Research Assistant in the Department of Psychology

Job id: 086487. Salary: £37,332 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 20 March 2024. Closing date: 02 April 2024.

Business unit: IoPPN. Department: Psychology.

Contact details:Professor Patrick Smith. [email protected]

Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Research.

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to join a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded research programme, which will evaluate a novel mindfulness intervention for adolescents with depression.

The intervention, Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers (MAC), is delivered in small groups to older adolescents (15-18 years old) who have a history of depression, and to their parents and carers in separate parallel groups.  The research programme will investigate MAC in several work packages:  (1) developing and delivering training and supervision in MAC for child mental health practitioners; (2) developing an App to support between-group practice; (3) running a multisite hybrid clinical and cost-effectiveness randomised controlled trial; (4) investigating potential mechanisms of therapeutic change; and (5) developing an implementation toolkit.

The current post is to support the successful running of the trial (work package 3) at the London site.  This will include supporting recruitment and assessment of young people and carers, assisting with intervention delivery, and data entry and management.  The postholder will also support the ongoing delivery of a bespoke week-long experiential training programme for child mental health practitioners.

The successful candidate will be an enthusiastic and motivated person. They will have an interest in working with young people with mental health difficulties and in developing and evaluating new psychological interventions.  They will be highly  organised with excellent communication and engagement skills. They will work well with others, and independently, show initiative when faced with challenges, and have good problem-solving skills.

The postholder will be based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN), Denmark Hill, South London, working under the direction and supervision of Prof Patrick Smith.  The postholder will also liaise with the wider study team including Chief Investigator Prof Tamsin Ford at Cambridge University, and collaborators in Exeter, Oxford, Nottingham, and Sussex.

This post will be offered on a full-time, fixed term contract for 12 months.

Key responsibilities

• To assist the project team in all aspects of project delivery
• To attend regular meetings with the work package leads, project team, and advisory group.
• To actively promote and support patient and public involvement and engagement in the project
• To take a central role in coordinating and maintaining trial recruitment in London
• To complete assessments of young people and carers at this site
• To ensure robust data collection, entry, and management
• To assist in delivering the MAC intervention as required
• To complete exit interviews with participants for qualitative analysis
• To assist in delivery of training workshops as required
• To maintain excellent communication with other trial sites
• Any other duties appropriate to the grade and project as agreed with supervisor.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1.       Degree in any life science (e.g. psychology, social science, clinical neuroscience, profession allied to medicine) at least at 2.i level or higher

2.       Experience of recruitment to trials of psychological interventions

3.       Experience of clinical assessments of young people and carers

4.       Experience of data collection entry and management

5.       Experience of working with young people

6.       Knowledge of mindfulness based mental health interventions.

7.       Knowledge of depression in young people

8.       Ability to show attention to detail and high standards of accuracy in all aspects of work

9.       Excellent interpersonal skills, report and scientific writing skills, ability to deliver information effectively through presentations

10.    Flexible and problem-solving approach to work

11.   Excellent IT skills in the following areas:

•       Word processing

•       Spreadsheets

•       Communication software

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience of trial coordination or management

2.       Experience of contributing to the development and/or delivery of training workshops

3.       Training and experience in teaching mindfulness

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearance.

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