Specialist Occupational Therapist - Walsall ESD/Community Stroke Team

1. To manage a caseload of service users with highly complex needs due to stroke,

2. Using specialist Occupational Therapist assessment and intervention skills i.e. Vision, cognition, vocational rehab to include equipment orders and home adaptions.

3. Use specialist clinical skills to provide assessment and treatment programmes in community setting.

4. To supervise band 4 and 5 grades of therapy staff within the community stroke rehabilitation service

5. To act as an autonomous practitioner with advanced practitioner skills. This involves assessing clinical needs, planning, delivering, and evaluating therapeutic rehabilitation programmes to support community living of clients with complex needs and discharging from the service when appropriate.

6. To perform specialist stroke rehabilitation Occupational therapy assessments and interventions to facilitate improvement in upper limb function, cognitive, vision and perceptual skills within recognised frameworks of practice and treatment approaches. This may involve use of recognised standardised assessments e.g. VISA, OCS, R-Bands, Brainwave R and Rivermead perceptual assessment battery.

7. To assess for and fit a wide variety of adaptive equipment to meet clients needs regarding community living and performance of roles. This involves identifying potential risks and using highly developed clinical reasoning skills to identify the appropriate piece of equipment and monitor and evaluate its use

8. To assess for and prescribe minor adaptations to property and identify needs for major adaptations and liaise with Social Services colleagues regarding provision

9. To assess clinical needs and manufacture specialist orthoses to meet clinical needs related to management of muscle tone, joint stability, and pain. This will include monitoring and evaluating use and change in clients health status within a planned review system.

10. To organise, facilitate and evaluate, group treatment and health education programmes for specific client groups i.e. upper limb group and cognitive groups.

11. To effectively manage and prioritise a caseload of service users with complex needs acting as an autonomous practitioner with advanced specialist practitioner skills.

12. To provide appropriate written clinical reports within Single Assessment Processes and maintain client case notes to agreed departmental and professional standards.

13. To construct and monitor care plans. This includes supervising the practice of generic workers, Assistant Practitioners or Technical Instructors and care workers within the enablement service.

14. To liaise and work jointly with, appropriate health and social care providers to ensure that all identified issues requiring intervention are addressed within available resources. This may include attendance at multi-professional and multiagency meetings, case reviews and joint visits.

15. To provide technical support and advice to other health and social care providers regarding appropriate interventions to address clients issues.

16. To identify best / evidence-based practice related to appropriate client groups and implement within resources available.