Occupational Therapy Assistant

Job summary

Are you a compassionate, supportive care practitioner with experience in mental health settings? We are looking for an Occupational Therapy Assistant to join our dedicated multidisciplinary team at the Centralised Health-Based Place of Safety Unit at Priority House.

In this vital role, you will work under the supervision of a registered Occupational Therapist to provide warm, patient-centred care to individuals experiencing acute mental health crises. You will help service users engage in meaningful therapeutic activities, build strategies for recovery, and maintain their independence during assessment or inpatient admission.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (7-day rota including weekends and long days: 7:30 am - 8:00 pm)

What We Are Looking For

• Level 3 NVQ (or equivalent) in a relevant health or social care field.

• Prior experience working in a care or mental health setting, ideally alongside multidisciplinary teams.

• Proven ability to engage warmly and effectively with individuals, families, and people with diverse needs and abilities

Main duties of the job

• Therapeutic Interventions: Plan and facilitate flexible 1:1 and small group activity sessions tailored to meet the assessed needs and care plans of service users.

• Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Work alongside occupational therapists and the wider clinical team to deliver holistic care, explore wellbeing strategies, and support recovery journeys.

• Service User Support: Provide compassionate care to individuals during acute distress, encouraging engagement and helping them build confidence in daily activities.

• Administrative & Service Support: Complete clinical notes, manage therapy resources, and carry out non-clinical tasks to ensure the unit runs smoothly, with guidance from senior colleagues.

About us

We are Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated 'Good' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.

Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.

Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's working well together.

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification

The person specifications will detail the qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience required for the role

Person specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of (either directly or indirectly) people with functional mental health difficulties such as psychosis, depression and anxiety.
• Experience of working in a health or social care setting.
• Experience of working co-operatively within a team.

Desirable

• Experience in working with patients presenting with complex needs

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Knowledge and experience of working within a person centred, recovery oriented framework
• Basic factual knowledge of the importance of enabling people to do the things they want, or need or are expected to do to support them in being well in life
• Basic IT skills, & good written and verbal communication skills
• Working knowledge of the range of psychological and physical health problems that affect adults experiencing episode of mental illness.

Training, Qualifications and Registration

Essential

• An accredited award such as an NVQ Level 3 or similar in relevant subject

Desirable

• A City and Guilds in a craft/technical subject relevant to this area of work