Specialist Occupational Therapist

The therapy team works across our working age adult mental health services in Wakefield and is made up of Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapy and Activity Facilitators, covering three wards: one male, one female and one mixed PICU. You will work closely with other members of the wider MDT, including nurses, psychologists, dietitian, speech and language therapists and medical staff.

You will be working alongside service users with diverse and complex needs, and a variety of mental health presentations. Whilst you will predominantly work with service users experiencing mental health, there will always be exposure to some physical health presentations in addition to their mental health, so you will have opportunity to develop and maintain skills in this area.

The service is fast paced, and you will be responsible for undertaking occupational therapy screenings and assessments to identify needs, and then initiate and deliver 1:1 or group interventions to support these needs. Your assessments will play a pivotal role in informing the safe and effective discharge of service users into community, promoting independence, wellbeing and recovery.

You will receive regular supervision and peer support, alongside your appraisal. You will also be part of the trustwide occupational therapy networks within the organisation.

Our usual Working hours are Monday to Friday 8-4 or 9-5, however we are open to discussing any flexible working requests., You will be a key member of the OT team. You will provide support, supervision and leadership for the team ensuring that the provision provided is safe and of high quality. You will work with service users with diverse needs identifying occupational therapy needs through screening and assessments, plan intervention and implement intervention via 1:1 or group.

You will provide supervision and support for staff and students within the OT team. You will support the provision of activities on the wards.

You will have excellent communication skills to work with the service users, team members and the wider MDT. You will be skilled in occupational therapy assessment both standardised and non standardised with confident prioritisation skills and be an advocate for occupational therapy.

You will have good organisation skills, be flexible in your approach and demonstrate leadership skills to support the team and MDT. You will support service development and ensure that service users are receiving high quality care.

We are a specialist NHS Foundation Trust that provides community, mental health and learning disability services for the people of Barnsley, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield. We also provide low and medium secure services and are the lead for the west Yorkshire secure provider collaborative.

Our mission is to help people reach their potential and live well in their communities, we do this by providing high-quality care in the right place at the right time. We employ staff in both clinical and non-clinical services who work hard to make a difference to the lives of service users, families and carers.

We encourage and welcome applications from all protected characteristic groups, we value diversity and want our workforce to be reflective of our communities.

Being a foundation Trust means were accountable to our members, who can have a say in how were run. Around 14,300 local people (including staff) are members of our Trust.

Join us and you will be one of over 4,500 staff committed to supporting and improving the mental, physical and social needs of the thousands of people we meet and help each year.