Therapy Assistant- Enhanced Dementia Care Service

The Hounslow Enhanced Dementia Care Service is looking to recruit therapy assistants for a number of new roles within the team. We are looking for colleagues who have an interest in working with people living with Dementia

The service works with people in their own homes with the aim of preventing crisis and hospital admission through a range of approaches to enable people to live well, understand and plan for their current or future needs whilst providing input to support health and wellbeing.

You will be working as part of a multidisciplinary team including Dementia Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Nursing Associates, Social Worker and Social Care Co-ordinators. Due to the success of the service we are creating additional roles and will be running over 7 days.

We are looking for Therapy Assistants with the desire to progress and develop their skills alongside a genuine interest in working with this group of service users.

As a therapy assistant your role may include, but is not limited to the following:

• Working independently to monitor patients wellbeing and deliver interventions to promote wellbeing and safety in daily activities.
• Demonstrate understanding based on experience of how to enable a person to safely function within their home, including the ability to recognise risks and address these within the scope of the assistant role.
• Be able to assist the team in the on-going assessment, planning, management, and evaluation of care for people living with Dementia
• Follow plans of care prescribed by the team with individual patients and carers in their own homes.
• Perform and record clinical observations including blood pressure, temperature, respirations, pulse and calculate a NEWS score
• Undertake clinical tasks including assessment of mobility, activity performance and cognition in addition to education or prescription and review of equipment.
• Monitoring health and well-being in line with the service users care plan including anticipatory care and crisis planning
• Carry out risk assessments relating to changes in functional abilities, health and well-being
• Work with service users and carers to embed their care plans, provide education or work towards self-management where possible

Community healthcare is unlike any other part of the NHS. It’s personalised care that helps people to retain their independence. It’s the NHS at its best and the difference you make is truly tangible. Our colleagues often describe us as a family, and we know how important that sense of belonging and support is when you start a new job. It’s simple - happy, engaged staff provide better services.

In 2018, we were named ‘Best Place to Work for Employee Satisfaction’ by the Nursing Times. The same year, we won the Workforce category at the HSJ Awards. In the latest NHS Staff Survey results 2020, we had the best response rate amongst community trusts nationally.

We are the top community trust in the country on the theme Quality of care for the third year. We had the highest percentage of staff who felt they are able to deliver the care they aspire to and are satisfied with the quality of care they give to patients or service users.

Infection Control

As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against COVID19.

Please refer to the full Job Description and Personal Specification for an outline of this role.

Please contact the team if you have any questions about these roles.