Occupational Therapy Assistant

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Therapy Assistant to join our dynamic, friendly and supportive team of occupational therapists at Maidstone Hospital Stroke Unit.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated person with occupational therapy assistant experience, good communication skills and the ability to work with people as part of a multidisciplinary team.

The successful applicant will work with in-patients to assist the therapists to maximise patients’ independence, practice of rehabilitation programmes and ensure their safe discharge from hospital. The work is mostly ward based, but you may be required to accompany and assist Occupational Therapists on home/ access visits where necessary and appropriate. The post involves some manual handling of patients and equipment.

**Applicants will require**:

- Effective verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Ability to complete manual handling tasks
- Ability to assist with self-care and activities of daily living
- Basic computer skills.

If you have excellent communication skills and want to assist in maximising patients’ independence then this could be the post that you are looking for.

You will be supported by experienced senior staff and will have the opportunity to develop both clinically and professionally, working with junior staff and students.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust is a large acute hospital Trust in the county of Kent.

The Trust provides a full range of general hospital services and some areas of specialist complex care to around 500,000 people living in the south part of West Kent and the north part of East Sussex.

The Trust’s core catchment areas are Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and their surrounding boroughs. We work from two main clinical sites: Maidstone Hospital and Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury. Tunbridge Wells Hospital opened in 2011 and provides single rooms with en-suites for all in-patients - the first of its kind in the country.

We employ over 6,500 full and part-time staff in a huge range of clinical and non-clinical roles across both of our hospital sites.

We are passionate in supporting our staff to develop and have great opportunities for career progression. We take equality and diversity seriously and seek to empower all diverse groups within our trust. We seek to develop a culture where diversity in all its forms is celebrated. We are committed to ensuring that women are empowered to work at all levels of management and that working patterns are as flexible as possible giving all members of staff opportunity to flourish in using their skills for our patients. We work across our trust to enable those who consider themselves to have a disability both visible and invisible to have access to all they need to thrive in their work environment. We work with Stonewall to embed an inclusive and accepting culture for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff. We have 78 nationalities working in our trust and we are proud of this. We are active in embracing the ethnic and cultural diversity in our trust. We work to empower people with any protected characteristic to have opportunities to work in an environment that helps them to contribute to the best of their ability, recognising and valuing the unique contributions each of us brings for best quality care and service to our patients. We are committed to supporting the delivery of the Equality Act with zero tolerance for any discrimination, harassment or victimisation of applicants and staff with these protected characteristics