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Southwark Disablement Association; Greater London; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 23,000; Full time

Job summary

Southwark Disablement Association is seeking a dedicated care assistant based in Greater London to support service users with daily living tasks and personal care. You will work as part of a team, promoting independence, dignity and safety in the home, and follow organisational policies for health, safety and reporting.

Responsibilities include assisting with mobility, meals, continence care, medication oversight, housekeeping, shopping, and liaison with medical staff to ensure the wellbeing of

Responsibilities

• Personal Care Tasks: Assisting service users with getting up, moving, and transfer support, including hoist use when necessary.
• Toileting and continence care, including cleaning commodes and changing continence pads.
• Bathing, dressing, grooming and assistance with eating, drinking and PEG feeding if required.
• Food preparation and assisting with meals while respecting individual cultural or religious considerations and a healthy diet.
• Medication: assisting with prescriptions and supervising administration according to policy.
• Health & Safety: maintaining safe, healthy working conditions in line with statutory requirements and policies.
• Protection of Service Users: promoting health, safety and welfare, and protecting from abuse, neglect and self-harm.
• Social Duties: enabling contact with families and the community and maintaining the service user’s dignity.
• Emergency Services: contacting doctors, district nurses, chemists or emergency services and reporting to line manager.
• Practical Care: shopping, laundry, housework and keeping the home clean and hygienic.
• Communication & Administration: communicating with service users and office staff, reporting changes and maintaining records.

Job description

Duties will include, but are not limited to, the following.

1. Personal Care Tasks

Getting up: Assisting service users to get out of bed and/or getting back to bed in the evening. This may involve using a hoist or any other suitable equipment used for moving and positioning service users.

Transfers: Assisting service users in transferring from bed to chair or vice versa by means of physical support in assisting service users to move, or by means of a transfer board or using a mobile or track-ceiling hoist etc when necessary.

Toileting: Assisting a service user to make use of the toilet or commode, and emptying and cleaning all types of commodes as necessary.

Continence Care: Care of catheter bags including changing, emptying and cleaning of bags, also changing colostomy bags and continence pads. Bathing or washing: Assisting service users with washing body, face, hands, legs, feet and/or hair; or assisting with strip wash, showering or bathing etc as necessary to maintain good standards of hygiene.

Dressing: Assisting service users to dress or undress, and put on socks and footwear etc.

Grooming: Assisting service users to shave, comb hair, brush teeth etc.

Eating & Drinking: Assisting service users with serving meal and cutting up food when required, and with using knife and fork etc as appropriate, also assisting with spoon feeding or drinking as and when required. Assistance may also involve feeding through a PEG feed.

Food Preparation: Assisting service users in all food preparation tasks and cooking meals, preparing snacks and drinks with regards to individual, cultural or religious considerations, while encouraging service users to follow a healthy diet.

Medication: Assisting service users in collecting prescriptions and medication where applicable, and supervising service users’ administration of the medication which has already been prepared by the nurse. Where applicable administering medication when required using organisational policy and guidelines for dealing with service users medication, and making appropriate entries accurately on the service user’s medication administration record sheets.

2. Health & Safety

Ensuring that all reasonable precautions are taken to provide and maintain working conditions which are safe, healthy and compliant with all statutory requirements and organisational policies for Health and Safety.

2.1) Protection of Service Users

Promoting and protecting the health, safety and welfare of service users at all times. Protecting service users from abuse, neglect and self-harm.

Carrying out regular risk assessments throughout the course of your work to identify hazards and resulting risks to the service user, yourself and other persons who may be affected. Assessments should include risks for service users in maintaining their independence and daily living within the home. Undertaking assessment of risks associated with moving and positioning service users.

3. Social Duties

Enabling service users to maintain contact with families, friends and the community. Helping to maintain service users’ dignity.

4. Emergency Services

Making contact and communicating with doctors, district nurses, chemists, or emergency services as and when appropriate, and reporting such occurrence to your line manager. Also contacting Gas, Electricity Board or the Water Authority in an emergency, for the service user.

5. Practical Care

5.1) Shopping & Escorting: Preparing shopping list in consultation with the service user when required, collecting service users’ benefits, dealing with bills, shopping and putting shopping items away.

5.2) Laundry: Assisting service users with their washing either at home or taking washing to the launderette, and with ironing when necessary, as well as folding up and putting clothes away.

5.3) Housework: Vacuuming, cleaning, bed making, changing bed linens, emptying bins and other reasonable tasks to keep the service users home in a clean, tidy and hygienic state, while paying due regard to health and safety issues.

6. Communication & Administration

Working with service users in a sensitive and supportive way, encouraging independence and promoting service users rights to choice. Monitoring, identifying and reporting to office staff any changes in service users’ abilities, health, behaviour, needs or circumstances. Regular contact and communication with the office staff or the out-of-hours service, giving regular verbal reports and written reports when required, and taking instructions on the phone or in person as appropriate.

Reporting and completing accident / incident or other forms as and when required with due regard to organisational policy and procedure for report writing and record keeping. Writing reports and making appropriate entries in Assisting service users with their mail and correspondence and in responding to any enquiries via the telephone, letters or in person when required.

7. Carrying out other reasonable tasks requested by or in consultation with the service user and agreed by your line manager.

The list of duties in this Job Description is not to be regarded as exclusive or exhaustive and you may be required to undertake various other reasonable tasks commensurate with your duties.