The Senior Psychologist for Migraine will be a member of the Department of Psychology.

The post-holder will be expected to assist the Principal Clinical Psychologist/Head of Department to develop and manage the psychology services in within the hospital and to provide supervision and development opportunities for all staff and students within the service.

The clinical duties will include providing a psychology service to the Migraine service and patients directed to this service. This involves close working relationship with Neurology and Community support services (MAI).

It is an exciting opportunity to develop this growing specialist area within psychology and to develop psychological services for this vulnerable client group in collaboration with the leading community/patient advocacy service.

The aim of the Psychology role is to help address aspects of a person’s life experiences that may be contributing to their head pain; to help a person understand more about their pain; and develop ways of managing that are additional to or in place of medical management. Migraine and other headache conditions can interfere with several important areas of an individual’s life and can make everyday life and functioning very challenging. This can include helping patients in:

Identifying migraine/head pain triggers and supporting with making lifestyle changes.

Learning more about the relationship between stress and pain. This includes exploring how thoughts, feelings and behaviour are linked to pain

Learning additional ways of coping with migraine and head pain.

Learning how to manage and cope with difficult emotions.

Participating and facilitating group programmes.

Helping to find ways of reconnecting with what and who is important to you in your life.

Providing links to helpful resources; How can I find out more.

1. To ensure the provision of the highest standard of psychological practice and care to patients of Beaumont Hospital, and to work with the Principal Clinical Psychologist to ensure that clinical risk management practices and clinical audit form the basis of the standards of practice.

2. To provide psychology services to patients of Beaumont Hospital with a special interest in the long-term psychological consequences of Migraine.

3. To attend the appropriate team meetings and provide assessments and treatments for the cognitive, behavioural and emotional consequences of pain in collaboration with multi-disciplinary team members and relevant community services.

4. To provide ongoing supervision for the basic and trainee grades of staff, in accordance with guidelines as defined by the Psychology Society of Ireland. S/he may be responsible for the management of other staff as assigned by the Head of Department;

5. To undertake assessment, appropriate therapy interventions and preventative programmes and to liaise and co-ordinate with relevant professional staff in determining treatment options for clients.

6. To provide professional reports and information to other professional staff and such other reports as appropriate.

7. To participate actively in the ongoing training, lecturing, development and continuing education of staff and to establish links with the educational institutions with regard to under and post graduate training as appropriate.

8. To undertake research in psychology and to participate in the specialised research interests of the staff in the department and clinical service and to link with the ongoing research in Beaumont Hospital as relevant.

9. To provide a psychology service in line with Psychology Department service plans and objectives and within established guidelines and policy.

10. To contribute to the Annual service plan and review, to include work activities, with evidence of qualitative and quantitative outputs. To work on service development, general administration, budget management and general staff supervision and management for the care of patients with Pain symptoms, in conjunction with the Head of Department.

11. The Senior Psychologist will maintain collaborative working relationships with psychology colleagues, members of multidisciplinary team and as required, with outside agencies.

12. To manage continuing professional development, including availing of mandatory supervision in clinical psychology at an appropriate level as agreed with the Head of Department.

13. To carry out such other duties as may be assigned to him/her by the Head of Department of Psychology, Chief Executive or designated officer.

Mandatory

1. Professional Qualifications, Experience, etc.

Eligible applicants must:

i. Have a university degree or diploma (QQ1 level 8 equivalent) obtained with 1st or 2nd class
honours in which Psychology was taken as a major subject and honours obtained in that
subject.

And

ii. Have an Irish post-graduate professional psychology qualification accredited by the
Psychological Society of Ireland in Clinical, Counselling or Educational
Psychology.

Or

An equivalent qualification from another jurisdiction validated by the Department of Health.

And

iii. Demonstrate competence in the Care Group/s applied for.

And

iv. Applicants must have at least five years satisfactory post-graduate experience in the area of
professional psychology, no more than three years of which was spent in gaining the postgraduate professional qualification and no less than two years full-time spent in postqualification experience as a professional psychologist. Years in excess of the permitted three
years for completion of the post-graduate training or time not worked will not be taken into
consideration when assessing the five years’ experience requirement.

And

v. Applicants with a clinical or counselling psychology qualification must demonstrate that they
have acquired in appropriate health settings, for the area / areas for which they wish to
apply - Disability (Child and Adult), Child Psychology, Adult Psychology - either at least 60
days or equivalent supervised clinical placements as part of the professional qualification; or
at least 60 days or equivalent post-qualification supervised work experience as a
psychologist. Note 2.

Or

Applicants with an educational psychology qualification must demonstrate that they have
acquired in appropriate health settings for the area / areas for which they wish to apply -
Child Disability, Child Psychology - either at least 60 days or equivalent supervised clinical
placements as part of the professional qualification; or at least 60 days or equivalent postqualification supervised work experience as a psychologist. Note 2.

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Note 2: Combinations of supervised clinical placement experience as part of the qualification
and post qualification supervised work experience within a single care group area to
give a total of 60 days are not acceptable.

 It is desirable to have the following experience:

• Experience and extensive knowledge in psychological assessment and a broad range of treatment procedures;
• Have experience in supervision of trainee grade & basic grade clinical psychology positions;
• Have a proven track record in Psychology research as the appointee will have the opportunity to develop specific research interests in headache and migraine;
• Have a proven record of involvement with the management of a psychology service, experience in assisting service development, general and budget management and general staff supervision;
• It is desirable to have an interest and preferably experience in the assessment and treatment of hospital patients with medical conditions;
• Have the ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.  Thus, the appointee will possess excellent written and oral communication skills and will participate in case conferences and ward rounds                                    

Informal enquiries to Mr Mark Mulrooney Head of Department of Psychology by telephoning 01 8092601 or e-mail markmulrooney@beaumont.ie