Community Mental Health Occupational Therapist

Job overview

Are you an Occupational Therapist with demonstrable post qualification experience, who is keen to take on the challenges older adult mental health groups face?

We are recruiting for a full time Occupational Therapist to join our Community Mental Health Team, based in Abingdon. You’ll provide assessment and evidence-based treatment interventions to a wide range of older adults across South Oxfordshire.

We are a friendly, supportive and proactive team with a culture of high standards of care and any successful applicant will need to be committed to maintaining this. The team works closely with a wide range of internal and external partner’s including GPs, district nursing, therapy services, ambulatory care, social care and physical and mental health inpatient providers. We aim to  deliver well-coordinated patient care and to share our respective skills and knowledge with one another.

Our team covers a wide geographical area bordering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Wiltshire and so is ideally placed for staff commuting from Swindon, Reading and Aylesbury. Our main office is in Abingdon, but we have a base in Wallingford and hot desking space for staff covering those areas.

Main duties of the job

The Older Adult CMHT supports adults 65+ years of age who experience a wide range of mental health conditions.

The responsibilities of the role include:

• Work as an autonomous practitioner in the multi-disciplinary team undertaking generic Mental Health and specialist Occupational Therapy assessments in collaboration with the service user and their families/carers and presenting back to the wider MDT.
• Work in partnership with service users and their families/carers to ensure the development of a treatment plan to facilitate their safety, promote their well-being and support their independence and inclusion in the community.
• Deliver evidence-based interventions following NICE guidelines to promote recovery and relapse prevention in a variety of settings.

The MDT is made up of Medical, Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Psychology colleagues and we highly regard one another's professional background and contribution to the care of our patients. We view supervision as fundamental to the functioning of the team both clinically and in terms of the well being of our staff.

You will be supported by an experienced leadership team from across the professions who facilitate forums for Nursing and Occupational Therapists and hold your development as a priority.  We offer regular supervision and you will be encouraged and supported to undertake any training relevant to your professional development.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We hope that the advert has given you a clear understanding of the skills we are seeking and the opportunity at hand. You will need to use the “supporting statement” element of your application form to demonstrate your suitability for this role and you should refer to the job description, person specification and the guidance notes attached to this role to help you tailor your application.

The essential and desirable criteria will be used to shortlist for interview and you should ensure that you refer to these within your application to increase your chances of being selected for interview.

Core working hours are Monday-Friday 09:00-17:00. Out-of-hours support services are managed via a team rota. Staff will be expected to work on this rota which includes occasional weekend 09:00-17:00 shifts and evening shifts in the week between 17:00-20:00.