Job summary
Ocean is offering a 0.8 WTE fixed term 12 month maternity cover for a band 7 psychologist or psychotherapist. OCEAN is a psychology-led maternal mental health service combining psychology and specialist midwifery to support women and birthing people who are experiencing moderate-severe mental health difficulties relating to baby loss, birth trauma and parent-infant separation. Ocean is a community based service, offering a range of interventions including one to one psychology, group work and indirect work with maternity services.Ocean is a service that prioritises addressing maternal mental health inequalities and developing inclusive services. Therefore, the successful candidate must be keen to embrace the privileges of working in diverse boroughs and have experience of working with women and birthing people from a range of social, religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds to deliver accessible and psychologically informed care.

A significant part of this role will focus on the provision of specialist, co produced, psychological input to women who have experienced loss and trauma on their maternal journeys. In addition to holding their own caseload, the successful candidate will contribute to screening of new referrals into the service, conduct assessments and contribute to group work where appropriate. There will also be opportunities to develop training and partnership working with local community groups, maternity staff, mental health and social services.

Main duties of the job

• Providing psychological assessments to women and birthing people under the care of Ocean MMHS
• Developing and delivering group and one to one interventions as appropriate for the needs of the service

About us
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Job responsibilities
The post holder is responsible for the provision of highly specialist, co produced, psychological input to women who have experienced loss and trauma through their maternity experience, particularly those vulnerable to poor health outcomes through poverty and other social inequalities, disabilities and physical health conditions and will also manage other psychological therapists. Psychological input includes highly specialist psychological assessments, formulations and interventions delivered within acute hospital and community settings as required.

The characteristics of the core population receiving direct services are women who have lost a baby through recurrent miscarriage, termination of pregnancy, still birth, neonatal death, and parent-infant separation due to social care proceedings. In addition, the service will provide for women who have experienced birth trauma, whose needs can not be met by Talking Therapies services or perinatal mental health team. The core population will be women who are experiencing emotional distress that requires specialist support and psychological intervention. Work with partners may also be included where indicated by the formulation.

Ocean is based in Vivienne Cohen House in Hackney and offers support to women and birthing people across East London in the boroughs of City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets and therefore offer provide clinics across several different hospitals and community bases in East London.

Person Specification
Education
Essential

• Postgraduate Doctorate in Clinical/Counselling Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS OR appropriate Psychotherapy qualification OR CBT qualification Registration with the Health Professionals Council or other appropriate regulatory body. Relevant specialist training or qualifications. Additional relevant clinical and/or managerial knowledge and skills acquired through formal training, long or short courses, formal supervision (individual and/or group), structured self-study or experience (or a combination of these) to an appropriate level approved by the Lead of Psychological Services and demonstrated by certification, documented supervision logs, management appraisal documentation and/or assessment at interview

Desirable

• Post Qualification Training in EMDR or CBT for trauma.
• Community psychology or narrative therapy training

Experience
Essential

• Assessed experience of working as a qualified Clinical or Counselling psychologist at a specialist level or assessed experience of working as a qualified psychotherapist within NHS
• Good understanding of other professionals' theoretical perspectives of this client group.
• Experience of providing specialist psychological assessment, and treatment of service users utilising at least two main models as appropriate (including EMDR or tfCBT) across the full range of care settings and clinical severity including outpatient, community, primary care and inpatient.
• Experience of providing teaching, training and clinical supervision to junior psychologists and other professions.
• The application of psychologically informed interventions in different cultural contexts including working with interpreters.

Desirable

• Previous experience of working in maternal mental health or perinatal services

Knowledge
Essential

• The theory and practice of psychological assessment and therapies in relation to treatment of a range of mental health disorders including EMDR, (tf)CBT, CFT, and other trauma informed therapies.
• Risk assessment practice and procedures.
• The value of service user participation in the delivery and development of services.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the presentation of complex mental health problems arising from maternal trauma and loss.

Skills
Essential

• Demonstrate excellent interpersonal, communication and active listening skills with service users, carers and staff.
• Ability to work independently to maintain agreed caseload and activity levels.

Desirable

• Skills in providing consultation to other professional and non-professional groups.

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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).