Community Occupational Therapy Assistant inTeddington inTeddington PUBLISHED FRI 8 NOV 2024

Our integrated Adult Community Occupational Therapy Team at Your Healthcare is looking to recruit a new member ! We are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable colleague to work as an Occupational Therapy Assistant to join this developing community service which provides discharge facilitation and admission prevention services to the residents of the Royal Borough of Kingston.

This post is based in Cedars at Teddington Memorial Hospital.The ward provides a rehabilitation service for its 25 beds and the postholder would be part of the Multi-Disciplinary Nurse and Therapy Team there. The rehabilitation beds provide an important step up and step down function in the community pathway and the pathway provides a patient centred experience by minimising the number of patient transfers within our service. Although based at Teddington the postholder would be out-reaching into peoples homes in Kingston and supporting the integrated Occupational Therapy team operating in the Kingston community.

The OT team now work covering caseloads including :

• Community In-patient beds
• Reablement / Intermediate Care
• Falls Prevention
• Secondary Care Hospital in-reach
• Long Covid

As part of the OT team the post holder would be working within a broader inter-disciplinary team and will have supervision from experienced existing OT colleagues.The post offers the potential for a wide variety of experiences, depending on skills and interests.

Under the overall supervision of a registered Occupational Therapist the post holder will be expected to:

• Carry out duties delegated by the Occupational Therapist in either the ward, community outpatients or home settings, requiring rehabilitation/care provision.
• Supervise and instruct patients, their carers and groups in activities relating to their treatment / care plan / reviews.
• Work as a member of a multi-disciplinary team, ensuring the communication of information to all health and social care agencies involved, to meet the holistic needs of the patient.
• To promote patient independence, confidence and quality of life in activities of daily living, including personal care and functional skills.

About us

Role of Directorate

• To ensure the provision of high quality multidisciplinary community services to the population served by Your Healthcare CIC that aims to enable people to access the right care at the right time delivered by the most appropriately trained professional.
• The directorate will further develop the strong partnerships with primary care, social care, the voluntary sector and acute hospitals
• To flexibly respond to control demand on acute hospitals by proactively managing people in the community to avoid unnecessary attendances at hospital and subsequent in patient stays.
• To facilitate timely discharge of patients either to their own home or into an appropriate setting.
• To establish more integrated children and families services.
• The directorate will pro actively review and transform services to meet the needs of the population adopting evidence based good practice and ensuring the efficient delivery of services that clearly demonstrate value for money.

Key result Areas

Clinical

• To undertake Occupational Therapy treatments for a caseload of people as agreed with the Occupational Therapist, addressing areas of independence, difficulties in activities of daily living, functional abilities in areas such as personal care, functional skills deficits and enabling the client in areas of self care, productivity and leisure.
• Under the supervision of the Occupational Therapist, to implement individual and/ or group interventions, in collaboration with the client, to achieve treatment goals..
• To assist the occupational therapist on home assessment visits and access visits. Establish and execute care plans. This may include arranging other transport, ensuring the correct equipment is available, measuring furniture and measuring for rails etc.
• To convey information on equipment, services required to other agencies asrequired and in accordance with the Occupational Therapy discharge plan.
• To provide support and advice to clients and carers/enablers.
• To participate in multidisciplinary meetings regarding the client caseload as deemed appropriate by the Occupational Therapist.
• To implement well co-ordinated care plans and discharge plans for clients from the hospital to the community setting and within community home settings in conjunction with enablers/OT and MDT staff/service.
• As a member of the multidisciplinary team supports the proactive management of people in the community to avoid unnecessary attendances/admissions to hospital and subsequent in patient stays.
• To be responsible for maintenance of accurate written patient records within Trust and Service protocols and guidelines. To complete any necessary documentation/reports for other professionals/agencies as required.
• To comply with the Royal College of Occupational Therapists code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, Trust policies and procedures.

Service Delivery

• Contributes to the development of the community rehabilitation and reablement services that support the delivery of 7 day / 24 hour high quality patient centred care that is line with good practice.
• To plan and organise own day to day tasks using own judgement and initiative/ supervision of delegates tasks where appropriate.
• To participate in the implementation of the policies and procedures of the Trust and the standards of the Occupational Therapy Service.

• To ensure that OT clinical environments are well maintained and comply with health and safety guidelines, ensuring the safe use of equipment and storage of materials. Be responsible for ensuring the effective selection and use of all treatment resources available.
• To contribute to the collection of data and statistics for the use of the service.

Management

• To participate in the induction, training and education of students and other students in the setting.
• To participate in the appraisal and personal development planning and attend regular supervision with senior qualified staff.
• To attend team briefing meetings and provide input in relation to day to day issues and clinical matters as indicated.
• To keep a portfolio for continuing professional development recording training/ learning outcomes and reflecting on these and other activities.

Quality

• To identify and assess the potential risks involved in work activities for self and others, reporting actual or potential risk to the Occupational Therapist.
• Contribute to meeting national and local performance measures contributing to reports as necessary
• Contributes to the collection of data sets to demonstrate performance of occupational therapy services against agreed measures.
• To participate in clinical audit, supporting staff in undertaking audit as required.
• Contribute towards a culture in which Equality, Diversity and inclusivity is embedded within the organisation.

Communication and working relationships

• By spoken word, telephone, e-mail, fax, letter and face to face.

Internal:

• Board Lead for Frontline Services, Clinical Lead for Inpatient Services, Senior Therapist, other Occupational Therapists, Business Services Manager, Management Accountant, Workforce Governance Project Manager, HR Manager, District Nurses, GP Provider and staff within the Provider Services

External:

• Community Care Services and other key Local Authority Staff, Acute hospital colleagues, Voluntary Sector, Patients Forum, other NHS Organisations staff and GPs and their staff

Health and Safety: to have responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of self and others and to comply at all times with the requirements of health and safety regulations.

Confidentiality: to ensure confidentiality at all times, only releasing confidential information obtained during the course of employment to those acting in an official capacity.

Equal Opportunities, Alcohol & Non-Smoking: to comply with the Trusts policies on equal opportunities, the consumption of alcohol and non-smoking.

Infection Control

All staff members have a responsibility to themselves, patients,service users, visitors and other staff to maintain high standards of Infection Prevention and Control and follow the agreed company policies and procedures.

Safeguarding

All staff members have a responsibility to themselves,patients,service usersand other staff in ensuring the effective Safeguarding of Children and Adults and must follow the agreed company policies and procedures.

Data Protection Act: to comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act.

Conflict of Interest: to comply with the organisations code/policy relating to business conduct and/or conflict of interest.

Other Duties: to undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time and are consistent with the responsibilities of the grade.