Job summary
Our Knowsley community therapy team is seeking a committed Band 6 Physiotherapists or Occupational therapists to join our service, supporting the patients through shared care within their localities. We are seeking a highly skilled, enthusiastic, and proactive therapist to join our team. The service responds to the rehabilitation needs of adults 18+, who have multiple complex co-morbidities or support with discharge from the hospital setting. The Urgent Community Response service (UCR) and Rapid Discharge service operates 7 days a week including bank holidays. All staff are expected to participate in the UCR / Virtual Wards and Rapid Discharge service working alongside Advanced Clinicians to cover weekends on a rota.
We thrive to communicate and collaborate between Integrated care systems to address the health and social care needs across the area, maximising patient independence and preventing hospital admissions. This is a fantastic opportunity to join our multi-disciplinary team. The team consists of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Assistant Practitioners, Therapy Assistants, Community Matrons, Medicine Management, Nursing staff and social workers.
The Community therapy Team also provides Physiotherapy intervention to other teams within our portfolio. The Falls team, Later life and Memory services and the Adult mental health wards, in-reaching as part of the Physical health in-reach service.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be expected to effectively manage a caseload of patient's comorbidities 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 ofphysiotherapy / Occupational therapy services within a designated area/team, holding responsibility for defined projects.
The post holders take a holistic approach in the assessment and treatment of service users / patients, being responsible for the provision of appropriate, high quality care to a defined caseload which may be of a complex nature, using the appropriate model of care and evidenced based practice.
Work in partnership with other professional to enable service users / patients to be maintained in an appropriate environment, thus avoiding hospital admission.
To contribute to the maintenance and development of the Physiotherapy / Occupational therapy profession within Urgent and Intermediate Care and will facilitate effective learning within the area of practice for all students and practitioners.
About us
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
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.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To undertake comprehensive holistic assessments, devise treatment plans individualised to patient needs, reviewing and adapting during patient journey from initial assessment through to discharge.
To gain consent through engaging patients / clients through their therapy journey, enabling them to experience choice and as part of their recovery.
To prioritise designated Physiotherapy / 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 including sensory integration difficulties within virtual ward/rehab hub setting.
To monitor, evaluate and modify treatment in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness of intervention.
To apply a high level of understanding of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the patients social and physical environment.
To provide clinical advice, expertise and leadership within your 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 service users care plan is developed to meet the assessed need of the individual. To monitor, via performance management, the care plans developed for service users by all sector members to ensure that they are appropriate and of a high standard.
To liaise with family members, carers, GPs and other professionals asnecessary when completing the assessment and developing a care plan.
To be a point of contact for service users and carers that have concerns regarding their care, making every effort to resolve their concerns sensitively and promptly, referring to and informing the Team Manager as necessary.
To develop a risk management plan for service users under your care, taking note of the contributions from other members of the team. Ensure that all significant people are aware of the risk management plan and are actioning it appropriately. To monitor and work with all team members to ensure that service user risk is managed appropriately and that 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 service users under the care of the sector you have responsibility for.
Monitor and ensure high standards relating to the planning and delivery of Physiotherapy / Occupational therapy activities and comply with The Professional bodies associated with each profession, Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, contributing to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with organisational public health policy.
To monitor the provision of a range of therapeutic activities for service users by supervision of sector members caseloads and via audit.
To use skills gained through training and experience to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive. Use your judgement, gained from experience, to establish if a service user requires assessment by a medic or possibly hospital admission.
To use skills gained through experience to deal with service users who become anxious, hostile or distressed.
To ensure all sector members get appropriate support following violent incidents and liaise with the Team Manager to ensure any identified actions arising from such incidents are implemented.
To participate in and/or lead service user reviews ensuring that service user 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 service users 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 capacity and mental capacity Act.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
1. Registered Physiotherapist with the Health Professions Council
2. Degree in physiotherapy
3. Teaching / Mentorship qualification or equivalent work-based experience
Desirable
4. Membership of professional body.
5. Practice placement education qualification
6. Evidence of post registration
7. Study in a field relevant to post
Knowledge/ Experience
Essential
8. Demonstrate experience of Physiotherapy assessment including complex rehabilitation and decision making
9. Experience of successful team working
10. Experience of liaison with internal and external services and agencies
11. Knowledge and ability to express an understanding of Physiotherapy services
12. Formulation of intervention/treatment plans grounded in clinical reasoning
13. General knowledge of the principles of clinical governance
14. Having an understanding of clinical and environmental risk assessment
15. Evidence of CPD/short courses
Desirable
16. Experience of service development audit and research practice relevant to the clinical area
17. Experience of being involved in clinical audit and/or research
18. Familiar with Electronic Patient Records
Skills
Essential
19. Up to date knowledge and application of current best practice in physiotherapy in the relevant area practice
20. Application of physiotherapy outcome measures and models of practice
21. Application of the process of standard setting, audit, evaluation and review
22. A sound knowledge of the core skills of Physiotherapy and their application in this field
23. Ability to communicate effectively with service users within the specific client group
24. Good listening skills
25. Demonstrate a good knowledge of Health Profession Councils standards
26. Of Proficiency and the Physiotherapist's responsibility to identify gaps in their knowledge base.
27. Demonstrate knowledge of the concepts of mentorship and supervision.
28. Evidence of active participation in supervision and the appraisal process
29. Experience of group and individual interventions with the specific client group.
30. Experience working in a collaborative way with the MDT and service users/carers
31. Good time management
32. Apply and promote physiotherapy skills to include carrying out physiotherapy assessments, setting clear physiotherapy goals and facilitating a wide variety of therapeutic interventions via the provision of meaningful activities
33. Able to apply Person Centred approaches.
34. Apply clinical skills and able to reflect on own and others practice
35. Excellent range of communication skills, able to motivate and support other staff.
36. Ability to facilitate presentations
37. Self Management and motivation skills
38. Risk assessment skills
39. It Literate
40. Ability to travel across boundaries
41. Awareness of factors contributing to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with the organisational public health policy
42. Understanding of partnership working
43. Awareness of local agenda in health and social care