Systemic Family Therapist

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical:   

1.     To provide specialist systemic family therapy assessments for children who may be experiencing severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems.

2.     To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the formulation and implementation of treatment plans taking into account relevant evidence based research, theory, practice and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes which have shaped the child/adolescent, their parents/carers and family.

3.     To provide specialist systemic therapeutic treatment for children, their parents/carers and families referred to CAMHS, with severe, highly complex and persistent mental health problems.

4.     To provide specialist systemic advice, guidance and consultation to professional colleagues within CAMHS and related external agencies who work with children/young people contributing directly to clients’ formulation, diagnosis and treatment plan.

5.     To be responsible for working within the appropriate safeguarding and risk guidelines in relation to own cases.  This includes reporting to and liaising with multi-disciplinary service and external agency staff (e.g. Social Services staff, CAMHS colleagues, adult mental health staff, primary health and hospital staff, education staff, Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, named child protection worker).

6.     To undertake risk assessment and risk management for individual clients and to provide advice to other professions on aspects of risk assessment and risk management

7.     To coordinate, where appropriate, the intervention plans in respect of children, taking responsibility for initiating planning and reviews with the young people, their carers, referring agents and others involved in the network of care.

8.     To communicate in a skilled and sensitive manner, information concerning the assessment, formulation and treatment plans of clients under their care, including providing specialist assessment reports as required, and to monitor and evaluate progress during the course of multi-disciplinary care.

9.     To participate in regular review and ongoing discussion of cases in treatment with other members of the multi-disciplinary team and to provide specialist expertise in systemic family therapy techniques. To utilise theory, evidence based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

10.  To contribute as an independent clinician to a multidisciplinary team assessments and interventions including medical, social work, nursing team and other MDT with a focus on team and joint working.

Teaching, training, and supervision

1.     To receive regular clinical and service related supervision from a senior systemic family therapist and, where appropriate, other senior professional colleagues in accordance with good practice guidelines and registration guidelines for UKCP registration.

2.     To continue to gain specialist experience and training relevant to systemic family therapy and/or CAMHS and to maintain the highest professional standards of practice through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes as identified in an agreed personal development plan.

3.     To maintain and develop skills in professional post-graduate teaching, training and supervision and to contribute as appropriate to the provision of specialist teaching and training within and external to CAMHS including academic and clinical teaching programmes.

4.     To support the management of the workload of trainee family therapists, psychologists and psychotherapists in consultation with clinical supervisors and the Director of Psychological Services.

5.     To provide advice, consultation and training to staff working with the client group across a range of agencies and settings, where appropriate.

Management, recruitment, policy and service development

1.     To contribute to the development, implementation, evaluation and monitoring of operational policies, procedures and guidelines of the multidisciplinary inpatient CAMHS service and family therapy team.

2.     To undertake audit and service evaluation with colleagues, to provide data as required by the service and to participate in audit and evaluation of systemic family therapy provision within the service.

3.     To act in accordance with the policies of the Trust and the Association of Family Therapist’s Professional Practice and Ethical Guidelines. To comply with service standards and practice at all times and to comply with and promote safe working practice for self and others in accordance with Trust Health and Safety policies.

4.     To participate in the development of a high quality, responsive and accessible service including advising on systemic family therapy aspects of service provision.

5.     To exercise delegated responsibility for managing the resources available for systemic family therapy work, such as materials and equipment used in the assessment and treatment of children and families.

Research and service evaluation

1.     To utilise theory, evidence-based literature and research to support evidence based practice in individual work and work with other team members.

2.     To contribute to research, evaluation and audit projects with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to clients and their families.

General

1.     To contribute to the development, maintenance and dissemination of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in internal and external CPD training and development programmes in consultation with the post-holder’s professional and service manager(s).

2.     To contribute to the development and articulation of best practice in systemic family therapy across the service, by exercising systemic family therapy skills, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of systemic family therapy and related disciplines.

3.     To maintain the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the Association of Family Therapy and Trust policies and procedures.

4.     To maintain up to date knowledge of legislation, national and local policies and issues in relation to both the specific client group and mental health.

5.     It is a requirement of the post that the post-holder must be Registered with and maintain professional registration with the relevant section of the UKCP at all times. If, in future, the profession becomes regulated by statute, statutory registration by the appropriate body will be required, replacing this existing requirement.