 18, the successful candidate will have indirect contact with the children of our clients and will be expected to include the children’s best interests in any intervention.

Essential qualifications and professional registration:

• Have successfully completed a recognized doctoral level training in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) and to have completed a range of clinical placements during training.
• Registration with HCPC as a practitioner psychologist.

Experience:

• Have experience in working with clients with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and other trauma spectrum disorders;
• Have experience in working with individuals who have experienced multiple traumatic events, developmental trauma and/or have a clinical presentation suggestive of ‘complex’ PTSD;
• Have experience of delivering therapy for the treatment of PTSD using trauma focused CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), or Narrative Exposure Therapy;
• Have experience in assessing and providing evidence-based therapies to individuals from a range of cultural backgrounds, and through interpreters;
• Have experience of presenting at conferences or other events;
• Have experience of, and commitment to, multidisciplinary team working; and Have experience of providing training.

Knowledge and abilities:

• Have a working knowledge of the legal, political, and social issues in the human rights, asylum & refugee, and health sectors;
• Ability to maintain a complex caseload and work in consultation with the safeguarding lead to signpost other referrals appropriately;
• Exceptional organizational skills with experience of managing multiple tasks and prioritizing effectively;

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