Community Mental Health Occupational Therapist

Job overview

We’re offering an exciting opportunity to be part of our redesigned psychosis service, delivering evidence-based pathways and support for Greenwich residents. This role is all about making a real difference—helping individuals regain independence and improve their quality of life through interventions that boost daily living, social engagement, and vocational skills. The role will involve working as an occupational therapist, within our multi-disciplinary team, alongside doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, employment workers and our admin team. The successful applicant will be working alongside our senior Occupational Therapist to support and further develop core interventions for our service users.

Applications are welcomed from newly qualified occupational therapists with an interest in mental health and community working. Although mental health experience may be beneficial, it is not essential. CPD for Band 5 occupational therapy staff includes Statutory Induction, Preceptorship programme, Band 5 support group and Occupational Therapy specific training days. There is an active CPD programme which includes regular professional supervision and appraisals and dedicated CPD time.

The West Locality Mental Health Team operates from its main base in Charlton  which serves an identified catchment area within Blackheath, Eltham, Greenwich and Woolwich.   Our centre is staffed from 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday.

Main duties of the job

You will work with specific OT cases providing a high standard of service user focused assessments and interventions around occupational roles.

In applying occupational therapy models you will work from an evidence base and draw upon current developments in Recovery and Social Inclusion. You will need to be committed to a service user focus and be creative in finding ways to help people develop and achieve personal goals. You will also contribute to a forward thinking group programme and lead on implementing particular groups.

You will work alongside OT and multi-disciplinary colleagues, as well as working with a range of other agencies. The Oxleas Occupational Therapy Service is committed to the continuing professional development (CPD) of its staff. A well-developed supervision structure, CPD activities, and a variety of training opportunities underpin this.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To undertake occupational therapy assessments for referrals to the service, addressing occupational performance strengths and needs in relation to service user goals.
• To work with a designated caseload of service users to identify goals of OT care plans ensuring compatibility with the overall care plan.
• To carry out clinical practice in groups or with individuals using graded activity to achieve therapeutic goals, enabling the service user in areas of self -maintenance, productivity and leisure.
• To carry out clinical practice in relation to best available evidence.
• To promote a recovery approach with service users and frame clinical work within this context.
• To monitor and evaluate treatment in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness of the intervention.
• To implement risk management plans in accordance with Trust guidelines and completed risk assessments.