Speech and Language Therapist

Job overview

This is an exciting and unique opportunity to join the newly developed Forensic Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (FIND) Community Team in South West London & St George’s Mental Health Trust. The forensic service sits within the Specialist Service Line of the Trust and is a provider within the South London Mental Health and Community Partnership (SLP) Forensic Provider Collaborative (PC).

The SLP Forensic PC’s overarching goals centre on bringing care closer to home, improving patient pathways and outcomes by delivering excellent care in better environments. The SLP has a track record of delivering highly effective, clinically informed service developments across the Pathways within the Forensic PC. The post holder will be joining a skilled, motivated and innovative multidisciplinary team committed to continual learning and development and will be offered excellent CPD opportunities.

The team will support in facilitating discharge planning of South West London patients from the Oak Unit and from Independent Sector secure services by enabling direct transfer to the FIND community caseload. Aside from the quality-of-life benefits of timely transfer to community settings closer to home, this close working at the interface with secure inpatient facilities, will also enable effective flow through the pathway. The FIND Community Team will sit alongside the two well stablished forensic community teams.

Main duties of the job

To deliver highly specialist clinical work as part of the multidisciplinary team. This includes working with clients with communication and swallowing difficulties / providing a specialist dysphagia service, for individuals in the specialist low secure forensic Learning Disability and Autism Unit at South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. The post holder will be required to work with and support / develop the multi-disciplinary team within the low secure forensic Learning Disability and Autism Unit

To work with the senior management team to scope the needs of the SLT service for this service. As a Trust we are proud to offer agile and flexible working opportunities as part of our new ways of working, and we are happy to talk flexible working at the interview stage. In this role you will be able to work Monday to Friday in the time frames from 9am to 5pm, giving you the very best of good work life balance.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be responsible for the delivery of Speech and Language Therapy across the FIND team providing assessment and implementing specialist SLT treatment and programmes of care, writing reports, reflecting specialist knowledge.
• To independently manage, triage and prioritize own complex caseload providing a highly specialist SLT assessment, formulation, diagnosis, intervention and advice based on evidence-based practice
• To use specialist knowledge to screen all new referrals where appropriate with the multi-disciplinary team, and allocate priority for intervention, based on client need.
• To independently assess people with complex mental health needs, LD needs or ASD needs within the service  using a range of standardized and non-standardized assessments and other assessment tools, together with advanced analytical clinical reasoning skills in order to form a baseline measure or differential diagnosis from which to plan intervention.
• To assess clients using clinical/technical skills including listening, phonetic transcription and analysis, linguistic profiling based on linguistic models of development, social communication analysis, use of AAC such as signing and use of electronic communication aids  such as switches/IT support and a range of formal and psychological assessment tools.
• To demonstrate acute observational skills in working with clients with profound and multiple learning disabilities who display subtle communication.
• To use a holistic, client centred approach, gathering and synthesising information from other professionals and relatives/carers, in order to ensure that intervention packages are best suited to patient, relatives and place of delivery
• To develop and implement speech and language therapy treatment plans for individuals and groups using expertise to create innovative ways of working where appropriate, to promote and maximise individual potential as well as to plan for  and advise others regarding the management of clients with communication and/or feeding/swallowing difficulties within the context of an MDT and in consultation with patients and relatives
• To contribute to complex clinical decisions taking into account conflicting priorities of airway protection, quality of life, nutritional compromise and client autonomy
• To liaise with other team specialists and professional groups to refer clients for further investigation and/or second opinion as required.