Lead Specialist Occupational Therapist – LDA & Sensory

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to take on a clinical specialist role within the forensic therapies service in the South West London & St George’s Mental Health Trust. We have a large and supportive therapies team consisting of Occupational therapists, clinical exercise therapists, activity support workers and technical instructors.  The postholder will take a leadership role in working with patients with learning disabilities, developing, and embedding sensory integration strategies into the broader Occupational therapy offering within the service.

The Forensic Inpatient Service is comprised of both medium and low secure wards. The service provides treatment under the Mental Health Act for men and women with mental health problems and who are considered to pose a significant risk of harm to others.  The primary aim of the Forensic Inpatient Service is to provide a safe and secure environment in which to support forensic patients to increase occupational participation and develop the skill necessary for a smooth transition into the community. The therapies team work across the four wards within the service, which include a low secure ward for men with learning disabilities and a ward for women.  Our patients frequently have multiple complex needs including substance misuse issues, personality disorder, and physical health needs coexisting with their mental health difficulties requiring a holistic approach to treatment.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will need to be proficient with verbal and written communication skills and be able to adapt these skills as appropriate to situation. The occupational therapist will independently manage a clinical caseload of service user with complex mental health needs. The main duties in this role would be around sensory assessment, intervention and evaluation, this will largely inform care and practice for the MDT and occupational therapy work. This would include applying a high level of understanding of the effects of disability on occupational performance and provide training and advice on lifestyles changes and environmental solutions to the client’s social and physical needs. The occupational therapist will also promote social inclusion and physical and mental well-being using evidence based practice. This is underpinned by the principles of hope and recovery, health promotion and relapse prevention. The occupational therapist will apply advanced clinical reasoning to identify occupational therapy goals as part of the overall care plan, using specialist mental health and occupational therapy assessments, including Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) tools in conjunction with other relevant theoretical perspectives.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be responsible for the planning, development and delivery of a specialist occupational therapy service focusing on sensory assessment/ intervention/ education and awareness for the service users within the forensic inpatient service
• To scope the sensory needs within the service and develop a sustainable screening process assessing the sensory needs for all service users entering the service.
• To support the therapies team to develop a greater consciousness of sensory practices, and support them to find ways to integrate sensory approaches into their work.
• To develop robust referral processes and treatment pathways for those with identified sensory needs.
• To develop and maintain appropriate sensory spaces within the unit to meet the needs of the service users.
• To manage a caseload of clients with highly complex needs, using evidence based, client-centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions with a sensory focus.
• To support the deputy head of therapies in providing professional leadership to colleagues within the forensic therapy team, modelling good practice
• To support the delivery of OT packages for those with learning disabilities and/or sensory needs within the forensic services, working primarily on the LDA unit, though providing consultation to other forensic wards and the FIND team OT as required
• To contribute to the sensory strategy across the trust, leading on a monthly trustwide sensory forum.
• To work closely with other sensory specialists within the trust and the lead OT taking a leadership role in development and delivery of a trustwide sensory strategy.
• To provide clinical supervision to Occupational therapists on the team, OT students on fieldwork placements, OT apprentices and support staff .
• To take responsibility for oversight, efficient and effective management of the OT budget within the LD service.