Specialist Occupational Therapist
Thank you for your interest for the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT), it is an exciting time to join us and being part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:
- Collaborate at every level by living our Values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
- Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
- Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
- Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
- Ensure that research, Quality Improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
- Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do
We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.
The North London Way to deliver, Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.
Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/
Job overview
This is an exciting opportunity for an Occupational Therapist, with a strong experience base in working with people with mental health difficulties and co-existing conditions, who is interested in progressing their career into a clinical specialist role.
The Barnet Psychiatric Liaison Service provides assessment and guidance to persons using Barnet General Hospital. The Occupational Therapy post ensures that people with Mental Health conditions who are seen in Barnet General Hospital receive specialist assessment, rehabilitation intervention and plan supportive discharge.In addition, they will work alongside AHP Lead and Acute & Community Lead Occupational Therapists to create streamlined Occupational Therapy access across the Barnet borough. They will support the safe transfer of patients between Barnet Hospital and NLFT services; including mental health wards.
As a clinical specialist they will be expected to lead on service improvements, QI projects and groups to meet the needs of the Psychiatric Liaison service, service users and the Barnet population.
Main duties of the job
To provide expert Occupational Therapy clinical leadership and input to the Liaison Psychiatry service; including Occupational Therapy assessments and interventions for those referred to the team. This will primarily be with adult and older adults with mental health difficulties in Accident & Emergency and on the Barnet General Hospital (BGH) inpatient wards.There will also be an expectation to complete generic mental health assessments for people presenting with a range of mental health problems. The post holder will work closely with the therapy teams on the acute inpatient wards, providing guidance and training on working with mental health where required.
In addition the post holder will liaise with the therapy teams and Flow Team of the trust inpatient services to support safe transfers when patients are transferring to a mental health ward.
The post holder will work closely with all members of the multidisciplinary team, acute trust colleagues, and local services i.e. community mental health teams, social services etc.
The post holder will work with service users who have complex and substantial needs, often working with persons with dual diagnosis, frailty and coexisting conditions including physical health needs. Having a strong working knowledge of the Mental Health Act, 1983, and the Mental Capacity Act, 2005, is essential.
Working for our organisation
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
Our Five-Year Strategy:
- We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
- With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
- We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
- We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.
- We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
- We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
- NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
- Excellent internal staff network
The post holder will be aligned with our Values:
- We Are Kind
- We Are Respectful
- We Work Together
- We Keep Things Simple
- We Empower
- We Are Proudly Diverse
The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see job description that is attached to the application for full details of of the roles and responsibilities.
Person specification
Qualifications/ Registrations
Essential criteria- Dip. COT, BSc OT or Pre-reg MSc OT
- Registration with HCPC as an Occupational Therapist
- Evidence of recent and regular CPD
- Evidence of post qualification training within the field of mental health
Skills/ Abilities
Essential criteria- Able to complete range of Occupational Therapy assessments (standardised and un-standardised)
- Ability to make clearly reasoned clinical decisions in complex situations.
- Skills in completing generic assessment skills for a broad range of mental health conditions, and ability to complete mental state examinations
- Skills in developing and delivering teaching/ training sessions for other clinicians.
- Supervision training
- Ability to support others, including junior staff, with complex clinical decision making
Experience/ Knowledge
Essential criteria- Significant experience practicing Occupational Therapy in a range of mental health services.
- Sound working knowledge of Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and DoLS.
- Experience of working with Older Adults experiencing frailty and/or mental health conditions.
- Experience of working in a physical healthcare setting.
- Experience of providing Occupational Therapy expertise and advice within an MDT.