B6 Occupational Therapist Outpatient Falls prevention and Elderly Care

Job overview

• Provide specialist occupational therapy for older patients attending falls, memory and care of the elderly outpatient clinics. This includes managing a caseload of patients, providing specialist assessment and occupational therapy input in an outpatient and community setting.
• Work in partnership with other members of the Bryning MDT, as well as other community services, including voluntary organisations to provide holistic patient centred care for this patient group.
• Provide clinical supervision and appraisal for Band 5 occupational therapists, therapy assistants and students.Participate in ongoing service evaluation and development.

Main duties of the job

• Undertake a Specialist Occupational Therapy assessment and implementation of therapy interventions of older clients attending falls, memory and care of the elderly clinics as an autonomous practitioner. This includes using analytical, clinical reasoning skills and appropriate outcome measures.
• Complete a variety of cognitive assessments either in clinic or in the clients home and then to communicate the findings from the assessment to the rest of the MDT.
• Undertake patient / client home visits independently or with other health professionals to assess cognition and environmental falls risk, recommend any appropriate equipment/adaptation.
• Ordering of equipment following visits, and re-assessment of patients with these items.
• Liaise with and refer to external agencies, statutory voluntary and commercial to ensure effective holistic care.
• Maintain accurate and comprehensive problem orientated documentation in accordance with local and professional standards. This will involve the use of an electronic patient record.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Job Summary:

• Provide specialist occupational therapy for older patients attending falls, memory and care of the elderly outpatient clinics. This includes managing a caseload of patients, providing specialist assessment and rehabilitation in an outpatient and community setting.
• Work in partnership with other members of the Bryning MDT, as well as other community services, including voluntary organisations to provide holistic patient centred care for this patient group.
• Provide clinical supervision and appraisal for Band 5 occupational therapists, therapy assistants and students.

• Participate in ongoing service evaluation and development.

Main Responsibilities:

Clinical Duties:

• Undertake a Specialist Occupational Therapy assessment and implementation of therapy interventions of older clients attending falls, memory and care of the elderly clinics as an autonomous practitioner. This includes using analytical, clinical reasoning skills and appropriate outcome measures.
• Be able to independently evaluate progress and adapt therapy interventions as appropriate, utilising specialist knowledge and expertise.
• Communicate effectively with clients with speech, cognitive and behavioural problems.  This will include communication with clients where there is a language barrier.
• Be involved in the provision of support, advice and education of patients / clients and/or carers as required, initiating the use of appropriate communication skills (e.g. negotiation, reassurance skills), and utilizing an empathetic approach.
• Communicate sensitive/urgent information to the relevant professionals as required in a timely manner as stated in the Trust policies/guidelines for adult/child safe guarding.
• Identify those patients who are doing at risk behaviours either to themselves or putting the public at risk and to be able to provide advice/recommendations or make appropriate referrals in a timely manner.
• Complete a variety of cognitive assessments either in clinic or in the clients home and then to communicate the findings from the assessment to the rest of the MDT.
• Undertake patient / client home visits independently or with other health professionals to assess cognition and environmental falls risk, recommend any appropriate equipment/adaptation, and provision of rehabilitation
• Ordering of equipment following visits, and re-assessment of patients with these items.
• Liaise with and refer to external agencies, statutory voluntary and commercial to ensure effective holistic care.
• Maintain accurate and comprehensive problem orientated documentation in accordance with local and professional standards. This will involve the use of an electronic patient record.
• Be able to plan and prioritise workload independently, delegating as required in conjunction with other members of the multidisciplinary team.

Other Duties:

• Effectively induct new staff into the Trust/department in accordance with the Trust’s induction programme.
• Supervise, and assess the performance of staff. This may be a junior occupational therapist, therapy assistant or student therapists depending on rotation.
• Facilitate the personal and professional development of staff.  This involves identifying training and development needs, providing suitable development opportunities and evaluating development actions in accordance with the Trust’s appraisal and training procedures.
• Be an active member of the in-service training programme and be involved with teaching Occupational Therapy colleagues, Occupational Therapy students and other members of the MDT.
• Participate in team meetings, post graduate education programme and other relevant meetings
• Actively contribute to wider audit, clinical governance, research initiatives, team and service developments through quality and clinical audit as required.
• Adhere to department, team and Trust policies and procedures
• Keep accurate activity statistics and submit within required deadlines.
• To assist senior staff in service monitoring using appropriate measures
• Undertake service related projects and formally present findings
• Take responsibility for safe working practice for self and others including the safe use of equipment and ensuring  that it is maintained to the appropriate standard
• Monitor the level and standard of work undertaken by your staff and to guide, coach and advise them as appropriate.  Provide briefing prior to and debriefing after all training and development activities.
• Deputise for the senior Occupational Therapy staff in their absence taking responsibility for operationally managing allocated parts of the service
• Carry out other duties commensurate with the grade and in line with the requirements of the post as agreed by line manager