Occupational Therapist (Independence Coach)

Independence Coach/Occupational Therapist

Join our team to make a difference to British Columbians after brain injury and stroke!

We’re looking for an awesome person to join our team as Independence Coach - CONNECT Parksville, a brand-new location for CONNECT. As a guest on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish Nations, which is home to the Snaw-Naw-As First Nation and the Qualicum First Nation, you will have the important job of representing CONNECT and building strong community relationships as a good neighbor, partner and friend, so we walk this important journey together.

Great People, Outstanding Services

To help people redesign their lives after brain injury or stroke we need great people who share our values, breathe our culture, believe in our mission and vision, and feel a sense of purpose in their work as they contribute to making lives better. They value open, honest communication, are willing to support, encourage and challenge themselves and others to be better, and they have a desire to learn and grow to be the best they can be for the people we serve.

Job Summary

Guided by the individual’s priorities and goals the Independence Coach contributes to the creation of an integrated, multi-professional Life Redesign Plan by supporting the generation of solutions to address factors impacting the person’s goals and plan for life redesign. The Independence Coach serves as a coach, mentor and teacher for residents, families, colleagues and co-workers, informs the development of appropriate safety support strategies for residents and staff at their location, contributes to our continuous learning program, and helps us build on our standards for excellence, and our commitment to continuous quality improvement.

REPORTS TO: Leader of Culture, People and Services

START DATE: September

Job Requirements & Competencies

• An Occupational Therapist registered and in good standing with the College of Occupational Therapists of BC;
• Authentic, intuitive, and able to build sustainable, productive relationships with residents, their families, and all members of the individual’s coaching resource team as well as other professionals involved in their care;
• Flexible, adaptable, creative, resourceful and resilient, able to competently juggle and manage multiple, sometimes competing priorities while maintaining their sense of perspective and fun;

CONNECT homes are staffed by Life Redesign Coaches. They are people with diverse backgrounds whose collective strengths offer a rich resource for supporting residents and their work towards life redesign. They also run our homes along with our residents. You must be comfortable working both with and through Life Redesign Coaches giving them the support they need and be available to them out of hours as part of an emergency/urgent support leadership network.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities

• Understand a person’s story and the factors that influence their priorities, choices and life goals; bring forward your thoughts, ideas and recommendations for consideration and inclusion as measurable, actionable steps to success in their individual life redesign plan;
• Ensure that what you bring forward whether it is to be implemented by you or by someone else, has been designed collaboratively, and in partnership with the individual to help them achieve their overarching goals and to maximize their participation in real life, relevant and meaningful activities, equitable relationships and community;
• Make best use of emergent opportunities for real life learning;
• Show others how they can support the learning process;
• Collaborate with your colleagues so that your collective efforts equate to one integrated plan that will help create positive new content for the next chapter of the person’s story;
• Maintain a record of your involvement with each individual;
• Manage your actions and your time to successfully meet the demands and expectations of your role;
• Provide the Leader with a quarterly update on your work priorities along with any recommendations for quality improvement.

Working Conditions

• Regular business hours

Performance Development & Review

CONNECT offers a program of continuous learning activities as well as funding for conferences, workshops and courses. Requests for consideration go to the site Leader.

We encourage all employees to develop the practice of asking for feedback and we support offering feedback where its intent is to promote learning, improve performance and achieve success at work.

We see meetings to talk about performance as an opportunity for growth, which is why we meet as often as it makes sense for the person and their situation, and at least once a year. This job profile is used to inform those discussions by serving as a reminder of the attributes we need and the expectations we have.