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.

Senior Occupational Therapist (Band 7)

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic clinician to join our friendly and exciting Urgent Response Team. You will be expected to have a broad range of experience of occupational therapy. Experience in assessing and developing treatment plans for older people and for people with physical disabilities is essential.

You will be jointly, leading the OT team and responsible for providing clinical and therapeutic guidance to colleagues working with people with complex needs, to enable the team to undertake service development, changes of service, practice, and ways of working to enable effective inter-discipline working.

The urgent response team works closely within the bed based intermediate care service, Virtual ward, Rapid response, urgent therapy provision. You work in a large newly created service with other members of the MDT. You will be expected to join our weekend rota to cover 7 days a week (enhanced pay)

Main duties of the job

Main duties of the job

• Your role of as a Band 7 Occupational Therapist will involve:Managing complex cases assess, treat and rehabilitate community patients in their own homes within the Haringey borough, as part of urgent care service and a community rehab team.
• You will provide specialist assessments, interventions, guidance to support patients in their home environments and escalate risks, train staff and service users.
• You will be expected to supervise senior/junior OT's.
• Support service managers to implement change.
• Actively participate in service development and staff management.

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 independently manage a caseload of complex cases, providing specialist occupational therapy assessment and interventions to clients with complex physical, cognitive and psycho-social needs arising from their medical conditions. To provide this service in the most appropriate setting to the client, e.g. clients homes, workplace and other community settings, working closely with the client, his/her family/carer and other professionals in doing this.

To be responsible for prioritising the occupational therapy referrals within the service to ensure that clients with urgent needs are seen within appropriate timescales.

To establish excellent therapeutic relationships with clients/family/carers to gain their participation in the therapeutic process by employing advanced interpersonal skills (e.g. communication, reasoning, negotiation skills, motivational tactics) and overcoming any barriers to communication (e.g. different languages, lack of understanding of the spoken word, visual or hearing impairments, fear, anxiety).

To assess for and diagnose any functional, physical, cognitive, perceptual, psychological and sensory deficits using functional assessments together with specialised standardised and non-standardised assessment batteries.

Based on the analysis of the assessment and a risk analysis, to determine occupational therapy aims and treatment goals as part of the overall care plan, and then to formulate intervention options which reduce the impact of disability.

To work closely with the patient/family/carers to encourage participation in the therapeutic process. To negotiate and agree decisions relevant to the patients management whilst respecting their diversity. To identify and select the most appropriate intervention options available, which balance the complex interactions of risk, safety, client choice, independence, areas of conflict, eligibility for services and cost effectiveness.

To develop specialised occupational therapy treatment programmes in collaboration with clients, carers and other involved professionals (e.g. physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, district nurses, clinical lead professionals, home care agencies) to be carried out in the clients home or community as appropriate.

To plan, coordinate and deliver client-centred interventions on either an individual or group basis, using the principles of graded activity and a wide range of treatment techniques e.g. functional and remedial activities, splinting, equipment provision, education and health promotion.

To communicate effectively and work collaboratively with therapy colleagues and community services GP's, Nurses, Social Services, home care agencies, voluntary sector) to ensure the delivery of a coordinated multi-disciplinary service, e.g. providing written reports or verbally reporting complex and sensitive information in case conferences, multidisciplinary client discussion meetings, or where patients require major adaptations.

To use specialised therapeutic moving and handling skills in the assessment and treatment of clients, including providing advice and training to client/family/carers on correct handling techniques, having undertaken specialised manual handling risk assessments.

Using specialised clinical reasoning and critical thinking, to analyse the assessments made by others for equipment and adaptation and to be signatory to authorise equipment for junior staff.

To provide specialist advice on lifestyles, role, functional abilities, self care and the physical environment after taking account of the effects of any medical conditions on the individual and his/her family/carers, e.g. energy conservation, fatigue management.

To prescribe and coordinate interventions to be carried out by others, such as rehabilitation technicians or carers/families, and to train them to carry out the therapeutic programmes as appropriate to the home or community environment.

To use advanced clinical reasoning, critical thinking and reflection to monitor, evaluate and modify treatment, evaluate outcomes and thus ensure effectiveness of interventions.

To provide expert occupational therapy clinical advice to staff across urgent and locality services and to other health care professionals, in relation to the area of specialist knowledge and skills.

To participate in the triage of all referrals for urgent care and locality streams of service, determining appropriateness and urgency of referrals for OT/PT/SLT/RT.

To maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation which is consistent with legal, professional and organisational requirements.

To ensure that services offered are responsive to the needs of all users, including their cultural, religious and linguistic needs, and the needs of users with disabilities.

To ensure that services are provided in accordance with the policies and procedures of Whittington Health NHS, The College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (College of Occupational Therapists 2015), the NW Localitys policies and procedures, and that the quality standards and national guidelines (e.g. National Service Frameworks) are maintained by self and designated junior staff.

To undertake management and leadership training as required to meet the needs of the post, e.g. appraisal, supervision skills, time management, audit.

To provide leadership, support, guidance, teaching, clinical supervision and appraisal to junior/senior occupational therapists and rehabilitation support workers.

You will be part of staff management recruitment, staff sickness management etc.

To collect relevant statistical information and activity data in accordance with Trust, professional and NCL requirements. To ensure that designated junior staff do likewise.

To be responsible for maintaining a CPD portfolio which clearly demonstrates that competencies required within the post are achieved and maintained.

We expect the post holder to have a can do attitude and be willing to work in a flexible manner within the MDT to work together to achieve the best outcomes for the service user. The post holder will receive a thorough induction and regular operational supervision.

Person Specification

Indicate essentials and evidence of experiencence

Essential

• Degree or Diploma in Occupational therapy
• Registration with the Health Care Professions Council
• At least 3 years work in physical health setting at a Band 6 or above.

Desirable

• Higher degree/MSc. relevant to the area of practice.

Evidence of skills and knowledge

Essential

• Able to apply problem-solving skills to highly complex situations, which may include clinical or organisational issues.
• Experience of supervising junior and non-qualified staff, including participation in personal development reviews.
• Experience of organising, writing and delivering in-service training programmes.

Desirable

• Evidence of attendance of post-graduate training related to the post

Essential Criteria needs to be met

Essential

• Degree or Diploma in Occupational therapy
• Registration with the Health Care Professions Council
• At least 3 years work in physical health setting at a Band 6 or above.
• Experience of working in the NHS.

Desirable

• Member of the College of Occupational Therapists and relevant Clinical Interest Group e.g. COT SS - neurological practice
• Higher degree/MSc. relevant to the area of practice.
• Experience of working within a community setting

Demonstrate experience at band 6 level

Essential

• At least 3 years work in a physical health setting at a Band 6 or above.
• Experience of working in the NHS

Desirable

• Experience of working within a community setting

Demonstrate good knowledge and skills

Essential

• Knowledge of other medical conditions which you may encounter including, but not exclusively, mental health, cognitive deficits and conditions of old age.
• Knowledge of outcome measure tools relevant to community Occupational therapy, and ability to select and justify their use.
• Able to communicate highly complex and sensitive information in written, verbal and presentational form to patients, carers and staff within the Trust and across other organisations.
• Highly developed clinical reasoning skills with an ability to develop client centred, realistic and achievable goals.
• high level of organisation skills and ability to prioritise caseloads and identify areas of unmet need
• Able to identify and recognise when to seek advice and support concerning clinical, managerial, professional or organisational issues.
• Able to demonstrate staff management and mentoring skills supervised
  Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.
  
  220-WHT-1566-B