Occupational Therapist London, England
Job description
This is an exciting opportunity for an Occupational Therapist with a keen interest and some previous experience in mental health to work on one of the adult inpatient mental health wards at St Charles Mental Health Unit. The post holder will be based on one of the adult treatment wards as an integral member of the ward multi-disciplinary team, working alongside medical staff, nursing staff, an activities coordinator, peer support worker, fitness instructor and arts psychotherapy colleagues. The post is suitable for an individual looking for part time hours.
You will need to be a motivated and flexible team player with excellent verbal and written communication skills. You will hold a current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
St Charles Mental Health Unit in Kensington & Chelsea has four adult inpatient wards plus two PICU wards that provide a safe and therapeutic environment for people with acute mental health problems. The unit is a short walk from Ladbroke Grove station with good transport links.
The post holder will develop, facilitate and evaluate therapeutic groups and individual interventions as a part of the multi-disciplinary ward programme. The Occupational Therapy role is to provide assessment and intervention to individuals, identifying barriers to discharge and supporting individuals to gain maximum independence throughout their admission and the right level of support when they leave the unit. This may include the assessment of activities of daily living, the use of standardised assessment tools, prescribing equipment and making recommendations for future accommodation or care packages.
There will be opportunities to develop supervision skills through providing supervision for the ward activity coordinator and providing placements to OT students.
The ward OT is a key member of ward multidisciplinary meetings, care formulation meetings and supports the overall work of the ward. There are established links with Home Treatment Teams, CMHTS and various local agencies.
There will be professional development opportunities and the chance to expand your skills. There is an OT for each of the six wards at St Charles Mental Health Unit, supported by a Lead OT. The Occupational Therapy posts are ward based although there are regular meetings, informal liaison and opportunities for joint working with other OT staff.
Come and join us and be one of the friendly and supportive 1500 Therapists / AHP’s in CNWL. You could have a career for life with us and maintain your dual skills. Personal and professional development is a high priority for the profession this enables us to invest in the development of our staff by providing excellent internal training as well as commissioning specialised external training and providing quality supervision. This ensures all our therapists / AHP’s reach their full potential at every stage of their career. Our commitment to research, audit and evidence-based practice is made possible by our strong links with local universities and our CNWL AHP Research Network.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are a priority for us in CNWL we expect staff to be culturally competent, reflective and open to culturally diverse CPD opportunities. We are working hard support the recruitment and development of staff from all protected characteristics and welcome applications from any interested applicants. We recognise that the step between student and professional needs support so we have invested fully in our Band 5s development through robust supervision, a preceptorship programme and internal training. Success at preceptorship enables them to then be an educator for students. Career development opportunities are available and many of our Band 5s chose to stay with us in senior posts.
Thank you for your interest in our Band 5 Occupational Therapy post.
Please see the job description attached for further information.
CNWL is very fortunate in having a long-established professional structure and this includes a Head of Therapies, an AHP associate director, Trust wide Professional Leads for all professional groups and borough and specialist professional leadership. This has the huge benefit of ensuring representation of our profession and therapies as a whole at all levels - both strategically and operationally.
CNWL Therapies web page: https://staff.cnwl.nhs.uk/i-want-info/professions/therapies
Clinical
1.1 To provide specialist, culturally appropriate, evidence based occupational therapy assessments for service users on the Treatment ward in order to establish and meet their occupational needs.
1.2 To provide full vocational needs assessment, advice and on-going intervention related to an individual’s vocational needs.
1.3 To select and use validated standardised assessment tools routinely and in practice, exhibiting clinical reasoning skills; to include the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) assessments.
1.4 To apply clinical knowledge and skills to carry out evidence based occupational therapy interventions, both individual and in groups, which are underpinned by relevant theoretical approaches and in line with the Trust’s Research and Development Strategy.
1.5 To plan, implement and review individually tailored programmes of intervention using individual and group work approaches.
1.6 To support service users and colleagues to ensure that care plans are developed in partnership with the individual and that they reflect ‘recovery goals’. These should be strengths-based and oriented towards reinforcing a positive identity and developing valued social roles.
1.7 To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions against clear aims, objectives and outcome measures in line with evidence based practice and in conjunction with service users, carers and other professionals.
1.8 To establish links with the CNWL Recovery College.
1.9 To apply a level of understanding of the effects of mental illness and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the service user’s social and physical environment.
1.10 To determine the impact of mental and physical conditions on service user’s functional ability and undertake assessment/make recommendations with regards to the provision of equipment/aids and adaptations.
1.11 To be aware of medication issues in line with the CNWL OT Medication Management guidelines.
1.12 To follow local protocol and obtain recommended equipment and/or liaise with local providers of equipment to ensure provision as appropriate.
1.13 To proactively undertake and ensure rigorous risk assessment & risk management strategies are applied. To ensure maximum ‘risk tolerance’ facilitates the individual’s recovery, in line with risk policies and local guidelines.
1.14 To work in partnership with other agencies and offer supervision and guidance to external agencies as required.
1.15 For Practitioners to be aware of and sensitive to the safeguarding needs of children and adults in their work, and knowledgeable both about potential indicators of abuse or neglect and about what to do if they had concerns about a child's or adult's welfare.
1.16 To identify carers needs in line with CPA policy and national requirements.
1.17 To support service users in relation to their physical health, employment, and housing and welfare benefits issues; referring to specialist provider services as necessary.
1.18 To provide OT consultation to other professionals within the team.
1.19 To provide all service users on caseload with a full adult mental health assessment and offer regular monitoring of mental state.
1.20 To complete the HONOS screening clustering tool and implement subsequent identified OT care package.
1.21 To facilitate effective links with community resources in order that a socially inclusive focus towards treatment and discharge planning is maintained.
1.22 To facilitate smooth transitions between the ward and community settings for service users being discharged from the ward.
