Therapy Assistant

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to be part of the South Community Therapy Team.

The role of the Therapy Assistant is to deliver high quality, caring and compassionate patient care.

The post holder will be responsible for undertaking assessments of patients in their own home, implementation and evaluation of patient care needs for a defined group of patients under the indirect supervision of a registered professional in their specialist area.

The post holders are required to work as part of a team committed to delivering and improving a high standard of care within South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Must have a driving licence and access to a vehicle to fulfil the role.

Main duties of the job

The post holder to undertake roles and duties delegated by the Community team leader or suitably qualified and regulated professional. Working within the boundaries set out by the regulated professional, the scope of the role enables the post holder to make a noncomplex assessment of the patient according to level of competence and act on the assessment. They will work collaboratively with the team to meet the needs of patients with specified long term conditions by providing quality evidence based care. The post holder will follow practice policy and procedures and provide supervision to more junior staff.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To undertake patient/client visits as a member of the multidisciplinary team further developing skills in assessment, planning, delivery, evaluation of patient/clients health and well-being needs.

To carry out non-complex assessments within scope of practice and as required meet the needs of the patient.

To provide direct care and support to patients in their own homes.

To identify changes in patient’s conditions and recognise within the post holders capabilities, when to inform a senior clinician.

To communicate in a timely and comprehensive way with members of the Multidisciplinary team.

To be competent in essential technical skills.

To give advice and support to patients/carers that reflects the care plan and provides a level of knowledge and experience to reassure the patient/carer and is within the competence of the post holder.

To organise own work load and establish priorities

To be able to work unsupervised in patient’s homes.

Able to organise therapeutic individual sessions with a designated caseload of clients using specific technical knowledge and skills

To use skills to interpret and analyse clinical, social, and environmental factors to contribute to the best course of therapy intervention and development of treatment and discharge plan.

Ability to use a variety of clinical outcome measures to demonstrate effective treatment.

Provision of a high standard of clinical care and assist in maintaining service delivery in rehabilitation.

Ability to work within duty Co-ordinator role using prioritisation and delegation skills enabling effective screening of referrals.

Demonstrate sound knowledge of therapy interventions for older people (i.e. Otago exercise programmes for falls)

Able to identify and formulate with client/carer SMART therapy goals using assessment information and appropriate outcome measures.

Undertake Risk assessment for equipment.

To assess for and order a wide range of equipment to promote independence in line with the policies and procedures of the ICES within their authorised budgetary limit.

To provide support and supervision to Health Care Assistants within the team as required.

To organise own workload and establish priorities (and Health Care Assistant when appropriate), in collaboration with Therapy Team leader.

To portray a positive image of the Integrated team at all times.

To be able to work unsupervised.

To maintain and improve IT skills effectively and contribute to statistical and audit returns as necessary .To submit statistical information as required.