Job responsibilities
JOB PURPOSE
As an experienced Occupational Therapist with a mental health background, you will provide independent, holistic assessment, treatment and management of patients presenting with a range of mental health difficulties. You will be able to work at a fast pace whilst ensuring that assessments are thorough, risk is managed and treatment is collaboratively designed with the patient and carers.
You will also provide professional leadership, support, and advice within the multi-disciplinary team across a range of Primary Care practices. The post holder will:
- Work across the PCN, being flexible to the individual working of each surgery.
- Work closely with the Clinical Director to design and deliver a service tailored to the needs of PCN.
- Provide first contact assessment of patients, booked in by reception, presenting with mental health difficulties.
- Assess presentation, risk and suitably devise a treatment plan in a time-limited appointment.
- Provide an assessment appointment and a follow up appointment, where required, and utilise local community, charity and secondary care services to provide ongoing support to patients. This will require building close working relationships with other services and being aware of the needs of the local community as well as available resources and services.
- Be able to safely assess and manage risk and be aware of Safeguarding and local policy and procedure.
- Be visible across the PCN offering face to face and telephone appointments to meet the needs of the patients.
- Work across organisational boundaries, developing new ways of working to promote relationships to increase the quality of patient care and service within primary care.
- Provide a high level of occupational therapy/professional care and treatment to patients through high quality occupational therapy care, assessment, and therapeutic intervention to adults with complex and substantial difficulties as part of a multidisciplinary team approach.
- Work autonomously to undertake advanced practice procedures and promote recovery and wellbeing, maximising independence.
- Facilitate mainstream primary care services for adults with mental health and/or learning difficulties and/or cognitive problems to advise and support agencies with regard to meeting their duty of care.
- Be responsible for disseminating information about good practice and lead on the implementation of good practice that has been developed within the Primary Care Network.
- Provide compassionate care that is based on empathy, kindness, respect, and dignity.
- Participate in the planning, development and evaluation of clinical services leading on defined projects as agreed with the Clinical Director and in collaboration with the multi-disciplinary team.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Professional Leadership and Development
- To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through Continuing Professional Development activities and to participate in the review and appraisal process.
- To adhere to the individual Professional code of conduct and practice at all times.
- To reflect on own practice individually and/or through regular clinical supervision.
- Provide clinical education, training, and evaluation of clinical competence of team and multidisciplinary team staff, providing support and guidance.
- To maintain, develop and disseminate specialist knowledge of evidence-based practice.
- To critically evaluate own work through the use of evidence-based projects, audits, and outcome measures.
- To work autonomously as an Occupational Therapist within professional and PICS guidelines, policies, and procedures.
Communication and Relationships
- Demonstrate advanced communication skills in providing advice, empowerment, facilitation, influence, motivation, and counselling.
- Be able to provide concise summary of appointments, raise any concerns to appropriate professionals, communicate treatment plan and request additional support or requirements from GP or other Healthcare Professional.
- Manage complex communication issues that may arise between differing health and social care professionals including de-escalation skills when working in highly antagonistic, hostile, and emotive clinical areas.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the need to involve patients and carers in decision making, offering them informed choices, respecting their views.
- Demonstrate the ability to recognise barriers to understanding that can be encountered with those without English as their first language, patients with disabilities and those with mental health difficulties such as anxiety, clinical depression, or personality disorders.
- Seek out different styles and methods of communicating to assist longer term needs and aims.
- The nature of some communication can be unpredictable and can be of an urgent high priority nature: this can therefore be responsible for impacting into time allocated towards other necessary tasks.
- Provide and receive complex and sensitive information in relation to patient care and will have the ability to advise and support others to communicate information in an understandable, empathic, and reassuring way to adults with Mental Health and/or Learning Disabilities and/or Cognitive difficulties and their family and carers.
- Utilise communications in accordance with Caldicott Principles, Data Protection, Freedom of Information Act and Trust Policies and procedures.
Knowledge, Skills, Training and Experience
- Occupational Therapy qualification HCPC registered occupational therapist.
- Post graduate degree or equivalent qualification or experience.
- A teaching qualification (e.g., ENB 998/P126/127) or a proven track record in occupational therapy education is desirable but not essential.
- Highly developed specialist knowledge of meeting the health needs of Adults with Mental Health underpinned by theory and experience.
- In depth knowledge of National and HCPC policies, procedures, code of conduct and standards of care in relation to service provision for adults with mental health.
- Post qualification experience of working collaboratively with statutory partners, third sector partners and families/carers.
- Knowledge of safeguarding adult and childrens procedures and the ability to take on a lead role in strategy meetings as and when required.
- Developed skills from a wide and variant background, experience and a broad yet deep knowledge base underpinned with a proven track record and/or an academically scrutinised knowledge base.
- Proven professional development, a profile that demonstrates, advanced clinical occupational therapy practice.
- Systematic understanding of how to manage a designated, complex, occupational therapy caseload using theoretical and practical experience, completing assessments, planning, implementing occupational therapy interventions, and evaluating outcomes aligned to care plans.
- Offer advanced consultation skills and developed specialist and generic knowledge to undertake comprehensive assessment of health and psychosocial care needs of patients with complex disease, including holistic assessment, gathering and interpreting information, performing tests and analysing results.
- Analytical judgement underpinned with specialist knowledge and experience is used to develop evidenced based holistic personal care plan with patients, carers, relatives and health care professionals based on a full assessment.
- Provide evidence based written information, ensuring easy access to advice and information for patients and their carers.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft and GP practice data monitoring systems, training provided on SystemOne Software as required.
- Ability to write comprehensive clinical notes, implement and evaluate care plans.
- Provides specialist education and training to other professionals involved in patient care
- Participate in the education, induction programmes and support meetings for other professional staff.
- Monitor own performance by reflective practice and identify training and educational needs.
- Regular self-direction of learning needs.
- Maintain up to date mandatory training records.
- Identify the potential benefits of, and participating in, educational programmes for patients and their relatives/carers.
- Address specific health targets e.g., NHS Plan, National Service Frameworks related to own area of practice through education
- Ensure own compliance and compliance of others regarding mandatory training and individual health professional requirements.
Analytical and judgment skills
- Ability to analyse and interpret complex, dynamic, and incomplete information, pre-empt and evaluate issues, and recommend appropriate course of action to address emergency issues in unfamiliar contexts.
- Demonstrate a high level of reflective practice and competence in clinical reasoning and decision making based on evidence-based OT practice.
- Analysis of and ability to work across organisational boundaries within health and social care and with wider community partners.
- Make a judgement on whether clients have the capacity to give informed consent seeking additional advice when necessary. It is desirable to have extensive risk assessment experience including use of the Mental Health or Mental Capacity Act.
For more information, please see the supporting documents.
