Job overview

Harrow MHST works with young people with mild to moderate mental health presentations attending school/college within the Borough of Harrow.

The MHST has three core functions: 

·       To deliver evidence-based interventions for mild-to-moderate mental health issues;

·       To support the      senior mental health lead (where established) in each school or college to introduce or develop the whole school or college approach and;

·       To give timely advice to school and college staff, and liaise with external specialist services to help children and young people to get the right support and stay in education.

The role for the Occupational Therapy Assistant is to support the delivery of MHST interventions. The MHST utilises a wide range of evidence-based interventions, including CBT principles to support young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties at an early stage. The post holder will need to be flexible with a clear understanding of THRIVE and how all providers and organisations build on collaborative working with children, young people and families at the heart of all we do.

The post involves a combination of clinical and administrative duties and the post holder will assist Occupational Therapists in delivering a service across mainstream schools and special schools (may have input in clinics or centres in the community).

Main duties of the job

· To plan and facilitate activity based groups, guided by the MHST Occupational Therapist.

· To work individually with service users on specific tasks and therapeutic activities, guided by the MHST Occupational Therapist.

· To promote a culture of engagement in meaningful occupation within school settings, in order to enhance quality of life of children and young people.

·To provide interventions in the manner that is consistent with Trust standards and values.

·To provide feedback to the team regarding observed occupational performance during sessions which will contribute to assessment and therapeutic interventions.

· To maintain clinical records using the electronic patient record system.

· To liaise with carers, school staff and other professionals.

·To exercise good personal time management, punctuality and consistent reliable attendance.

·To attend mandatory training.

·To undertake relevant activities to meet training objectives, as identified with your supervisor. 

 To keep a record of your training and development activities. To keep up to date with mandatory training.

Working for our organisation

Central and North West London NHS Foundation 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 service users, their friends family and carers and also other staff members.

As a Band 4 Occupational Therapy Assistant we expect you to show COMPASSION, 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 to RESPECT everyone and acknowledge and welcome people’s differences rather than ignore them or see them as problematic.

We expect you to EMPOWER others and continually try to provide information, resources and support to help others make their own decisions and meet their own needs.

We expect you to work in PARTNERSHIP and behave in a way that shows that you recognise that commissioners and users of our services are the people who generate and pay for our work.

To find out more about working in CAMHS, CLICK HERE for our video.