What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?
What is your current job title?
How did you go about getting your current job?
I worked “front line” as a Care Assistant at the beginning of my “route” to becoming a Clinical Psychologist. One of the organisations I worked in was St Michael’s House. Right from the beginning I had huge respect for the way this service was run. I felt the staff interacted with people in a way which was very dignified and enabling.
I learnt so much about the area and myself. I decided then that I would really try to become part of the organisation when I’d qualified as a Clinical Psychologist. Then an opportunity arose to involve St Michael’s House in some research I did as part of my training. This gave me more links with the organisation, and at this time I also heard that the organisation was going to be recruiting Clinical Psychologists at my grade.
I applied for the post following a newspaper advertisement, and also on the organisation’s web site. I was interviewed by a panel and was delighted to be offered the post of Clinical Psychologist in the organisation.
Describe a typical day?
I typically work a regular weekday, however I like the flexibility that my job as Clinical Psychologist allows. Sometimes I might arrive in earlier, for example, to prepare for a Memory Clinic for older people with dementia. Other days I might stay a bit later if we’re running a Parenting Skills Group, for example.
On a usual day I come into my clinic-based office and check phone or email messages and respond to them. Then I might have a Clinic Team Meeting which is where members of the multi-disciplinary team (e.g. Social Worker, Psychiatrist, Occupational Therapist) meet to discuss referrals or ongoing clinical work. Then I might have an appointment with someone either for assessment (e.g. a cognitive assessment or IQ test) or therapy (e.g. psychotherapy).
In the afternoon I might have appointments out in the community, for example, with a teacher in a special school about a particular student, or in a residential home with a Social Care Worker about someone living there. A regular part of my work throughout the week involves reviewing research studies and programmes as part of my planning clinical interventions for individual people or situations.
Once a week I have a meeting with my Head of Department where we review the people and cases on my ‘caseload’ and I find this meeting very useful. At the end of the day I spend some time writing up my clinical notes, scoring up any assessments I did that day, liaising with my colleagues around any tasks that came out of my work that day, and finally planning my work schedule for the next day. Then I leave the Clinic to enjoy my evening!
What are the main tasks and responsibilities?
I’m involved in psychological assessment which involves using tried and tested questionnaires to investigate a difficulty someone has e.g. memory problems, mental health difficulties. I can get a clear idea of the person’s difficulty and also compare how the person is doing compared to other people of his or her age.
As part of the psychological assessment I also complete a clinical interview with significant other people in the person’s life, e.g. family members or staff. Then I use a special psychological framework to “formulate” or tentatively explain why the person might be having the difficulty. This allows me to look at research studies and interventions as part of designing a way of working with the person (and other people with their consent) to overcome the difficulty.
Another area in my work is carrying out evaluations and research into issues, e.g. support needs of parents, so that suitable services can be developed based on accurate information. Other times we may evaluate how a service or group is meeting its aims so that we can confirm that resources are being used effectively. These days resources are scarce so we need to make sure that money and time is being used well!
What are the main challenges?
Maintaining the attention of a playful and curious little child for the purpose of psychological assessment is certainly a challenge! Understanding the speech of a person with communication difficulties also sometimes stretches my powers of listening and interpretation.
Working with staff groups who are struggling to understand and meet the needs of their service users sometimes really draws upon my abilities to motivate and explain psychological interventions in clear terms.
Organising and responding to referrals tests my capacity to gather information and prioritise effectively. The hugely varied nature of human behaviour, psychological difficulties, and the constant research activity means that I need to keep up to speed with developments in the field by reading psychological journals, attending special interest groups, and conferences.
What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?
The particular skills I bring to my role as Clinical Psychologist include my ability to build good rapport with a variety of people in different situations and this helps, for example, in keeping a child’s interest and attention, or sensitively supporting a parent or staff member to talk about their difficulty.
I’m a creative person and this allows me to come up with intervention ideas with are tailored to an individual, and in the case of someone with significant intellectual or sensory disability, this comes in very useful. I also have a good ability to see situations from many perspectives which helps with understanding clinical situations and offering solutions.
I enjoy humour and seeing the lighter side of most situations, and this helps me put people at ease, and also keep up-beat in sometimes challenging situations. I can also adapt to the pace of different individuals, and I believe this comes in particularly useful when working with people who have intellectual disabilities, as some people need significant amounts of time to express themselves or learn a new skill.
I like being organised and this helps me manage a varied and substantial caseload, and prioritise my tasks so that I can address work in a gradual way. I have good attention to detail which helps in the role of Clinical Psychologist in observing body language or group dynamics, as well as rapidly tracking a person’s performance on cognitive tasks.
Finally I have a good attention span and can focus easily which is as useful to sustaining concentration in long therapeutic sessions!
Social Care Worker
Naoise Pye "I love to see a client find a new skill or hobby or to be involved in making something happen in their lives"
Psychologist - Clinical
Elaine MacDonald "Curiosity or a desire to learn and understand people and behaviour, is very important as it sustains motivation in sometimes challenging cases."
Clinical Nurse Manager 2
Liam Dowling "We as care providers need to be on top of our game to ensure that people with an Intellectual Disability have the life they deserve"
Care Assistant
Deirdre Lavelle "When working with people with disabilities it is very important to focus on what a person can do not what they can't do"
Occupational Therapist
Tomas Flanagan "Occupational Therapy is all about the needs of the individual. You must understand these needs and always have this as the focus of your work."