Activity and Engagement Practitioner - London, United Kingdom - South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

This is a unique and exciting opportunity for an experienced, skilled and motivated person to work in our new Activity and Engagement Practitioner role.

This role involves identifying, co-ordinating and facilitating both 1:1 engagement and group activities with in-patients on the ward.

We are looking for someone with a positive, upbeat personality with a strong desire to help Service Users to be appropriately engaged throughout their admission.

About the role:

The post holder will play a key role in promoting the use of therapeutic engagement by all members of the Team to support Service Users' overall health and wellbeing and will be under the direction of the Unit Occupational Therapist.

The purpose of the Activity and Engagement Practitioner role is to provide a wide range of activities, through a mixture of 1:1 sessions and groupwork suitable to meet the interests and needs of Service Users.

Examples include gardening, music appreciation, arts and crafts, games, reminiscence and sensory approaches.

As part of the PsychologicalMedicine and Older Adult Directorate of the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Chelsham House Ward provides comprehensiveassessment and treatment to older adults in the acute phase of mental illness and/or Dementia.

Chelsham House is our Acute Dementia Specialist Assessment ward and provides person centred treatment and care to older adults with acute needs associated with their Dementia, through a well-established multidisciplinary team.

Our patients are older adults who have mental health difficulties and / or Dementia and require specialist in-patient care prior to moving back into the community or on to other specialised settings.

We have a large multi-professional team including psychology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and medical professionals.

The team are highly passionate about providing high quality patient centred caretopatients who are older adults with mental health difficulties and / or dementia and require specialist in-patient care prior to moving back into the community or on to other specialised settings.

About the location:

You will be based at Chelsham House Ward, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham.

There will be opportunities for development and staff are encouraged to flourish in their role. On-going structured supervision and appraisal will also be provided.

Job purpose:

admitted to Hayworth Ward. Examples include gardening, music appreciation, arts and crafts, games, reminiscence and sensory approaches.

Alongside the wider Multidisciplinary Team the post holder will be responsible for supporting the development and delivery of the Ward Therapy Programme and facilitate individualised activity plans to ensure that a wide variety of meaningful activities are on offer.

This will involve adapting activities so that they are meaningful to people with cognitive impairments such as dementia.

The post holder will play a key role in promoting the use of therapeutic engagement by all members of the Team to support Service Users' overall health and wellbeing.

The Activity and Engagement Practitioner must have a positive, upbeat personality with a strong desire to help keep Service Users to be appropriately engaged throughout their admission.

The role requires an understanding of the need to uphold the principles of privacy, dignity, independence and promoting choice when working with an older adult population.

This post will be under the direction of the Ward Occupational Therapist.

General Scope of the Post

Principal Duties

To lead on providing individual and group activity sessions
To promote a whole team approach to the use of therapeutic engagement to support health and wellbeing
Encourage staff members, relatives and friends to participate in the wardbased activities and engagement with Service Users.
To plan on going weekly activity rotas in conjunction with the service users wishes and encourage service users to maintain preexisting and/or new hobbies.
To be able to adapt activities to be appropriate for varying levels of cognitive presentation and physical abilities
To support in the routine collection of Service User, Family and Friend feedback so as to inform what activities are offered on the Ward
To observe individual's progress, and possible rehabilitation potential and to participate in Service User reviews as appropriate
Maintain full and accurate records of activities using the relevant documentation process, in order to monitor, record and evaluate individual and group participation and progress
To keep abreast with new developments in the field of caring for older people with mental health difficulties
Foster good community relations and assist in the organisation of fund r