An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced occupational therapist to build upon their knowledge and skill base in the area of Frailty syndromes.

The successful candidate will be working as a part of The Frailty Virtual ward Halton, the virtual ward provides a collaborative partnership across Frailty services Urgent Community Response, inpatient units, outpatients and community services.

As an autonomous practitioner you will be responsible for enabling the client to achieve and maintain a level of independent functioning to remain within the home environment or the most appropriate alternative community setting.

The post holder will be an integral member of the multi-disciplinary Virtual ward Frailty Team

The primary function of the role is to maximise the patients health, clinically assess and treat patients in a defined group and reduce risks that contribute to ill health, thereby reducing unnecessary admissions to acute services, reducing demand on GP time and facilitating the delivery of efficient, effective, co-ordinated and timely high quality care to frailty patients over 18 in the community.

Please contact Lydia Vallance-Prentice for any information regarding this post.

Lydia.vallance-prentice1@nhs.net

Main duties of the job

Please see the full job description & person specification attached for a full list of duties.

Duties and Responsibilities

To provide high quality, specialist Occupational therapy assessments and planning therapy intervention and discharging for community-based patients, living with a broad range of complex rehabilitation needs/impairments and frailty syndromes.

Use evidence-based pathways of care informing these interventions as appropriate.

To work as a lone and autonomous practitioner within the community

To work as part of an experienced Multi-disciplinary team.

To independently manage a caseload of clients in the community with complex/highly complex needs as an autonomous practitioner.

To demonstrate specialist post qualification experience with skills and knowledge in working with patients who are clinically complex in their presentation

To provide specialist Occupational therapy advice/assessment to and confer with other healthcare professionals on the assessment, treatment and care of patients referred to the Community Team ensuring a high professional standard of care including complex triage process.

To be responsible for managing and prioritising a complex and specialist caseload and workload independently, working in line with local and national policies and procedures

About us

Flexible working will be considered for all roles.

Unfortunately, we do not hold a sponsor licence for working Visas.

At Bridgewater, our PEOPLE values shape how we deliver our NHS services in your local community.

They help us deliver our mission to improve local health and promote wellbeing in the communities we serve.

After all, values are about people and they were created in partnership with our staff to reflect what they felt was important to them

Here at Bridgewater our shared values flow through the organisation.

P- Person-centred-We are passionate about individual needs and promote independence in the healthcare we provide..

E- Empowered- We empower our people and encourage new ideas to deliver and create improvements in community care.

O- Open and Honest -We behave in a way that develops relationships based on trust, openness, honesty and respect.

P- Professional-We support our people, so everyone has the right skills and training to deliver outstanding patient care.

L- Locally Lead -We are always learning about our communities and show great pride in being a local provider of health and care.

E- Efficient -We use our resources wisely to provide sustainable and value for money healthcare for our patients.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

To provide high quality, specialist Occupational therapy assessments and planning therapy intervention and discharging for community-based patients, living with a broad range of complex rehabilitation needs/impairments and frailty syndromes. Using evidence-based pathways of care informing these interventions as appropriate.

To work as a lone and autonomous practitioner within the community

To independently manage a caseload of clients in the community with complex/highly complex needs as an autonomous practitioner.

To demonstrate specialist post qualification experience with skills and knowledge in working with patients who are clinically complex in their presentation

To provide specialist Occupational therapy advice/assessment to and confer with other healthcare professionals on the assessment, treatment and care of patients referred to the Community Team ensuring a high professional standard of care including complex triage process.

To be responsible for managing and prioritising a complex and specialist caseload and workload independently, working in line with local and national policies and procedures

To work flexible hours to meet the needs of patients and the service, including meetings, education sessions and home visits where appropriate.

A large proportion of the work includes accessing homes of clients who are unable to maintain themselves or their homes in a hygienic manner.

To be aware that clients may demonstrate antisocial or abusive behaviour due to their condition, and to know how to act accordingly.

The work requires high levels of concentration due to unpredictable interruptions in the working environment.

The ability to travel freely across Halton is essential

To perform occupational analysis and risk evaluation leading to the formulation on intervention options which reduce the consequence of disability and optimize the patients functional ability and independence

To use a range of standardized and non-standardized assessment tools and techniques to identify presenting strengths and difficulties and identify the need for these within the service.

To refine treatment techniques in line with most recent evidence of clinical effectiveness by evaluating and implementing key developments and promoting discussion within the Occupational Therapy service.

To devise, deliver and oversee rehabilitation programmes and outcomes which other members of the multidisciplinary team may implement.

To fulfil legal requirements and demonstrate clinical reasoning within documentation.

To actively ensure the implementation of and adherence to issues associated with clinical governance, policies and procedures of the Trust and the Standards of the College of Occupational Therapy.

To use a client centred goal focussed approach using a range of specialised treatment interventions, and to continually evaluate these in order to determine further needs including regular specialist goal setting meetings.

To demonstrate highly specialist knowledge and assessment skills around the provision of specialist/bespoke equipment to improve function eg. Environmental aids and minor adaptations and to instruct clients and their carers in safe use of this and either arrange provision via Community Equipment Services or to advise re private purchase or provision by other agencies.

To consider the needs of carers to ensure necessary support systems are in place and to involve them in the rehabilitation process. Where necessary to invite other involved parties to a case conference to enable an interdisciplinary and interagency focus to the clients care and to effectively ensure their needs are met.

Through advanced clinical reasoning and analysis, to identify clients needs, establish clinical risk and to liaise and refer clients to relevant services including other healthcare services, healthcare professionals, and voluntary agencies as appropriate ie alcohol services and advocacy

To manage own emotional responses and remain objective, calm, and professional with clients in high emotional and physical distress and regularly deal with sensitive/complex information and stressful environments.

To understand the psychological processes of loss in order to provide clients with empathy and reassurance.

To have knowledge and understanding of group skills and to assist in developing group rehabilitation programmes.

To work collaboratively with other clinicians to influence service development and ensure quality of care is delivered
Communication
To be an active member of the MDT, and facilitate effective communication within the community services and the larger Rehabilitation Network by attending regular team meetings as appropriate.

To represent effectively the unique Occupational Therapy perspective on assessment and treatment within the multidisciplinary team from a specialist perspective.

To act as an advocate on behalf of clients by adopting a client centred approach to support meaningful participation in life roles.

To develop a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the role of the other disciplines within the community teams and a knowledge of the impact of their role on Occupational therapy practice

To build effective links and to strengthen working relationships, with health and social care service professionals as well as private and voluntary agencies.

To attend/actively participate in and facilitate Occupational Therapy meetings and specialist community rehabilitation professional meetings as required.

To play a significant role in the effective internal and external two way communication with patients, carers and all other Health and Social Care professionals regarding all aspects of patient care. This will include highly sensitive and complex clinical information and may include clients with communication or cognitive impairments

To provide and receive high levels of complex information that requires empathy, tact and reassurance, and utilise the required skills when communicating in situations where there may be barriers to understanding

To give accurate and concise feed back regarding individual clients progress in clinical meetings and discussions, so that appropriate and consistent treatment, aims and objectives can be formulated and enacted.

To utilise formal and informal reporting mechanisms, including electronic and hand-written reporting to ensure effective internal and external communications. To ensure all documentation is accurate and professional in line with Trust policy.

To educate both formally and informally, other professionals, including doctors, nurses qualified and unqualified Allied Health Professionals and students in own area of clinical expertise

To maintain confidentiality consistent with the Trust and Service policies.

Managerial & Leadership

To provide the managers with specialist advice on the planning and development of the Community Service

To play an active role in assisting the managers in achieving the departmental objectives and promoting an open style of management

To provide day to day caseload manager and clinical supervision to junior staff, students and assistant therapists including formulation of PDRs/My Plan and local induction

To actively participate in and develop the professional development programme of the physiotherapy and occupational therapy department (including rehabilitation assistants)

To be responsible for collection of statistics / records as required nationally and departmentally and to ensure that confidentiality is maintained

To coordinate the work of the community team at an operational level ensuring the efficient running of the service and effective dissemination of information

To represent Physiotherapy / Therapy Services on the service development committees within the Network and the WCFT

To assist with the developing and reviewing procedures, protocols and service directives within the Occupational Therapy Service

To contribute to and influence multi-disciplinary service development issues.

To ensure that all clinical documentation is kept up to date and meets local and professional standards.

To collect and monitor clinical statistics and report service fluctuations to line manager when required or necessary.

To be a Fieldwork Educator to Occupational Therapy students, including daily supervision, assessment, grading, writing reports and liaising with the relevant university.

To keep abreast of government initiatives and incorporate these changes to ensure the effective and efficient running of the service, and service development.

To ensure Occupational Therapy cover is available for the team during planned absences and to provide cover for Occupational Therapy colleagues in other areas during holiday periods and staff sickness as required

To effectively manage own time, prioritising workload demands and demonstrating flexibility according to current resources and staffing.

Clinical Governance

To comply with health and safety policies of the Trust including adhering to Lone

Working Procedures and undertaking all Trust mandatory training at the required intervals

To be involved in the development of departmental procedures, SOPs and guidelines on areas of clinical relevance

To contribute to and take appropriate action in seeking to fulfill the action plans of the WCFT and Rehabilitation Network in compliance with clinical governance and national guidelines

To ensure that any equipment, furniture or building in need of repair is reported to the correct authority

To be involved in clinical audit through developing and actively participating in audits within the Community service and the Therapy departmentTo promote best clinical practice for the Community therapy service ensuring a high standard of patient care is provided.

To comply with the Data Protection Act and Caldicott recommendations

To comply with the Royal College of Occupational therapists standards and rules of professional conduct.

Person Specification

Additional Criteria

Essential

• Do you have the right to stay and work in the UK without sponsorship (share-codes will be checked if applicable)
• If you are related to a director, or have a relationship with a director o
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  C9835-HA24-116