Job overview

Are you keen to work a fascinating and ever-changing environment? 

Are you curious, creative and always looking for new learning opportunities and ways to implement this into practice?

We have a Band 5 Occupational Therapist vacancy in our central therapies team at the Hellingly Centre. This is a full time role supporting our varied occupational therapy provision. 

Forensic mental healthcare is unique and fascinating which provides both challenge and opportunity in abundance.

The Hellingly Centre is a secure mental health hospital  where we specialise in the assessment and treatment of people with complex and enduring mental health needs, who may have had contact with the criminal justice system.

Service users regularly experience stigma for mental health and / or offending history and our role is to develop trusting and safe relationships which balance being compassionate, collaborative and supportive with sound risk assessment and management skills.

Main duties of the job

As an Occupational Therapist at the Hellingly Centre you will play a pivotal role in supporting service users to enhance their health and wellbeing, develop valuable life skills and prepare for the next steps in their recovery through secure services and beyond.

You will have the opportunity to:

• Manage a defined caseload of service users, alongside other OT colleagues and robust multi-disciplinary teams.
• Support service users to establish helpful routines, maintain and develop roles, grow motivation and confidence and develop and improve skills across the domains of occupation (self-care, productivity and leisure).
• Use OT specific assessment tools (from the Model of Human Occupation; MoHO), to identify meaningful goals and areas of focus for individuals, informing treatment and care plans.
• Co-ordinate and deliver a programme of occupationally-focussed interventions (both individual and group sessions) tailored to meet the individual needs of service users and routinely evaluating the effectiveness of these through the use of outcome measures.
• Alongside the MDT, contribute to service users' risk assessment and management plans and care plans.
• Work alongside and provide supervision to Occupational Therapy support staff (post-preceptee OTs).
• Support students on placement with the service as a practice placement educator (PPE), following completion of PPE training with the University of Brighton.

Working for our organisation

The Hellingly Centre is a purpose-built secure hospital, comprising of three medium secure wards (Oak, Ash and Blossom) and one low secure ward (Elm).

We have access to a range of therapy facilities within the centre, including; a gym, shop, music, woodwork and art rooms and on-site, Badger’s Café and allotment space (offering vocational and therapeutic horticulture opportunities).

Situated within the beautiful Hellingly Country Park and close to the Cuckoo Trail, we enjoy the benefits of both beautiful countryside and the nearby larger towns.

Facilities:

• There is a small gym on-site, available for staff to use
• Badger's Café sells a good selection of hot drinks, meals and snacks
• We have a large car park and parking is free for staff.

Development and Training:

We are committed to investing in staffs' learning and development and offer:

• Regular supervision and reflective practice
• Quality training and development opportunities.
• OT-specific training available includes: Occupational Formulation, Sensory Processing Theory into Practice, Solution-Focussed approaches.
• Access to well-established 'Communities of Practice' groups for evidence- informed and based interventions (e.g. Sensory Processing, Recovery Through Activity, MoHO and Occupational Formulation).

Hellingly Centre is a member of Quality Network for Forensic Mental Health Services and there are opportunities for staff to become certified peer reviewers for nationwide forensic services.