Assistant Psychologist Perinatal Mental Health Service | East NHS Foundation Trust

Overview

The Bedfordshire and Luton Perinatal Team (PMHT) has an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and reflective Assistant Psychologist to work with pregnant and postnatal women and birthing people. The team is based in Bedford and co-located with Ocean (Maternal Mental Health Service) with whom they work closely to provide a seamless perinatal mental health pathway for service users.

The Perinatal Mental Health Team works with women and birthing people who have moderate to severe and complex mental health needs during their pregnancy, and up to the baby’s age of 24 months. The multidisciplinary team consists of a variety of professionals, including a number of psychologists.

• Engage positively and sensitively with people with mental health difficulties and their support networks, and demonstrate awareness of experiences and challenges faced during the perinatal period.
• Support and enhance the psychological trauma-informed care of clients within the service.
• Support structured assessments, the preparation and delivery of psycho educational groups and manualised individual psychological interventions, under the supervision of a qualified psychologist.
• Contribute to Quality Improvement and evaluation within the service.
• Develop in post with support; awareness of how trauma and loss may impact women and birthing people during the perinatal period would be helpful.
• Be willing to learn, share ELFT’s values, and initiate good working relationships across team boundaries.
• Contribute to a culturally sensitive service and address perinatal health inequalities; welcome applicants from Black or Asian ethnicity.
• Occasionally travel between sites and offer home visits across Bedfordshire.

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.

We are looking for someone who is able to engage positively and sensitively with people with mental health difficulties and their support networks, and be able to demonstrate an awareness of experiences and challenges that may face those experiencing mental health difficulties in the perinatal period. The Assistant Psychologist will support and enhance the psychological trauma-informed care of clients within the service.

They will support structured assessments, the preparation and delivery of psycho educational groups and manualised individual psychological interventions, under the supervision of a qualified psychologist. There are opportunities to get involved in Quality Improvement and evaluation within the service. An awareness of how trauma and loss may impact women and birthing people during the perinatal period would be helpful but support to develop in post will be provided.

We are particularly interested to find a candidate who shares ELFT’s values, is willing to learn and able to initiate good working relationships across team boundaries. We are actively working on how to become a more culturally sensitive service and address perinatal health inequalities and welcome applicants from Black or Asian ethnicity. The post requires the ability to occasionally travel between sites and offer home visits across Bedfordshire.

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