The Occupational Therapy role will function as part of the multidisciplinary team within a subacute intermediate care setting to provide a seamless service to patients. The post holder will be expected to effectively manage a caseload of patient’s co-morbidities as an autonomous practitioner, using evidence-based patient centred principles to assess, plan, implement and
evaluate interventions of the patient group. The post holder will provide leadership for junior staff, when appropriate, through supervision and appraisal. The post holder will participate in planning, development, and evaluation of Occupational Therapy services within a designated area/team, holding responsibility for defined projects.

You will be responsible for responding to urgent care referrals along with other health professionals, completing a holistic assessment of need and associated risk assessments and completing initial follow up visits, as well as referring patients on to other services / elements of the ICRAS service. You will also participate in the supervision of junior and support staff and at times assist senior staff and the service with a range of other tasks to maintain and improve a quality and evidence-based service.

The successful candidate will be flexible and willing to rotate across other aspects of the ICRAS service (community rehabilitation and bed-based) if and when this is required. There may be opportunity to do this as a regular rotation should the post-holder desire and staffing levels allow. The therapy service is currently delivered 8am – 8pm over 7 days, although this is subject to review. The successful candidate must be willing to assist the service meet the needs of it’s patients and the wider health economy by participating in weekend work and late shifts.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

The post holder will be joining a friendly, hard-working, motivated and enthusiastic team, who uphold their own professional and the organisation’s values. There are a range of formal and informal training opportunities within the organisation.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work alongside a range of highly skilled health professionals from a range of disciplines. This allows great opportunity to learn about different aspects of the service, continuously developing skills and knowledge.

To be responsible for a clinical caseload and undertake timely and comprehensive holistic assessments, devise treatment plans individualised to patient needs, reviewing, and adapting during patient journey from initial assessment through to discharge.

To work with the multidisciplinary team (MDT), ensuring patients receive optimum level of therapy and holistic care within available resources, using clinical reasoning and evidence based practice.

To gain consent through engaging patients through their therapy journey, enabling them to experience choice and as part of their recovery.

To prioritise designated Occupational Therapy referrals according to need, risk, and service capacity.

To plan and implement patient centred individual and/or group interventions, using graded activity to achieve therapeutic goals within the reablement/rehabilitation setting.

To monitor, evaluate and modify treatment in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness of intervention using outcome measures.

To apply a high level of understanding of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the patient’s social and physical environment.

To provide clinical advice, expertise, and leadership within the team.

To monitor and offer professional advice and leadership to all team members with regards to their caseloads and working practices.

To ensure that the patients care plan is developed to meet the assessed need of the individual. To monitor, the care plans developed for patients to ensure that they are appropriate and of a high standard.

To liaise with the patient, family members, carers, GP’s, the multi-disciplinary team, and other professionals as necessary when completing the assessment and developing a care plan.

To be a point of contact for patients and carers that have concerns regarding their care, making every effort to resolve their concerns sensitively and promptly, referring to and informing the ICRAS Clinical / Operational Lead as necessary.

To monitor and work with all team members to ensure that patient risk is managed appropriately and that any risk management plans are of a high quality. Understanding risk assessment, being able to assess risk and complete management plans.

To lead the systematic monitoring and evaluation of patients care.

Monitor and ensure high standards relating to the planning and delivery of Occupational Therapy activities and comply with The Royal College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, contributing to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with policy.

To monitor the provision of a range of therapeutic activities for patients by supervision of therapy team caseloads and via audit.

To use skills gained through training and experience to de-escalate situations where patients become physically or verbally aggressive.

Use your judgement, gained from experience, to establish if a patient requires assessment by a medic or another member of the multi-disciplinary team

To use skills gained through experience to support patients who become anxious, hostile, or distressed.

To ensure all therapy team members get appropriate support following incidents and liaise with the ICRAS Clinical / Operational Lead to ensure any identified actions arising from such incidents are implemented.

To participate in and/or lead patient reviews ensuring that patient needs are met and that the team has all the relevant information on which to base their clinical decisions.

To develop care plans that enable patients to reach and maintain their optimum level of health and independence to help them to remain in the community in their chosen setting or return to this on discharge.

To demonstrate an understanding of the Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act.

Please see attached Job Description for full list of duties and responsibilities.

This advert closes on Sunday 9 Apr 2023