Senior Occupational Therapist / Senior Community MH Practitioner

Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust (LYPFT) in partnership with Primary Care Mental Health and Voluntary Community Sector organisations across Leeds are delivering Community Mental Health Transformation. This is a new advanced model of care which focuses on a person’s needs and their community assets.

In this exciting role, the post holder will work as a Senior Occupational Therapist and Community Mental Health practitioner within a specified locality of this Community Mental Health service. This role involves providing Occupational Therapy specific skills and expertise, alongside competencies required as a band 6 Senior Community Mental Health Practitioner within the service. Profession-specific clinical practice will be supported, alongside responsibilities for promoting recovery, clinical improvements and risk management for an identified caseload of individuals within the service. As a senior Occupational Therapist within the service locality, the post holder will provide leadership and professional expertise to junior Occupational Therapy staff, and the wider clinical team.

The post-holder will support the day-to-day provision of high-quality mental health care within the specific locality of the CMHT. They will provide direct supervision and leadership for the Band 5 Occupational Therapy staff within the team, and also support colleagues within the partnership through providing recommendations and guidance to support occupationally-informed care plans. This role involves both integrated working, within a wider mental health service, providing recovery-focused and person centred care plans, interventions and management of risks, and also Occupational Therapy specific work.

This exciting role offers the post-holder the opportunity to further develop skills in leadership, service development and enhanced clinical practice, with support from the Professional Lead Occupational Therapist and the wider clinical leadership team. It is an excellent opportunity to work within an MDT where Occupational Therapy is valued and promoted. The transformation of community mental health services also requires the post holder to work within the integrated service, with partnership organisations, in the delivery of care and treatment to ensure mental health care is provided in the right place, at the right time, to meet individual needs.  This role supports the balance of core and specialist mental health skills, such as the duty and triage responsibilities, MDT formulation and 1:1 assessment and intervention, alongside specialist Occupational Therapy provision.

·         To work closely with the Professional Lead Occupational Therapist for service, to provide leadership and oversight for Occupational Therapy provision within the locality specific (West/East/South* one of these) community mental health service.

·         To work closely with the Professional Lead Occupational Therapist for service, to ensure a fair and equitable Occupational Therapy offer for individuals who access the service.

·         To provide specialist, evidence-based Occupational Therapy assessments, interventions and recommendations, to meet the needs of identified individuals within the Community Mental Health Service.

·         To work closely with the Clinical Team Manager (CTM) in overseeing efficiency and effectiveness of treatment given and support the CTM in carrying out their duties.

·         To actively support duty and triage activities within the service locality functions, including acting as the lead duty clinician on a regular rotational basis and offering guidance and advice to junior staff through triage and duty activities.

·         To support the locality leadership in the chairing and co-chairing of meetings, taking on champion/lead roles for clinical responsibilities (such as Triangle of Care)

·         To support the locality leadership team in incident reporting, completing investigations, implementing action plans and debriefs.

·         To act as a lead practitioner and key worker to ensure that all care delivery (whether a mental health focus or an Occupationally specific focus) is of the highest quality.

·         To work within the skilled and diverse community mental health service, alongside primary care and voluntary sector colleagues, to ensure that individuals experiencing significant Occupational Deprivation and Occupational dysfunction have opportunity to access evidence-based, planned assessment and treatment.

·         To actively participate in MDT activities, and take a lead in identifying potential Occupational needs of clients within the wider team caseload

·         To be a positive advocate for the role of Occupational Therapy within Community mental health services, within a recovery-focussed, MDT approach.

·         To provide expert guidance, recommendations and advice to colleagues within the Community Mental Health service, to support formulations of individual’s needs and provide occupationally-informed mental health care.

·         To support the leadership team (including Clinical Team Manager(s), Professional Lead Occupational Therapist and Community Practice Development team) in the development of staff, meeting of quality standards, implementation of policy, management of change and innovation.

·         To formulate and deliver treatment packages utilising a wide range of therapeutic approaches and interventions, to meet functional, occupational & environmental needs in negotiation with the Service User and in liaison with relevant others within their care.

·         To take responsibility for student education, and supervision and development of preceptees within the service, including offering high quality placements and educational opportunities, and complete relevant training to support this.

·         Support recovery, social inclusion, maintenance or development of roles and responsibilities within the domains of self-care productivity or leisure; to promote and maximise the potential for independence.

·         To work within the Occupational Therapy Process, utilising Occupational models to inform practice including the Model of Human Occupation and other specialist assessments.

·         To actively support audits, evaluation and reviews to continuously develop and improve Occupational Therapy provision, and recovery throughout the mental health pathway.

·         To work collaboratively with colleagues across services, from inpatient to community and third sector provision, meeting the needs of individuals and ensuring smooth transitions from acute to community care, to promote greatest access to Occupational Therapy and high-quality mental health care.

·         To maintain Professional Occupational Therapy and AHP links. Attend and contribute to governance meetings and formal clinical review as required.

·         To present as a positive and professional role model to all staff within the service, striving to maintain a philosophy of service user involvement in continuously improving the service.

·         To work as an integrated member of the clinical team, participating in all aspects of day-to-day service provision.

·         Senior clinicians work with a defined caseload of service users and as part of a multi-disciplinary team, providing assessment, care planning and care delivery. This will include the provision of highly skilled Occupational therapy assessment, intervention and recommendations, psychological interventions, groupwork, clinical assessment, risk assessments / risk management, and promoting recovery and inclusion.

·         Senior clinician posts within a community setting are required to: work autonomously, manage caseloads both practically, and on the clinical digital systems, undertake initial assessments and carry out home based treatment interventions.

·         All practitioners are expected to consistently demonstrate the ‘Six C’s’ – namely care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment, as well as the Trusts values.

·         To take responsibility for identifying and reducing health inequalities experienced by service users and carers.