Falls Team Lead​/Specialist Community Occupational Therapist

To undertake a team leader role on a day-to-day basis to manage the therapy staff in the Haringey Locality Therapy Falls service including physiotherapists, occupational therapists and rehab assistants.

To work closely with the Clinical Rehab Lead in planning, co-ordinating, delivering and evaluating the Locality Falls service provided to adults referred to the team for rehabilitation, participating in the design and implementation of audit and policy.

To be responsible for an allocated caseload, delegating duties when appropriate but maintaining overall responsibility for patient caseload.

To be competent in undertaking all stages of the Occupational Therapy process with

Patients referred to the community service.

To be actively involved in evidence-based practice, Continual Professional Development and clinical audit.

To provide support and clinical supervision to OTs, rehabilitation assistants and students on placement.

Please see the Job Description and the Persons Specification for further details about the job role. If you are unable to access the PDF, the details of the job description can also be found in the 'Detailed Job Description and Main responsibilities' section.

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief.

The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work

GENERAL

To provide specialised client-centered occupational therapy falls interventions to clients/patients (aged 18 or over) who are resident in the Haringey community and are referred due to a physical and mental health disability/illness/condition. This includes clients who may present with complex physical, cognitive, psycho-social and housing needs as a result of a wide range of medical conditions.

To be an influential member of the multi-disciplinary team, providing expert, integrated, client- centered, goal- orientated rehabilitation for clients.

To work as an autonomous practitioner in managing a defined caseload of complex cases, in a community falls setting. To evidence high levels of problem solving and clinical reasoning skills in line with evidence based/client-centered principles. To formulate a diagnosis and treatment plan designed to reduce the impact of disability from a comprehensive assessment of the clients needs.

To take a lead role in the supervision, teaching and appraisal of junior occupational therapists, rehabilitation support workers, students and other members of the multi-disciplinary team.

To work collaboratively with members of the multi-disciplinary team in the planning, development and evaluation of the Locality Therapy Falls Service, taking a lead for designated projects. To continually engage with and develop the provision of occupational therapy within community services.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

CLINICAL

1. To be professionally and legally responsible for all aspects of own professional activities. To adhere to and apply The College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (College of Occupational Therapists 2015)

2. To independently manage a caseload of complex cases, providing specialist occupational therapy assessment and interventions to clients with complex physical, cognitive and psycho-social needs arising from their medical conditions. To provide this service in the most appropriate setting to the client, e.g. clients homes, workplace and other community settings, working closely with the client, his/her family/carer and other professionals in doing this.

3. To be responsible for prioritising the occupational therapy referrals within the service to ensure that clients with urgent needs are seen within appropriate timescales.

4. To establish excellent therapeutic relationships with clients/family/carers to gain their participation in the therapeutic process by employing advanced interpersonal skills (e.g. communication, reasoning, negotiation skills, motivational tactics) and overcoming any barriers to communication (e.g. different languages, lack of understanding of the spoken word, visual or hearing impairments, fear, anxiety).

5. To assess for and diagnose any functional, physical, cognitive, perceptual, psychological and sensory deficits using functional assessments together with specialised…