Mental Health Occupational Therapist in Leeds

Interviews will be on Tuesday 15th September at Leeds Student Medical Practice. Leeds Student Medical Practice and The Light Surgery Primary Care Network Limited are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and compassionate Occupational Therapist to join our existing Occupational Therapy Team. We have a full-time vacancy for a Mental Health focused Occupational Therapist to join our fantastic multidisciplinary PCN team, working with a range of clinical and non-clinical colleagues to provide personalised care to our patients.

The successful candidate will be kind, empathetic and trustworthy to help put patients at ease. They will be knowledgeable and experienced in the field of mental health occupational therapy and will understand the options available to patients dealing with a wide variety of mental health conditions and neurodiversity. They will be confident in managing a caseload of patients while championing occupational therapy's contribution across the PCN. They will be motivated to develop themselves and their role to meet the requirements of the PCN.

The patient population across the PCN is predominantly students and young working professionals; it is therefore essential that the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate interest in helping young people with their health queries. Experience of working in mental health and risk management is essential.

Main duties of the job

• Proactive Mental Health Rehabilitation
• Work closely with other internal and external teams to identify, triage, and support patients before mental health crises occur
• Provide specialist assessments and evidence-based occupational therapy interventions using a structured, goal-focused, rehabilitation model
• Support the patient journey through assessment and developing individualised treatment plans or goals
• Help people to support themselves through improving their knowledge and confidence and supporting them in their self-management
• Proactively work as part of the PCN multidisciplinary team to educate, provide expertise, and promote best practice to benefit patients.

Additional Responsibilities

• Build working relationships
• Participate in training and development
• Strive to maintain high quality and governance
• Ensure patient confidentiality
• Promote and maintain health, safety, and security
• Support equality, diversity, and rights of patients, carers, and colleagues
• Comply with Infection Prevention and Control policies
• Recognise the importance of effective communication
• Improve and maintain quality of the service
• Assist in promoting and protecting against any Safeguarding concerns relating to children or adults

Please refer to attached Job Description for full details of duties and responsibilities.

The Occupational Therapy service was established within the PCN in 2022 and is mainly practice based, across two practices. You will work with the Lead OT in this newly created Mental Health Focused Occupational Therapy role to contribute to a service development that provides proactive mental health management and occupational therapy interventions to patients with at-risk mental health, whilst also contributing to the core occupational therapy service.

There are excellent opportunities for professional development within the role, with training and support available including dedicated access to clinical supervision, peer supervision and regular support from the Lead OT.

Job responsibilities

This is a new and exciting opportunity for an experienced Occupational Therapist to join our well-established Occupational Therapy team in a newly developed Mental Health focused Occupational Therapy role. This role offers a new opportunity to help shape an innovative model of mental health occupational therapy within Primary Care.

In addition to our established primary care OT roles, this new post has a dedicated focus on proactive mental health rehabilitation and supporting patients with complex mental health needs who are at risk of becoming high users of primary care services. A significant proportion of the role will focus on identifying patients with an at-risk mental state early, providing timely rehabilitation, improving self-management, reducing dependency on primary care appointments and preventing deterioration that may otherwise lead to crisis presentations, secondary care referrals or hospital admission.

Working alongside our well-established Occupational Therapy team, General Practitioners and the wider multidisciplinary team, the successful candidate will provide goal-focused interventions for patients experiencing significant functional decline because of mental illness and/or underlying neurodiversity. The postholder will play a key role in developing proactive care pathways across the PCN and maintaining strong partnerships with community mental health services, university wellbeing services and third sector organisations.

The role will involve working collaboratively with the existing OT Team, Lead OT, Clinical Directors and Primary Care Managers. The new full-time occupational therapist will also be working with the existing OT team, providing interventions as part of the existing core OT service. The existing service is predominantly practice based, providing timely access to patients. The new occupational therapist will have a template of appointments, both face-to-face and telephone across both practices.

Alongside the rest of the OT team, they will support the Lead Occupational Therapist in managing referrals, providing training and attending meetings such as our monthly Mental Health MDT. The candidate will also have access to CPD opportunities, funded training, and join a friendly and supportive team of experienced Occupational Therapists.

Contributing to the core Occupational Therapy service, the postholder will be involved in a wide range of work to improve the outcomes of patients who require support with their everyday lives. This will include working directly with a diverse patient list, predominantly working with mental health conditions including neurodiversity, personality disorders, eating disorders, OCD, generalised anxiety and depression, as well as chronic pain, chronic fatigue, amongst other conditions. Experience of working with mental health and managing risk is essential.

The successful candidate will be kind, empathetic and compassionate, with the ability to build trusting therapeutic relationships and help patients feel supported and at ease. They will possess strong occupational therapy knowledge and clinical reasoning skills and be confident applying occupational therapy within an innovative and evolving area of primary care practice.

They will have experience in the assessment, management and rehabilitation of patients with complex mental health needs and a genuine passion for improving mental health outcomes. The postholder will be dynamic, proactive and resilient, with the confidence to work autonomously and make sound clinical decisions in complex situations.

The successful candidate will be comfortable working within an environment where positive risk-taking and clinical judgement are essential. They will have a good understanding of mental health risk assessment, risk stratification and risk management within a primary care setting, recognising when to escalate concerns and work collaboratively with the wider multidisciplinary team.

As this is a newly developed role, the ability to use initiative, adapt to change and contribute to the ongoing development of the service will be essential.

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Excellent clinical reasoning and decision-making skills
• Ability to undertake comprehensive occupational therapy assessments
• Strong understanding of recovery-focused mental health practice
• Knowledge of functional assessment and occupational rehabilitation approaches
• Ability to assess, manage and appropriately escalate clinical risk
• Understanding of mental health risk stratification within primary care
• Ability to build therapeutic relationships with patients experiencing complex mental health needs
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Ability to prioritise workload and work independently
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Ability to manage uncertainty and work confidently within an evolving service
• Confident using electronic patient record systems and Microsoft Office
• Understanding of proactive care and population health management
• Knowledge of community, voluntary and third sector mental health services

Qualifications

Essential

• BSc (Hons) or Pre-registration MSc in Occupational Therapy
• Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)
• Member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists
• Significant post-registration experience working as an Occupational Therapist
• Demonstrated experience operating at an advanced level of practice
• Significant experience working with adults experiencing complex mental health conditions
• Experience undertaking comprehensive mental health and functional assessments
• Experience of risk assessment and risk management within mental health services
• Experience of developing and delivering goal-focused rehabilitation programmes
• Experience working autonomously and managing a clinical caseload
• Experience working within a multidisciplinary team
• Excellent literacy, numeracy and IT skills

Desirable

• Experience working within Primary Care
• Experience working in Community Mental Health Services
• Experience supporting patients with neurodiversity (e.g. ADHD and Autism)
• Experience of service development or quality improvement projects
• Experience working with university-aged adults or young adults
• First Contact Practitioner Occupational Therapy Roadmap completed

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Kind, compassionate and empathetic
• Professional, trustworthy and approachable
• Resilient and emotionally intelligent
• Motivated to improve outcomes for patients with complex mental health needs
• Proactive and solution-focused
• Flexible and adaptable to changing service needs
• Ability to use initiative and work independently
• Committed to continuous learning and professional development
• Passionate about developing innovative occupational therapy services within Primary Care

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details

Employer name: Leeds Student Medical Practice

Address: 4 Blenheim Walk, Leeds, LS2 9AE, United Kingdom