Job Overview

The post holder will engage with individuals under the care of NELFT Adult Autism Service and will be involved in providing specialist assessments and evidence-based psychological interventions to individuals, families, and networks who receive support from The Adult Autism Service across the Trust. Under the supervision of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist, they will explore social and psychological interventions, and other potential options which may improve health outcomes and help clients to achieve agreed goals.

Assessments and interventions will be delivered in a range of settings, including community, Community and Voluntary and Social Enterprises (VCSE) as well as clinics in person, by telephone, or digital platform.

The post holder would be expected to work closely with lived experience representatives, local communities, and VCSEs to co-produce and co-develop services. The post holder will primarily be involved in partnership working, liaising with various stakeholders in the system, e.g. GPs, primary and secondary care mental health services, local recovery colleges, educational institutions, and the 3rd sector. The post holder will also be involved in raising the awareness of the complexity of the health and social challenges many people with autism face and the impact this has on mental health & well-being and vice versa. A key aim of the service is to help people build resilience and feel more connected to and included in their community.

Clinical Associates in Psychology (CAPs) working within our services have a crucial role to play in improving access to support and in promoting greater community engagement and partnership working with our complex and diverse client group. The work will be under the supervision of a qualified HCPC registered Practitioner Psychologist who will retain clinical responsibility for clinical work carried out.

Qualified CAPs will be working psychologically with adults with autism presenting with complex needs, in community settings at the individual, group, couple, and family level through to teams, systems, and community level.

In order to maintain professional standards across NELFT services, it is expected that CAPs working with NELFT will be added to the Wider Psychological Workforce Register with the British Psychological Society, as and when this becomes possible.

We sincerely welcome applications from people who have previous experience of using Mental Health services, and/or individuals who are/have been a carer for someone. We are also very interested in receiving applications from people who have strong local connections to the local populations we serve.

Main Duties of the Job

• Provide psychological assessment, using evidence-based tools, formulation, and evidence-based interventions to adults with autism who have complex needs, under the supervision of a qualified Practitioner Psychologist (Clinical or Counselling Psychologist).
• To communicate constructively with a range of healthcare professionals in a variety of services including nurses, social workers, allied health professionals (AHPs), and medical colleagues as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT).
• Build relationships with key stakeholders, which include Service Users, people who care for and about service users, Lived Experience Representatives, Local Operational Leads in health and social care, Psychological Therapies Lead/supervisor, Qualified, trainee, and assistant psychologist & psychological therapists, Multiprofessional colleagues working in community services and Primary Care Networks, Local Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise Organisations, and other community assets, key stakeholders in the wider health and social care system.
• Work as part of a multiprofessional specialist autism team/service and liaise with relevant external agencies to facilitate and enable psychological interventions.
• Communicate new learning approaches and provide constructive feedback to challenge and overcome barriers to implementation of best psychological practice.
• Communicate to others the core concepts of psychological theory, research, and practice in order to enhance their delivery of psychological interventions.
• Contribute to the training and development of the wider MDT regarding key psychological concepts and principles relevant to the clinical care of service users.
• To effectively communicate decision-making processes which have informed the psychological management of risk; implement and respond appropriately to risk, using appropriate guidance and support, maintaining compliance with service policy and values.
• Understand the impact of multiple perspectives within the context of multidisciplinary teams.