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Provincial Preschool Autism Services

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Manager of Provincial Preschool Autism Services, the clinical psychologist position is responsible for completing clinical diagnostic assessments of children who are suspected of having a diagnosis of autism. The role may serve both preschool and school age children (note the Provincial Preschool Autism Service will also coordinate diagnostic assessments for school age children). Multiple strategies are underway to enhance access to autism assessments province-wide while intervention services are being enhanced and the Psychologist will play a key role in providing high quality, evidence-based assessment services to children and their families.
  

All psychologists will work as part of a broader provincial team to support autism diagnostics and collaborate as part of an integrated service delivery model for the Provincial Preschool Autism Service (PPAS). As a result, Psychologists may/will also support PPAS clinical interventions through direct clinical service for families, caregiver education, or clinical consultation and collaboration with families and interprofessional team members as part of PPAS intervention services (i.e., interprofessional teams, intensive service, care coordination, etc). 

Team members completing Diagnostic Assessments are part of the Provincial Preschool Autism Service and are integrated with existing autism diagnostic services provincially. Diagnostic assessments will be coordinated provincially through a provincial clinical intake service and a provincial waitlist. Diagnostic services are supported by provincial clinical leadership and the goal is to reduce variations in access to autism assessment for families, meet standard wait time benchmarks, and support all clinicians to maintain professional competencies. 

Depending on expertise and experience and/or skills developed through the course of employment with PPAS, the psychologist will work with various teams to provide direct, consultative, or collaborative services with interprofessional autism intervention teams and with families to provide foundational education, caregiver coaching, care coordination, and transition to school-based intervention services. The proportion of time dedicated to each activity will vary by position and community, depending on needs of the team and families.

Hours of Work

8:30 am to 4:30 pm; Monday to Friday
45 hours bi-weekly 

Your Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology (PhD / PsyD).
• Minimum of one year of full-time predoctoral residency in relevant area (e.g., Clinical Child Psychology, Pediatric Health Psychology, Forensic Psychology). 
• 3 – 5 years of doctoral training that includes academic training, research training including a dissertation, a minimum of 600 completed clinical practicum hours, and a full year residency program. 
• Registration or eligibility for registration with the Nova Scotia Board of Examiners in Psychology (NSBEP) that includes a minimum of one-year post-doctoral supervision. 
• One-year post-doctoral supervision involves monthly meetings with a Ph.D. Psychologist to evaluate core competencies (i.e., assessment and evaluation, intervention, research, application of ethical standards, interpersonal relationships, report preparation and record management, and knowledge of key legislative acts relevant to the practice of psychology) and work towards criterion-based goals.
• Completion of yearly continuing education requirements. 
• Training and experience in the use of standard autism assessment instrument, specifically the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedules-2 (ADOS-2) and other related autism assessment and cognitive assessment instruments is required.  Supervised training will be provided by the employer for candidates who meet all other job requirements but do not have specific autism diagnostic experience. Clinical experience and flexibility in assessment procedures is required to accommodate wide individual variability in presentation and respond to the limitations of available tools and evidence
• Theories and methods of psychological diagnosis, assessment, and intervention
• Specialized knowledge in development and psychopathology, biological bases of behaviour, personality theories, and interpersonal relationships
• Rapport building with diverse populations, integrative report writing, diagnostic formulation, assessment and intervention, development of treatment plans and evaluation of outcomes / reassessment across the course of treatment, research methodology and statistical skills for outcome evaluation and program evaluation.
• Ability to integrate research and client information from diverse sources, combine this information into a coherent case formulation and treatment plan and communicate the formulation and plan to diverse individuals.
• Ability to provide mentorship and clinical supervision.
• Competencies in other languages an asset.