Therapy Assistant Practitioner

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Walsall Intermediate Care Service. Intermediate Care is a fully integrated health and social care service with excellent relationships with Social Services and the Acute Sector.

You will be part of a therapy team assessing and treating people in both rehabilitation settings and their own homes. You will be working with people to support them to remain in their own homes and maximise their independence and quality of life. You must demonstrate previous experience of working in a health or social care setting and will need to be able to work flexibly to meet the demands of the service. You must demonstrate experience of multi disciplinary/multi agency working. The role involves participation in a weekend rota to support 7 day working.

You must be willing to travel throughout the working day across the Borough as appropriate / required. PLEASE NOTE, WE MAY CLOSE THIS VACANCY EARLY IF WE RECEIVE HIGH NUMBERS OF APPLICATIONS.

Main duties of the job

• To work as a practitioner within a health and social care team, providing rehabilitation and supporting crisis intervention to prevent hospital admission or expedite discharge home.
• To independently manage a defined caseload of less complex cases, evidencing problem solving and reasoning skills.
• To work across ICS Therapy Services – including bed-based rehabilitation, reablement and rapid response.
• To carry out assessments as allocated by the co-ordinating therapist and to work without constant direct supervision within different settings including rehab units, community sites and clients’ own homes.
• To provide therapy specific interventions to meet client’s treatment needs.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To adhere to and apply the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for Therapists.
• To manage own caseload in the community (with support from the qualified therapist as appropriate)
• To construct, implement, monitor, evaluate and update therapy care plans / treatment programmes.
• To support reablement officers with care plans / treatment programmes on bed based rehab unit.
• To work independently and as a lone worker in a range of community settings including client’s homes, community sites and bed-based rehabilitation settings.
• To independently carry out and record assessments of an individual’s function. Liaising with supervising therapists and other MDT members when appropriate.
• Provide relevant intervention using a combination of techniques, health promotion, equipment and adaptations to maintain, restore and promote independence in the community, taking into account social, cultural and economic needs.
• To plan, implement and evaluate care plans and treat patients individually or in a group in a variety of settings without the presence of a therapist e.g. rehabilitation units, clients’ homes, community sites.
• To effectively communicate with clients, family / carer who may have barriers to understanding or communicating e.g. blind, deaf, or who do not have English as a first language.
• To undertake appropriate communication with members of the multi-disciplinary team, outside agencies and others i.e. clients, carers, relatives etc, acute colleagues
• To feedback appropriately and timely to the multi-disciplinary team.
• To attend multi-disciplinary team meeting and any other appropriate meetings as the therapy representative as delegated by the therapist.  By use of feedback contribute to the clinical decision-making process of the MDT.
• To record daily activity including all patient contacts.
• To liaise with the therapist regarding patient care in particular highlighting any variations to expected outcomes from treatment programmes delivered at the earliest opportunity.
• To attend and participate in home and access visits with or without a therapist. To record outcomes of environmental assessments and submit reports where appropriate.