Bank B6 Specialist Speech and Language therapist -Herts

Bank B6 Specialist Speech and Language Therapist - Herts

• To work within professional standards and clinical guidelines, promoting best practice and undertaking all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner, including assessing and treating own caseload of patients/clients and maintaining professional documentation.

To build up and maintain key relationships with referrers including GPs, acute providers, Bedded Services, District Nurses, Wheelchair Services and other services across CLCH to facilitate appropriate referrals.

To be responsible for the supervision of rehabilitation assistants and speech and language therapy students.

To work mainly in the patients' homes but also in a variety of settings including clinics, residential care homes, continuing care homes and community centers, which may entail individual and group therapy interventions.

To support personal and professional development through active participation in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and by participating in any audit or research being undertaken by the service.

Main Duties of the Job

To communicate information related to complex conditions from assessment through treatment and discharge to clients, carers and families.

To demonstrate excellent communication skills to support the communication of patients who have complex and varied communication difficulties as a result of their neurological event.

To motivate and facilitate informed consent through advanced communication skills and to gain cooperation for treatment where there may be significant barriers to understanding such as aphasia.

To demonstrate skill in managing conflict across a range of situations in a verbal, written, formal and informal manner.

To work with other members of the multi-professional team to run therapy groups on an as-needed basis.

To develop, update and present SLT therapy-specific patient and carer education presentations to clients and carers.

Job Responsibilities

To undertake multidisciplinary neurological assessments, identifying the needs of the clients and working closely with the MDT on joint goals. These clients will present with a variety of complex neurological conditions, with an emphasis on those recovering from stroke.

To analyse auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of clients' communication and to identify appropriate strategies to facilitate and enhance communicative effectiveness in relevant settings.

To carry out specialist neuro-physical examinations of the orofacial process, including the mechanism of eating and swallowing.

To monitor all aspects of the interaction of significant others with clients, particularly monitoring auditory, visual and kinaesthetic aspects of dyadic interactions, encouraging adaptive strategies to maximise effective communication.

To make appropriate clinical decisions following assessment, using evidence-based practice and outcome measurement to provide the most effective treatment to clients and their families within clearly defined care plans based on SMART goals agreed with clients and their families.

Person Specification

Education/Qualification

• Recognised Speech and Language Therapy Degree Qualification or equivalent.
• License to Practise from the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.
• Evidence of registration with the HCPC.
• Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses relevant to speech/language/communication issues for adults.
• Counselling skills training.
• Other appropriate courses relevant to the case-load.

Experience

• Appropriate experience of working with an adult case-load, including a broad range of acquired neurological conditions, including complex dysphagia.
• Experience of working with adults requiring home enteral tube feeding.
• Experience of working with relatives and carers.
• Experience in supervision of junior staff/support workers.
• Teamwork in a multidisciplinary context.
• Experience in provision of training packages.

Skills and Knowledge

• Knowledge of stroke and neurological and degenerative illnesses and their management, national policies and procedures.
• Knowledge of current National and local policies related to the area of work.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both verbal and written. Good auditory discrimination skills and ability to transcribe speech phonetically.
• Membership of relevant Special Interest Group.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such, it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£20.06 an hour. Weekly pay will include: Basic pay + HCAS + 12.07% Holiday pay.