Occupational Therapy Assistant London, England
Job description
The Occupational Therapy Assistant role is an innovative and pivotal role to supporting the work of the Occupational Therapy service.
The post holder will exemplify best practice in working with adults in strengths based and person centred way, connecting people with informal, community based support wherever possible. You and other team members will be fully committed to working in partnership with residents, carers, community based organisations and other key professionals involved in enabling people to be as independent as they possibly can.
The team works with local health providers to assess the needs of individuals and provide appropriate support and promote independence. This may include arranging for aids or adaptations or referring service users to other agencies that can also assist with a focus on rehabilitation and support.
The Occupational Therapy Assistant will carry out basic OT assessments and be able to assess for minor/major adaptations, recommend equipment and assistive technology to help people maximise their independence and work with them to meet their goals.
Our aim is to create a health and social care workforce that works seamlessly together to improve outcome for residents. This will included an integrated point of access which supports effective and efficient multidisciplinary decision making and planning, to reduce delays, avoiding duplication and bridge gaps, whilst ensuring the delivery of the right support at the right time to optimise independence and confidence, enable recovery and prevent decline.
We will enable people to live healthy independent lives for as long as possible in their own homes, or the place they call home
- to provide appropriate support at home to prevent hospital admission
- reduce the need for escalation of care to non-home settings
- facilitate timely return to their usual place of residence following temporary escalations of care to non-home settings
- support the collaborative working required to deliver the requirements of the hospital discharge operating model
Interviews: To be confirmed
Deliver strengths based quality conversations, signposting and early intervention and prevention which enable our residents to lead healthy independent lives outside of formal adult social care wherever possible
Maintain a comprehensive knowledge of and proactively build links with all resources available to support people in a strengths based way, such as community organisations, assistive technology, equipment, provider services, information and advice.
To have knowledge of a range of equipment, to enable service users to be safe and independent whilst complying with relevant legislation and guidance and facilitate adaptations to people’s homes through consultation with service users and other professionals as appropriate.
Work in a multi-disciplinary team alongside adult social care and corporate colleagues
To undertake basic carers and service user’s assessments, recording clearly as outlined by the Care Act.
Participate in duty rotas as required, screening referrals and dealing with urgent/emergency visits/assessments.
Directly providing occupational therapy interventions to address service user’s needs where appropriate.
Working in a think family approach, working and supporting families as a whole network where identified. Making referrals as necessary to children’s social care services when children in need or child protection issues are identified.
To take responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of those you are working with, identifying and undertaking safeguarding concerns, enquiries and develop safeguarding plans and reviews within appropriate timescales, using a Making Safeguarding Personal Approach.
To participate in Team and Departmental quality assurance programmes and contribute to audits when directed, sharing results and comply with action plans to improve the service.
To be committed to the Council’s CARE values and ASC principles to demonstrate this commitment in the way duties are carried out.
Attendance at meetings, case reviews, conferences, working parties and training when directed, bring written or verbal reports and updates in line with good practice and policy.
To work alongside and build close links with legal, housing and other relevant teams to support complex and vulnerable service users, responding in a timely manner for information and reports.
To achieve agreed service outcomes and outputs, and personal development targets, as agreed with your supervisor.
To undertake training and constructively take part in meetings, supervision, seminars and other events designed to improve communication and assist with the effective development of the post and post holder.
To undertake duties as directly by Service Lead or any other senior as directed and as service demands. To ensure that duties are undertaken with due regard and compliance with the Data Protection Act and other legislation
To carry out duties and responsibilities in accordance with the Council’s Health and Safety Policy and relevant Health and Safety legislation
To follow the Pan London Safeguarding Adults procedures to investigate and manage risk where individuals have experienced or are likely to experience significant harm
