Occupational Therapist

Job overview

A rare and exciting opportunity has come up for an enthusiastic Occupational Therapist who has an interest in working in the community with people with complex mental health problems. You would be working within a multi-disciplinary team of mental health nurses, social work, psychology and psychiatrists

The Assertive Outreach Team (AOT) works with service users in the community who experience psychosis as their main issue, have not been able to engage with mental health services and have had repeated admissions to hospitals.

AOT operates with a team approach to flexibly and responsively support this group of service users in their mental health recovery and the OT role in the team is an essential component of this. As a band 5 in the team, you would not be acting as a care co-ordinator; therefore most of your time is set aside purely to deliver OT interventions with this client group.

We are looking for somebody who is passionate about the core values of Occupational Therapy in mental health, is confident working with a range of diverse service users and environments out in the community, and enjoys being part of a team. There is a well-established community group programme within the service, which you would be an integral part of facilitating and evaluating, as well as important link working with other mental health providers in the city.

Main duties of the job

We work with a client group who can be challenging and come with risk backgrounds which can leave them to be excluded from opportunities. The band 5 OT has an important function to try and work creatively with these factors to help promote social inclusion and improve the quality of life for people who can often be left out. A good understanding around the concept of therapeutic risk taking is important- there is a very supportive and experienced MDT, and you would be supervised by a band 6 OT in the team.

AOT are one team that forms the Complex Psychosis Pathway (CPP) along with Newsam Ward 5 (Level 2 Rehab & relocating to Parkside Lodge), Asket Croft and Asket House inpatient settings, (Level 1 Rehab), and the Community Rehabilitation Team

We would welcome any interested applicants to have a discussion either over the phone or to come and visit the team to find out more.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The role of the Occupational Therapist is to work with the multi professional team and the Occupational Therapists to assess, plan, organise and deliver clinical care in line with the service pathways and as agreed with supervising clinician. The role is to work as a key member of the Assertive Outreach Team delivering occupational therapy interventions to individuals with complex, severe, and enduring mental health conditions.

• To work as a member of the Assertive Outreach Teams in providing occupational therapy interventions in a city wide service for patients with highly complex, severe and persistent mental health problems seven days per week.
• To utilize core OT specific skills in providing high quality assessment and treatment.
• To promote and facilitate a group programme.
• To act as a resource and advisor on available services.
• To contribute to and promote partnership working.
• To establish and maintain good working relationships with other community teams/agencies within the statutory voluntary and private sector.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.