Specialist Speech & Language Therapist - Community

Job overview

The Adult Community Speech & Language Therapy Team have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and experienced band 6 Therapist to join our friendly and supportive team in a permanent position, based in beautiful South Devon, with easy access to beautiful beaches and moors. The position is part-time, 30 hours/wk.

We are an innovative and motivated team within a supportive and collaborative environment that offers:

• An opportunity to work with a varied caseload, including Parkinson’s Disease, dementia, stroke and MND.
• Access to instrumental swallowing assessment - in particular our well-developed Fees service.
• 1:1 regular management supervision.
• Access to clinical supervision 1:1 and in peer groups.
• Joint working and second opinions with our clinical specialists.
• Regular opportunities for CPD
• A car owner/driver and current driving licence is essential or full access to a car for work purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2005).

Main duties of the job

• To be responsible for triaging referrals to the Speech and Language Therapy Community Adult service alongside SLT colleagues
• To independently manage a caseload of community patients with highly complex speech, language, communication and swallowing (dysphagia) difficulties with reference to theory, published research and evidence, and agreed best practice
• To prioritise and respond to referrals, allocating to less experienced colleagues and exercising professional judgement based on extended clinical experience
• Provide a service as appropriate to hospitals, nursing, residential homes and patients own homes, using own car to travel between relevant locations for clinic visits, meetings etc.
• To function as part of a multi-disciplinary team including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social services personnel, social care, and dietitians
• Weekend working and home working may be required in order to provide a service model that meets future requirements

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be responsible for ensuring patients’ safety with regard to eating and drinking by assessing, monitoring and updating, and communicating details of safe practice to the patient, medical and ward staff, and carers, ensuring that recommendations are clearly documented
• To make judgements about when to refer patients for instrumental examination of the swallow considering the risks and benefits of the procedure. To participate in clinical discussion with the Clinical Lead for Dysphagia and to jointly interpret results in order to plan appropriate SLT treatment
• To prioritise and decide on appropriate highly specialised treatment programmes individual or group, matched to individual patient/family need and to adapt and modify management options based on extended and developing clinical expertise whilst ensuring patient/carers/multi-disciplinary team are fully involved in the decision-making process
• To assess the need for alternative and augmentative means of communication and to create personalised low- tech communication systems such as communication booklets and charts, and train and support patients and carers in their effective use
• To identify where high -tech electronic communication systems are required to meet patient needs working in collaboration with the AAC Specialist SLT
• To use highly developed communication and counselling skills such as reflective listening, open questioning, empathy, and reassurance when explaining highly complex and sensitive information to the full range of levels in understanding of patients and carers, where anxiety frequently acts as a barrier and co-operation is not guaranteed
• To demonstrate empathy and reassurance when providing patients and carers with unwelcome information that has long-term implications for lifestyle and employment e.g. when communication skills will not be recovered and/or oral feeding is no longer an option. To provide counselling and support before onward referral for more formal consultations if judged necessary
• To monitor, recognise, assess and evaluate subtle changes in patients’ conditions and adapt assessment and treatment programmes accordingly based on extended clinical experience, including in palliative care
• To assess the risk to, and vulnerability of, patients and families in relation to timing and manner of treatment and amount of information provided, i.e. where inappropriate intervention could have a negative effect

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.