Sociotherapist

Applications are welcomed from individuals with an optimistic, realistic attitude to working with individuals who have committed sexual and/or violent offences who also have significant personality difficulties. If you are flexible in outlook, able to work as part of a multi-agency, MDT to manage risk and address psychological needs and are resilient and empathic, you could become part of a welcoming and effective team, committed to helping people make and maintain changes.

This post suitable for an experienced professional with skills relevant to working with individuals released from prison, who have complex social, psychological and risk related needs. Applicants from a range of professions including Probation Officers, Occupational Therapists, Social workers, mental health nurses, counsellors, substance misuse workers.

Resettle & Reintegrate (Intensive Intervention & Risk Management Services) are innovative community services, providing an alternative approach to enhancing the lives of service users who have complex needs due to their personality related needs and offending histories. We are a true partnership model between Merseycare NHS Trust, the Probation Service and Merseyside Police and are part of the Offender Personality Pathway. The Intervention model is psychologically informed providing holistic and systemic intervention and adopting therapeutic community and sociotherapy principles.

The intervention offers a structured timetable for up to 20 individuals, 4 days per week over a period of 2 years. It is an accredited Enabling Environment, recognised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The post holder will work alongside a multi-disciplinary team providing specialised individual and group work in the community for people who experience complex emotional and behavioural difficulties (consistent with a diagnosis of personality disorder) and who through their actions demonstrate a high level of destructive/distressing behaviours. To provide a service of specifically designed therapy for clients with personality difficulties and who have struggled to engage with those in authority.To assist the team in ensuring the safe and effective delivery of the service as a whole. This includes managing risk according to the principles of the Resettle model. To provide a service to clients from within and outside adult mental health and across all relevant sectors of care providing highly specialised knowledge, experience and clinical competence in psychosocial individual and group therapy for use within a community-based day programme. To participate in clinical and managerial supervision within the day programme whilst working with complex difficult clients with personality difficulties. To participate in the activities of the Resettle service including facilitating groups and individual therapeutic work.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

To assist in comprehensive assessments of clients needs and suitability for engaging within the Resettle service.

As part of a team, to ensure the intervention runs utilising the Resettle principles with a high level of service user participation.

To provide knowledge, experience and clinical competencies in the Resettle model of working therapeutically with service users.

Work as part of a team providing a specific specialised therapy to participants who experience emotional and behavioural difficulties sometimes known as personality disorder, requiring a high degree of professionalism due to the highly emotive and distressing problems presented.

To assist in the management of the workload of the team, trainees, therapists within the framework of the day programme.

To provide, and assist in preparing, reports to parole boards amongst other professionals.

To liaise with other professionals regarding senior managers, department heads, general managers, ward managers and trainers and provide expert knowledge on treating clients using the democratic model.

Through the day programme, enable service users to exercise their rights and promote their equality and diversity.

Working as part of a team, effectively plan, prioritise and manage a caseload.

Provide an assessment service to establish the need for Resettle for those referred. This will involve travelling to different prison including those outside the region.

To participate in referral meetings and risk management procedures/meetings are held involving all staff.

To assist with admission and discharge procedures and ensure the up keep of comprehensive group and individual records.

To attend relevant Oral Hearing, Mappa, professional meetings when required.

Ability to work and engage with people from marginalised backgrounds.

Ability to demonstrate a clear understanding of clinical and working practice within the area of Mental Health/ Probation Offender Management.

To participate and assist in the clinical activities of the Resettle service as a clinician assessing and treating referrals to the service both as individuals and in groups.

To contribute in the assessment and communication of complex interpretations/ideas based upon group members verbal and non-verbal communications and assist them in understanding the meaning behind their risky and distressing thoughts and behaviours.

Demonstrate an ability to maintain professional boundaries.

Be able to manage own anxiety and demonstrate effective problem-solving skills.

Demonstrate an ability to work in a group setting that can be antagonistic and emotive.

Demonstrate an ability to cope with and manage pronounced psychological and emotional pressure when working with highly sensitive information that may be distressing.

Be able to deal with highly distressing situations, e.g. extremely challenging behaviour, trauma, violence and abuse issues and/or thought patterns that can be refractory.

Maintain a safe environment by effective risk management and via upholding the groups structures and boundaries.

• Relevant professional qualification e.g. Probation Officers, Social workers, Occupational Therapist, Mental health Nurses, Counsellor
• Hons Degree in related area
• Relevant qualification in a therapeutic approach (CBT, CAT, TA, MBT etc.)
• UKCP or BACP accreditation

• Experience of working in the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway in custody or the community
• To be able to demonstrate experience of working with clients in a group setting
• Experience of specialist psychotherapeutic assessment, formulation and interventions
• To be able to maintain professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems, destructive behaviours, verbal abuse and threat of physical abuse
• Experience of working in an Intensive Intervention & Risk Management Service
• Experience of teaching, training and/or supervision
• Experience of working with a wide variety of client groups, presenting problems that reflect the full range of clinical severity including especially related to those with a diagnosis of personality disorder
• Experience of the application of psychotherapeutic ways of working in different cultural contexts

• Accountability
• Support
• High professional standards
• Responsive to Service users
• Engaging leadership style
• Transparency and honesty
• Discreet
• Change oriented

• Demonstrate effective communication skills, oral and written
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Demonstrate an understanding of interventions within a framework of Therapeutic Community Principles

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.

Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist