We are recruiting a Band 6 Occupational Therapists for a 2-year fixed term contract to join an expanding small multidisciplinary team providing intensive support for autistic people accessing mental health services across Norfolk and Waveney. We welcome applications from Occupational Therapists working in both Mental Health Practitioner roles and traditional Occupational Therapy roles. We recognise that the skills clinicians bring from either pathway are highly valuable and readily transferable to our team.
As a Band 6 OT, you will provide specialist functional, sensory, and environmental assessments, and deliver tailored interventions. You will be working clinically with a small caseload of autistic service users (18 and above) who are open to NSFT mental health teams and presenting frequently within our urgent and emergency care pathways.
The overarching aims of the Autism Intensive Support (AIS) team are to reduce the number and length of stay for autistic people in acute inpatient settings. The AIS team provide an intensive recovery-oriented approach, which is trauma‑informed and autism‑friendly to autistic service users directly and undertake consultation, supervision, and training of NSFT colleagues to improve the confidence and skill of mainstream mental health community and ward staff to deliver autism informed care.
The AIS team are based at the Weaver’s Centre at Hellesdon Hospital, alongside the central locality crisis and home treatment team. This is a new team working with a small cohort of service users and we will be evaluating its impact, feeding back to our commissioners in terms of clinical and social recovery outcomes for the service users, and measuring the impact of interventions in terms of service utilisation data.
This post will suit someone who has a passion for working with autistic people, is excited about the prospect of doing something new and different and has confidence in handling data and producing reports. You would be well supported and supervised by an experienced Principal AHP (Occupational Therapist by background). You will also benefit from AHP leadership support.
Key Responsibilities
* Undertake Occupational Therapy prioritisation and deliver short term interventions, identifying clear recommendations for community teams.
* Complete specialist functional, sensory, and environmental assessments.
* Develop occupation-focused intervention plans and crisis support strategies.
* Provide sensory modulation, daily living skill development, and structured routine support.
* Promote meaningful participation and enable recovery in the least restrictive setting.
* Contribute to MDT formulation, risk management, and community alternatives to admission.
* Support families and carers using autism-informed practice and environmental adaptations.
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