JOBS

Hours: ad hoc as per practitioner availability ​

Location: Russell House, Huddersfield or your own designated therapy space

Responsible to: Family Services Manager

OVERVIEW OF ROLE

At Forget Me Not, we don’t just care for children with life-shortening conditions, we care for their families too. Families who may be traumatised by the struggle of caring for a child with complex heath needs or by bereavement.

We also support families whose child has died suddenly and unexpectedly, often in traumatic circumstances. We’re looking to build our pool of professionals from a range of therapeutic disciplines so that we can match family members with the right support for them. With an accredited qualification in trauma therapy including compassion-focused, EMDR etc, you’ll have a deep knowledge of trauma, particularly in relation to grief and loss and/or palliative care and experience of delivering counselling and psychotherapy within a structured programme.

You might have your own practice, or currently be working in the NHS or another charitable organisation and be looking to expand your understanding of children’s hospice care. Services could be delivered at the hospice, within a local community space or within your own designated therapy space (if available).

JOB DESCRIPTION

Role Summary

Carry out trauma-informed assessments on individuals and families providing an overview of their emotional, social, practical, environmental needs and stressors, family dynamics, strengths and ways of coping.

Complete risk assessments around harm to self and suicide risk.

Contract with the client to ensure there is clarity and definition around issues such as confidentiality and boundaries.

Complete formulation and support plans, based on your assessment of need.

Use counselling skills and knowledge of theories of trauma, adversity and bereavement and loss to deliver therapeutic interventions.

Provide individuals with the skills and interventions to help them process trauma.

Empower families and individual family members to make their own choices and decisions.

Be confident in contacting individuals and professionals via telephone, email and video call.

Ensure excellent communication internally throughout the multidisciplinary family support team and across all areas of the hospice including explaining your service offer to care staff and income generation teams.

Demonstrate clear communication between the hospice, the family and other agencies supporting any individuals, including social services, education, GP, children’s community nursing teams, occupational therapist, perinatal mental health teams, hospital consultants and voluntary agencies, including as part of a transition into other services and organisations.

Ensure that relevant records are kept which are accurate, contemporaneous, and professional and meet legal requirements and that of any accredited body you are a member of.

Implement outcome measures, including PHQ-9, SDQ, AAG and Impact of Events Scale.

Manage own caseload, maintaining a structured but flexible and responsive approach. This will involve prioritising and planning work with families, including frequency of contact, and time management.

Actively participate in own supervision with your external professional supervisor.

Maintain professional registration.

Comply with your professional standards of conduct, performance and ethics.

Work within the guidelines of the local safeguarding children’s board (LSCB) procedures.

Adopt positive and reflective approach to personal and professional development, participating constructively in annual appraisal process, including working towards objectives.

Maintain professional development by keeping up-to-date with current research and developments within your field and that of children’s palliative care, bereavement, perinatal mental health and trauma.

Person specification

Essential:

• Minimum 2 years post registration experience of working individuals who have experienced trauma and loss
• Qualified in an area of trauma therapy (EMDR, CBT, Compassion Focused Therapies)
• Experience of supporting adults affected by pregnancy, baby and child bereavement
• Providing therapeutic support to individuals
• Working within a multidisciplinary team
• Assessment of psychosocial needs of individuals and families in need
• Excellent interpersonal / communication skills
• High levels of empathy
• Time management and caseload management
• Computer literate
• Team player who can work under minimal supervision
• Flexibility
• Friendly and enthusiastic
• Confidence with ability to make decisions
• Creative thinker
• Experience and knowledge of working within safeguarding procedures.

 Desirable:

• Knowledge of children’s hospice services and philosophy
• Knowledge of perinatal mental health
• Postgraduate qualifications in trauma, psychotherapy, counselling.

​Education / qualifications

Essential:

• Recognised professional counselling or psychotherapy qualification
• Membership of BACP/NCS or other appropriate counselling and psychotherapy membership body.

Desirable:

• EMDR training and qualification
• Specific grief and loss training.

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.

Equality and Diversity

Please note that we are committed to equality and diversity and make the following pledge in relation to our recruitment practices;

• We will actively encourage and support under-represented groups to join us as employees
• ​We will always interview you if you are an applicant with disability who meets the essential requirements of the job and will provide adjustments to the recruitment process if required.  
• We are committed to supporting part time and flexible working; we will consider part time working requests for all our roles

Anywhere in Kirklees

Information available on request