Band 6 Occupational Therapist - Bristol

Job description

Job overview

Specialist Occupational Therapist - Eating Disorders

An opportunity has arisen for an experienced and enthusiastic Occupational Therapist to join the STEPS Eating Disorders Inpatient Unit at Blackberry Hill. STEPS EDU is a welcoming, compassionate 10-bedded specialist unit working closely with community eating disorder services across the South West Provider Collaborative.

As the Specialist Occupational Therapist, you will undertake comprehensive occupational therapy assessments, develop and deliver person-centred interventions, and contribute to the wider therapeutic programme. Your role will include supporting meal planning, shopping and cooking skills, meaningful activity engagement, vocational support, equipment assessments for the ward and home and discharge planning.

The service is entering an exciting period of transformation, offering opportunities to contribute to service development and quality improvement initiatives.

You should have significant post-qualification experience and be confident and working as an autonomous practitioner. You need to have a strong interest in working with people experiencing eating disorders and be keen to continue your professional development within this specialist field of work.

The successful candidate will receive a comprehensive induction, ongoing training, management and clinical supervision, and access to professional networks to support continued development within this specialist field.

Main duties of the job

• Evidence-based occupational therapy interventions for individuals.
• Liaison with carers and other agencies, including social workers and accommodation providers.
• Home assessments for leave and discharge, sensory awareness, and sensory interventions for patients on the unit.
• Facilitating and co-facilitating groups with the MDT.
• Skills training for staff.
• Assessing patients for equipment.
• Addressing the physical health needs of patients.
• Working with the MDT to determine the best pathway for patients on the unit.
• Supporting patients on leave to achieve goals, including managing eating outside of hospital and engaging in activities.

Please see the attached job description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

Working for our organisation

We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Manage a complex/specialist OT caseload from assessment to discharge from therapy. Service users may have multiple needs, including a combination of physical and mental health conditions or learning disabilities. Service users may demonstrate challenging behaviours or have difficult family situations of relevance.
• Ensure the highest professional standards and attitudes towards the care of service users are maintained at all times, and that care is delivered in accordance with evidence-based practice by all staff for whom the postholder has designated responsibility.
• Undertake complex occupational therapy assessments and develop complex therapy programmes.
• Assess and manage risk effectively in clinical and community settings, including the service user's own home.
• Work with service users and carers to identify occupational therapy goals as part of the overall multidisciplinary team plan.
• Develop and implement specialist interventions for individuals or groups, in collaboration with the service user(s) and MDT, to achieve therapeutic goals.
• Use technical and creative skills to engage service users in therapeutic activities and encourage service users/carers in a compassionate manner to support them in achieving their identified goals.
• Monitor and evaluate occupational therapy treatment to measure progress and modify treatment plans to ensure the effectiveness of clinical interventions.
• Provide reports and make recommendations on service user progress at clinical meetings, and participate in the clinical decision-making process regarding service user care programmes as part of the multidisciplinary team.
• Provide specialist clinical advice to other healthcare professionals, including those in the acute hospital sector with limited mental health or learning disability experience.
• Provide professional advice, as requested and where appropriate, in relation to subject access requests.

Please see the attached job description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

Person specification

Essential

Essential criteria

• Degree in Occupational Therapy or equivalent
• Successful completion of preceptorship year as a graduate occupational therapist
• Significant experience of delivering Occupational Therapy
• Experience of supervising students on placement
• Experience of participation in quality improvement activities
• Legal aspects of moving and handling
• Significant knowledge of evidence based practice in designated specialist area
• Self aware and committed to professional and personal development

Desirable criteria

• Clinical Risk Assessment and Management
• Care Programme Approach
• Work collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Motivate and work positively and constructively with other members of the team
• Provide effective teaching, training and clinical supervision
• Able to engage with vulnerable people and work effectively in distressing and challenging circumstances

We are proud to be fostering a diverse workforce that reflects our communities. A key commitment to this is improving staff representation from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, those from the LGBTQ+ communities, people with 'lived-experience' of mental health conditions and people living with disabilities,- we are a 'Disability Confident Employer' offering a guaranteed interview to Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria. This includes people with a variety of disabilities and neurodivergent conditions (for example autism, ADHD, sensory, physical and learning disabilities).

We encourage applications from people who wish to work on a flexible basis, recognising that flexibility may mean a range of different working patterns and hours, we do our utmost to work with our staff to meet their needs and the needs of our service users.

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