Advanced Clinician - Speech Language Therapist

South Island - Canterbury; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 42,000 - 65,000; Part time

Job summary

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora in Christchurch invites applications for an Advanced Speech Language Therapist. This 0.5FTE, permanent role is based at Princess Margaret Hospital and serves the Canterbury community through a designated advanced practice pathway.

The role focuses on assessment and management of older adults with mental illness and cognitive disorders within the Older Persons Mental Health Community Team.

Qualifications

• New Zealand registered Speech Language Therapist with outpatient, virtual care and community-based interventions experience.
• Experience managing complex communication and swallowing difficulties.
• Ability to adapt interventions and lead change with clinical/operational leaders.

Responsibilities

• Provide evidence-informed, culturally safe practice across Older Persons Mental Health Community Team.
• Implement service delivery methods including group therapy, virtual care, outpatient clinics and home visits.
• Develop clinical pathways and evidence-based teaching resources; translate research into local practice.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Teaching/Mentoring

Clinical leadership

VFSS knowledge

Mental health experience

Community-based care

Education

NZ Registered Speech-Language Therapist

Job description

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Advanced Clinician - Speech Language Therapist

South Island - Canterbury – Christchurch, South Island

• Permanent, part-time position 0.5FTE (20 hours per week)
• Based at the Princess Margaret Hospital
• This role is a Designated Advanced Practice Role

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is firmly grounded in the principlesof Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is committed to building a health system thatserves all New Zealanders.

About the Role

This Advanced Speech Language Therapist role will provide evidence-informed and culturallysafe practice across ourOlder Persons Mental Health Community Team, with a focus on assessment and management of older adults with mental illness and/or cognitive disorders. The team provides comprehensive assessment of the mental health of older people, whilst aiming to optimise the person's level of functioning, offering specialist treatment, care, support and education.

In this predominantlyclinical role, you will implement a variety of service delivery methodsincluding; group therapy, virtual care, outpatient clinics and home visits as clinicallyindicated. While based administratively at Princess Margaret Hospital, thisposition provides care to the community across the Canterbury region.

Using your extensiveclinical skills and knowledge, you will work alongside operational and clinicalleaders to support the continuous improvement of the Community Speech-LanguageTherapy Service. This includes clinicalpathway development in associated clinical areas of specialty, creation ofrobust evidenced based clinical and teaching resources, and participating /translating current research into local clinical practice. Developing opportunities to maximise theskills of our unregistered workforce is also a focus.

This role will alsoinclude supporting clinical education and training opportunities for colleagues at a regional level, as well as offering BSLP and MSLP student clinical education in the specialised area of managing degenerative conditions.

Fostering relationships within Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora and with wider networks will be a vital aspect of achieving these objectives.

About You

You will be a New Zealand registered Speech Language Therapist who has experiencewith providing outpatient clinics, virtual care and community-basedinterventions as well experiencemanaging complex swallowing and communication impairments.

To be successful in this role you will also demonstrate the following:

• Provenexperience in managing adults with a broad range of complexacquired communication and swallowing difficulties, including advanced skills in supportingspecialist medical differential diagnosis
• Ability to flexibly integrate interventions using problem solving androbust communication, whilst being led by your client's goals
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with an ability to work alongside,influence and communicate with a range of personalities
• Can use clinical expertise to lead change alongside clinical andoperational leaders
• Demonstratesability to teach, inspire and mentor colleagues and students - both withinWaitaha and wider afield
• Significant experience with Videofluoroscopy- particularly working withpatients with a complex biopsychosocial profile that may impact the patient's performancewithin the VFSS
• Extensiveclinical experience within mental health populations and alongside therelevant interdisciplinary teams
• Comprehensive knowledge of Augmentative and Alternative Communication methods
• Specificskills in utilising Risk Feeding pathways for patient care
• Demonstratedclinical skills in supporting and managing clients with a progressive or palliativeprognosis
• Experience with facilitation of consumer engagement in service designand delivery
• Hold a full New Zealand drivers licence

Working at Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuringexcellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce thatis diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand andservice our community. We welcome applications from our diverse Māori,Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.