Job summary

Community Occupational Therapist (Band 6)

Contract - Permanent. Full-time 37.5 hours per week

The role of the Occupational Therapist is to assess, treat and rehabilitate community patients in their own homes within the Haringey borough and have the opportunity to work across community streams of service including; stroke, neuro, community rehab and falls, and urgent care services. The post holder will receive a thorough induction and regular supervision.

Come and join our friendly and supportive community team and receive;

Golden handshake of �1,000 after a year in post for external candidates.

A refer a friend scheme where both WH referrer and external new starter receive �250 after 3 months and a further �250 each after the new starter has been in post for a year.

Please click here to see a video of what it is like to work in Adult Community Services, Whittington Health:https://vimeo.com/585737658

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will provide a comprehensive and high quality OT and care management to community patients with simple to complex needs within the Haringey borough.
• The post holder will be actively involved in team and service developments with the support of line manager.
• To develop strong working relationships within the multidisciplinary team.
• To provide supervision to junior therapy staff, and OT students whilst on placement in the service.
• To be actively involved in Continuing Professional Development.
• To be involved in caseload management with varied patients who have mobility, musculoskeletal, cognitive, neurological problems, terminal illnesses and life limiting conditions.

About us

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trustbelieves that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job description

Job responsibilities

CLINICAL

To be professionally and legally accountable for all work undertaken. To work within the standards and guidelines of the team, the Trust, BAOT, HPC AND COT code of ethics.

To ensure that the client and or their carer has an understanding of treatment protocols and gives informed consent to assessment and treatment.

To undertake specialist occupational therapy assessment of clients with diverse needs through subjective questioning, objective assessment and other written material available.

To prioritise factors involved in the clients presenting condition through clinical reasoning based on knowledge of current professional opinion, clients prognosis and other physical, social emotional and mental health issues.

To set goals for treatment with clients and/or their carer and ensure that care is client centred and agreed by the client and/or their carer.

To set and maintain a high standard of clinical practice which is evidence based where possible, using standardised assessment and outcome measures, where appropriate.

To independently screen and assess complex multi-disciplinary referrals from a variety of sources. This screening requires individual responsible action when at times no other professional is currently involved. This screening will establish priority, determine needs and initiate a plan of intervention.

To manage a caseload of clients with simple to complex needs with supervision and guidance as necessary from senior staff. To successfully monitor, evaluate and review occupational therapy treatment/interventions within a multi-disciplinary framework and to modify as necessary taking a care coordinator role as indicated.

Develop and conduct Occupational Therapy intervention with clients assessing their occupational needs and addressing quality of life, and physical, cognitive, affective, social, and environmental issues utilising appropriate individual or group treatment methods.

To use developed physical skills in client interventions, such as upper limb rehabilitation, activities of daily living, splint fabrication/orthoses (hand splints).

To devise and manage a treatment plan individual to a clients presenting condition through, for example the use of functional rehabilitation, adaptation, equipment provision, education and health promotion.

To work autonomously in isolated community situations which vary in relation to local socio-economic and multi-cultural issues with telephone support available if required.

To use knowledge of other multi-disciplinary roles and external agencies to ensure effective referral management and achieve best client care.

To have the ability, knowledge and skills required for moving and handling people in community environments.

To be physically able to install specialist occupational therapy equipment in client homes applying safe manual handling at all times, especially when doing so in restricted spaces

To ensure client and service records are recorded and maintained on IT databases and that client documentation is according to trust and local policies.

To prescribe, delegate and monitor the work of rehabilitation assistants and counter sign documentation.

To educate and teach the relevant carers/health workers to participate in on-going rehabilitation care programmes for clients, as appropriate.

To actively be involved in the development of new specialist clinical services within the Team, with support and guidance from Senior OT staff.

To manage clinical risk in own caseload and ensure that rehabilitation assistants and students comply e.g. manual handling risk assessment and local policy regarding lone working.

To be responsible for management of clinical risk within own caseload and that of rehabilitation assistance and work delegated to students.

To maintain and update a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio (CPD).

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree/Diploma OT
• postgrad experience in variety of teams
• HCPC registratoin

Desirable

• Experience of working in the community
• Has NHS qualified experience

Experience

Essential

• An appropriate level of experience is essential for this post and this should be relevant and supportable.
• Knowledge &experience working with falls, clients with dementia, and clients with neurological and other frailty related conditions.
• Advanced knowledge and application of core OT skills in both physical and mental health areas.
• Knowledge and experience of a range of treatment techniques appropriate to intermediate care/reablement setting.

Desirable

• Previous Band 6 experience
• Experience of involvement in clinical governance/service developments initiatives.
• Experience of supervising junior and non-qualified staff, including participation in personal development reviews.

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Able to communicate complex and sensitive information in written, verbal and presentational form to patients, carers and staff within the Trust and across other organisations.
• Essential IT skills, including Word and PowerPoint.
• Clinical reasoning with an ability to develop client centred, realistic and achievable goals.
• Understanding of issues involved in offering a service to a diverse community, and of practical ways to ensure that the service is culturally appropriate and accessible.
• Able to identify and recognise when to seek advice and support concerning clinical, managerial, professional or organisational issues.
• High level of organisation skills and ability to prioritise own caseload

Other Qualities

Essential

• Willingness to work on any site as service requirements dictate, and as appropriate.

Desirable

• Willingness to work on any site as service requirements dictate, and as appropriate.

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

220-WHT-1120