King's College London

About us

This is a fantastic opportunity for a Research Assistant Psychologist for a new Wellcome funded study, SloMo2.  SloMo is a digitally supported, cognitive-behavioural therapy for psychosis that improves fear of harm from others (or paranoia). The SloMo2 study will investigate if SloMo therapy can be delivered in real world settings, by conducting a clinical investigation of its implementation, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness in three NHS Trusts. The postholder will assist in the running of the study in the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and there will also be opportunities for therapy delivery. The postholder will join a friendly study team that is led Dr Amy Hardy. 

The post will be supervised by Dr Sarah Swan, Therapy Lead, and Dr Katie Taylor, Study Coordinator. The postholder will work alongside a lived experience researcher and liaise closely with routine care psychological practitioners to facilitate recruitment and data collection.

About the role

The postholder will be responsible for working in accordance with the National Institute of Health Research principles of Good Clinical Practice. Tasks include liaison with multidisciplinary teams and therapists; study promotion; eliciting and managing referrals; participant recruitment;  informed consent; data collection of quantitative (i.e. implementation, clinical, service use, technical and safety) and qualitative (i.e. service user experience of therapy) outcomes; technical support. The postholder will have weekly line management supervision, and group supervision with the Research Assistant Psychologists and Lived Experience Researchers from other sites.

SloMo aims to improve access, experience, and outcomes of psychological therapy for psychosis. The software was inclusively designed with people with lived experience of paranoia in psychosis. SloMo consists of 11 sessions with a therapist supported by an online therapy platform, and a personalised mobile app to assist management of worries in daily life. It works by targeting fast thinking habits and encouraging slow thinking, supporting people to find ways of feeling safer and living well. In our large, multi-centre RCT, SloMo was found to be efficacious, and highly engaging and deliverable, with improvements demonstrated in paranoia, worry, self-concept, quality of life and wellbeing, which were sustained over 6 months (Garety et al, 2021; Greenwood et al, 2021; Hardy et al, 2022; Ward et al, 2021).  NICE recently recommended SloMo for use in the NHS whilst data is generated to address evidence gaps, which the SloMo2 study aims to do, to inform future guidance.

The post holder will be based at the IoPPN, Denmark Hill, London. However, the work will be undertaken across participating teams, including early intervention, community mental health and inpatient services, with home visits. It will predominantly occur within the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust with potential for travel to other local participating NHS Trusts.

This is a full time (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered an a fixed term contract until 31/08/2025.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1.       Degree (2:1 or higher) in Psychology

2.       Excellent IT skills including Word, Excel, and data management systems, with the ability to support software installation and onboarding, and troubleshoot technical problems, for people experiencing digital exclusion

3.       Excellent organisational skills, including planning, problem solving, and attention to detail

4.       Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including ability to engage patients, carers, local communities, clinicians, and researchers

5.       Understanding of NIHR Good Clinical Practice, including informed consent and confidentiality, and data protection.

6.       Experience of managing complex data, including maintaining high standards in data input, cleaning, summarising and reporting

7.       Experience of working with people with complex mental health needs and demonstrable understanding of needs

8.       Demonstrable commitment to supporting equality, diversity, and inclusion, including anti-racist practice

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience of delivering psychologically-informed interventions

2.       Experience of media content creation

3.       Interest in the arts and mental health

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘ How we Recruit’ pages.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK. Please note this is dependent on the salary offered which is based on your experience and will be discussed at the offer stage.

  This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearances.

We reserve the right to close the advert earlier than advertised if a sufficient number of applications have been received.