The MHST works with Young people with mild to moderate mental health presentations attending school/education settings in the Harrow area.
The purpose of the team is to
• Provide evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate mental health issues.
• Support the senior mental health lead in each education setting to introduce or develop their whole school or college approach.
• Give timely advice to school and college staff, and liaising with external specialist services, to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.
The MHST will manage referrals, deal with queries, undertake clinical telephone triage and face to face assessment, give advice and signpost young people where appropriate.
This is a role within theGreen Paper for Transforming children and young people’s mental healthprogramme. The post holder will work within a Mental Health Support Team providing short-term evidence-based interventions to children and young people with mild to moderate anxiety and depression and/or behavioural difficulties and their parent(s)/carer(s).
The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working on our healthcare settings.
The post holder will work with children, young people and parents with different cultural backgrounds and ages, using interpreters when necessary and should be committed to equal opportunities.
• Delivering evidence-based intervention for children and young people, with mild to moderate mental health problems, in an education setting.
• Helping children and young people within these settings who present with more severe problems to rapidly access more specialist service.
• Supporting and facilitating staff in education settings to identify, and where appropriate, manage issues related to mental health and wellbeing.
• Working with and within educational environments to afford better access to CYP mental health services.
• Support schools in developing their Whole School Approach to mental health.
• Delivering OT group work within education settings and other community settings where appropriate.
• Delivering OT intervention to young people, children and parents within education settings and other community settings where appropriate.
• Supervising OT Assistants delivering group work and individual work.
• Delivering training workshops to education staff.
• Delivering psycho-education workshops to parent(s) / carer(s).
• Conducting risk assessments and referring on to other services where necessary.
Central and North West London NHS Trust expects all staff to act in a way which shows you understand our core values and are willing to put them into practice with young people, their friends, family and carers and also other staff members.
We expect you to showCOMPASSION, contribute to a caring and kind environment and recognise that what you do and say helps can make the lives of others better
We expect you toRESPECTeveryone and acknowledge and welcome people’s differences rather than ignore them or see them as problematic.
We expect you toEMPOWERothers and continually try to provide information, resources and support to help others make their own decisions and meet their own needs.
To find out more about working in CAMHS CLICK HERE for our video.
The key roles and responsibilities of the Senior Occupational Therapist will include:
• Forming strong working relations with a variety of stakeholders
• Working in partnership with schools/colleges and other educational settings.
• Provide training to team members and other professionals/trainees
• Providing consultations to education colleagues and support education settings to embed a whole school approach to wellbeing
• Developing and delivering evidence-based individual and group time limited interventions to young people within education settings in accordance with Occupational Therapy principles and Children and Young People's IAPT principles
• Supporting with the development of an OT pathway within the Harrow MHST
• Managing a selected caseload of children/ young people who have identified mild-moderate mental health difficulties with occupational performance and participation needs; using specialist skills and client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate defined care packages and brief interventions
• Completion of thorough generic and OT assessments, risk assessments, care planning and reviews.
• To apply specialist clinical knowledge and skills to carry out evidence based, culturally appropriate occupational therapy interventions, both individual and in groups, which are underpinned by relevant evidence based/ theoretical approaches.
• To plan, implement and review individually tailored programmes of intervention using individual and group work approaches.
• Improve mental health and coping skills by providing interventions which promote occupational and social participation in a range of areas including education/ vocation, self-care and leisure. Occupational therapists may also provide psycho-educational programmes to assist children/ young people to develop healthy routines and balanced, meaningful life-styles which support their mental health.
• Promote physical health and well-being by providing healthy living courses including physical activity promotion, healthy eating programmes, self-care and sleep hygiene.
• Provide self-management/specific symptom management skills training linked to occupational and recovery goals e.g., stress and mood management, communication skills, relaxation training etc.
• Use occupation focused interventions to assist children/ young people to connect with their peer groups and communities and engage positively within them
• To support children, young people, their families/ carers and education staff to ensure that care plans are developed in partnership with the individual, understood by all and that they reflect SMART goals. These should be strengths-based and oriented towards reinforcing a positive identity and developing valued social roles.
• To monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions against clear aims, objectives and outcome measures in line with evidence-based practice and in conjunction with the child/ young person, their families/ carers and other professionals.
• To identify opportunities and needs for group work in education settings and to plan, implement, facilitate and evaluate groups which promote positive mental wellbeing.
• Ensuring that there is accurate documentation, and that Routine Outcome Measures are completed.
• Evidencing the outcomes of the MHST service, particularly in relation to OT intervention.
• Providing clinical supervision and day to day clinical support to OT Assistants.
• Contributing to group supervision spaces within the team.
• Working as part of a senior team, supporting the Senior Clinical Supervisors and Service Development Leads to establish the service within the Harrow area.
• Supporting and developing the interventions that can be delivered as part of the MHST within the education setting, including SEN settings.
• To take a holistic approach, applying a specialist level of understanding of the effects of mental illness, cognitive impairment, learning disability, neurodisability and physical conditions; providing training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the child/ young person’s social, educational and physical environment within the education setting.
• Appropriately raise safeguarding concerns where identified and to support colleagues with this process.
• To act as fieldwork educator to students on practice placement.
• To provide occupational therapy consultation to other professionals within the team
Patient Safety
• Safeguarding people by recognising and responding when an adult or child might be at risk from abuse but also recognising their own limits and asking for help and escalate concerns when necessary
• Escalating safety concerns and by doing so acting as effective advocates for those who use our services
• Being open and transparent about your own practice
• Identifying areas where improvements in safety or quality can be made. Report to the Team Manager any areas of concern, which may affect the safe delivery of care and/or the safe working of other members of the team.
• Working closely with others to improve services
• Maintaining accurate, legible, comprehensive records
• Maintaining compliance with your mandatory and core training requirements
• Be aware of and understand one’s responsibilities in relation to the Policies and Procedures regarding:• Fire
• Lone Working
• Health & Safety
• Absence management
• Report any accidents / incidents as per the reporting procedures of the service.
• Central and North West London NHS Trust is committed to providing safe, effective services and providing young people and families with a positive experience.
Professional Ethics
• To apply expert skills and knowledge to demonstrate professional competence and fitness to practice as an occupational therapist; as required by the Health and Care Professions Council. (HCPC).
• To comply with the RCOT Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, HCPC Professional Standards and CNWL Mental Health Trust Policies.
• To maintain an awareness and working knowledge of other professionals’ ethical guidelines within the Team to enable ethical inter-professional working.
• To maintain knowledge of national and international legislation that effects clinical practice such as the Human Rights Act, Children’s Act, Care in the Community Act, Carers Act etc.
This advert closes on Thursday 27 Feb 2025
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .