Advanced Clinician - Speech Language Therapist

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - Southern; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 50,000 - 70,000; Part time

Job summary

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - Southern in Christchurch seeks an Advanced Speech Language Therapist to provide evidence-informed, culturally safe assessment and management for older adults with mental illness and cognitive disorders. Based at Princess Margaret Hospital, the role supports community clinics, home visits and virtual care across Canterbury.

You will work with leaders to develop clinical pathways, teach students and staff, and advance the VFSS and AAC interventions in a regional

Qualifications

• NZ registered Speech Language Therapist with experience in outpatient and community settings.
• Experience managing adults with complex communication and swallowing disorders.
• Ability to lead change with clinical and operational teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide evidence-informed and culturally safe SLP practice in Older Persons Mental Health.
• Assess and manage older adults with mental illness and cognitive disorders.
• Deliver services via group therapy, virtual care, clinics and home visits.
• Develop clinical pathways and resources, translate research locally.
• Support education and training for colleagues and students regionally.

Skills

Outpatient clinics

Virtual care

Community-based interventions

Swallowing disorders

Videofluoroscopy (VFSS)

Augmentative & Alternative Clinical

Risk Feeding pathways

Clinical leadership

Mentoring colleagues

NZ drivers licence

Education

NZ registered Speech Language Therapist

Tools

Video fluoroscopy tools

AAC methods

Job description

Jora New Zealand will close on 9th September 2026. Thank you for being with us, we are cheering you on as you continue your career journey.

Advanced Clinician - Speech Language Therapist

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - Southern – 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.