Community Occupational Therapist

• With the support of senior staff, be responsible for the initial holistic assessment, implementation and evaluation of programmes of care for patients who are acutely and chronically unwell; often with complex needs arising from the frail elderly cohort
• Use clinical reasoning skills to assess, plan, implement and evaluate, patient- centred intervention programmes using an evidence based practice approach, promoting high quality and harm free care.
• Collaborate and negotiate with service users, carers and family in identifying achievable goals as part of the overall care plan, which will maximise quality of life and independence.
• Facilitate appropriate referrals to other services
• Work within a multi-disciplinary team, to provide integrated skills and share knowledge providing specialist skills supported by a robust competency framework
• To use occupational therapy skills, techniques in functional and standardised assessment & interventions as an autonomous practitioner
• Assess and arrange the provision of equipment, ensuring this is provided in good working order and fitted correctly; reporting any issues appropriately
• Supervise members of the team including peers, students and unregistered workforce in occupational therapy competencies
• Maintain accurate, informative and legal records
• Actively participate in training; this may involve assisting in the delivery of training

Essential

• Working knowledge of OT outcome measures.
• Effective communication skills written, verbal and no-verbal with the ability to adapt communication for individuals with communication difficulties.
• Able to make clinically reasoned judgements when working with a variety of conditions.
• Able to work autonomously, and ability to know when to seek appropriate advice / guidance from senior staff.
• Effective time management and caseload management.
• Good problem solving skills.

Desirable

• Community work (either student or post graduate) demonstrating a broad range of clinical undergraduate experience.
• Experience of the application of health, safety and risk management policies.
• Working with a range of professionals in health or social care.
• Up to date knowledge of Evidence Based Practice, local and national standards.