Mental Health Occupational Therapist

Job responsibilities

Professional Leadership and Development

• To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through Continuing Professional Development activities and to participate in the review and appraisal process.
• To adhere to the individual Professional code of conduct and practice at all times.
• To reflect on own practice individually and/or through regular clinical supervision.
• Provide clinical education, training, and evaluation of clinical competence of team and multidisciplinary team staff, providing support and guidance.
• To maintain, develop and disseminate specialist knowledge of evidence-based practice.
• To critically evaluate own work using evidence-based projects, audits, and outcome measures.
• To work autonomously as an Occupational Therapist within professional and PICS guidelines, policies, and procedures.

Communication and Relationships

• Demonstrate advanced communication skills in providing advice, empowerment, facilitation, influence, motivation, and counselling.
• Be able to provide concise summary of appointments, raise any concerns to appropriate professionals, communicate treatment plan and request additional support or requirements from GP or other Healthcare Professional.
• Manage complex communication issues that may arise between differing health and social care professionals including de-escalation skills when working in highly antagonistic, hostile, and emotive clinical areas.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the need to involve patients and carers in decision making, offering them informed choices, respecting their views.
• Demonstrate the ability to recognise barriers to understanding that can be encountered with those without English as their first language, patients with disabilities and those with mental health difficulties such as anxiety, clinical depression, or personality disorders.
• Seek out different styles and methods of communicating to assist longer term needs and aims.
• The nature of some communication can be unpredictable and can be of an urgent high priority nature: this can therefore be responsible for impacting into time allocated towards other necessary tasks.
• Provide and receive complex and sensitive information in relation to patient care and will have the ability to advise and support others to communicate information in an understandable, empathic, and reassuring way to adults with Mental Health and/or Learning Disabilities and/or Cognitive difficulties and their family and carers.
• Utilise communications in accordance with Caldicott Principles, Data Protection, Freedom of Information Act and Trust Policies and procedures.

Knowledge, Skills, Training and Experience

• Occupational Therapy qualification HCPC registered occupational therapist.
• Post graduate degree or equivalent qualification or experience.
• Highly developed specialist knowledge of meeting the health needs of Adults with Mental Health underpinned by theory and experience.
• A teaching qualification (e.g., ENB 998/P126/127) or a proven track record in occupational therapy education is desirable but not essential.
• In depth knowledge of National and HCPC policies, procedures, code of conduct and standards of care in relation to service provision for adults with mental health.
• Post qualification experience of working collaboratively with statutory partners, third sector partners and families/carers.
• Knowledge of safeguarding adult and childrens procedures and the ability to take on a lead role in strategy meetings as and when required.
• Developed skills from a wide and variant background, experience and a broad yet deep knowledge base underpinned with a proven track record and/or an academically scrutinised knowledge base.
• Proven professional development, a profile that demonstrates, advanced clinical occupational therapy practice.
• Systematic understanding of how to manage a designated, complex, occupational therapy caseload (relative to primary care) using theoretical and practical experience, completing assessments, planning, implementing occupational therapy interventions, and evaluating outcomes aligned to care plans.
• Offer advanced consultation skills and developed specialist and generic knowledge to undertake comprehensive assessment of health and psychosocial care needs of patients with complex disease, including holistic assessment, gathering and interpreting information, performing tests and analysing results.
• Analytical judgement underpinned with specialist knowledge and experience is used to develop evidenced based holistic personal care plan with patients, carers, relatives and health care professionals based on a full assessment.
• Provide evidence based written information, ensuring easy access to advice and information for patients and their carers.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft and GP practice data monitoring systems.
• Ability to write comprehensive clinical notes, implement and evaluate care plans.
• Provides specialist education and training to other professionals involved in patient care
• Participate in the education, induction programmes and support meetings for other ...