Assistant Psychologist HMP Woodhill inMilton Keynes inMilton Keynes PUBLISHED 11 AUG 2024

Job Overview


To support and enhance the psychological care of men across the Mental Health Service in HMP Woodhill. This includes providing mental health assessment and interventions under the supervision of a qualified psychologist, working independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the team’s policies and procedures and those of the wider prison service.

Main duties of the job

• To participate in clinical governance and utilise research skills for audit, service development and research within the area served by the multi-disciplinary team.
• To undertake clinically-related administration and project work.
• To provide assessments and mental health interventions to clients under the supervision of a qualified professional psychologist
• To work independently according to a plan agreed with a qualified psychologist and within the overall framework of the clinic’s policies and procedures
• To liaise with other professional services (resettlement workers, probation, CMHT) sharing information where appropriate
• To assist in clinically related administration, conduct of audits, collection of statistics, development of audit and/or research projects, teaching and project work
  
  

Working for our organisation

We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient-centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing
top quality care
depends on our ability to employ the best people.

We’re always looking to
recruit outstanding people
who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

With a
diverse culture and equally diverse
range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.


Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities


Please see attached JD&PS for full details of duties and responsibilities.

• To support psychologists in the assessment of male patients within HMP Woodhill. This may include using self-report measures, risk assessment, rating scales, direct and indirect observations and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client’s care. Assessments will involve making judgements involving complex facts or situations, which require the analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options, as well as requiring prolonged concentration
• To work in a highly emotive atmosphere with clients with offending histories and / or mental health problems on a regular basis, and be able to communicate sensitive and complex information, whilst maintaining a high degree of professionalism at all times
• To attend and contribute to multi-disciplinary meetings
• To support psychologists in preparing for and conducting psychological interventions, both group and individual. To co-facilitate groups with both psychology and non-psychology colleagues when appropriate
• To work closely with senior colleagues to ensure information in relation to risk is collected and communicated sensitively and comprehensively
• To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping, including electronic data entry and recording
• To attend and contribute to other prison meetings, and to present the view of Mental Health Team [JR1] for relevant clinical issues. To ensure any actions taken from these meetings are met or that the appropriate individual to carry out the action is informed
• To ensure that efficient pathways of care are being created for the clients, including collecting collateral information for new clients and making appropriate referrals into the community when they are approaching discharge.
  
  

Person specification


Knowledge & Skills


Essential criteria

• High level communication skills (written and verbal) including an ability to communicate and work in settings in which the atmosphere may be highly emotive.
• Ability to communicate sensitive information to patients, carers and colleagues in a way that addresses service user’s particular needs
• An understanding of the needs and difficulties of people with mental health problems or other disabilities
• An ability to apply High standard of report writing skills Knowledge and experience of using SPSS for windows. Application Form Interview References Assessment 10 existing psychological knowledge to a mental health context
• An understanding of psychology applied to health care.
• Experience using IT for databases or data-analysis
  
  

Desirable criteria

• High standard of report writing skills Knowledge and experience of using SPSS for windows.
  
  

Training & Qualifications


Essential criteria

• Achieved or working towards an upper second class honours degree or higher in psychology
• Achieved or working towards entitlement to graduate membership of the British Psychological Society
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Further training in relevant areas of professional psychology, mental health practice and/or research design and analysis.
  
  

Experience


Essential criteria

• Experience of working with people with mental health problems and/or offending behaviour problems and/or other disabilities
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Experience of paid work in direct care provision.
• Experience of working in prisons or secure settings
• Experience of cofacilitating psychosocial groups
• Experience of working within a team.
• Experience of using computers for databases or data-analysis, especially SPSS for Windows
  
  

Personal

Essential criteria

• An ability to interact effectively with staff from all disciplines. An ability to establish and sustain engagement with people who have mental health problems and severely challenging behavio