OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST II

Position/Program Information

Department of Mental Health

Exam Number: b5857B

Open Competitive Job Opportunity

FILING START DATE: 03/15/2023 AT 9:00 A.M. PT

This examination will remain open until the need of the
service are met and is subject to close without prior notice.

DEFINITION:
Provides a full range of professional occupational therapy services to assist patients with mental or physical disabilities to attain, regain, or maintain physical or mental functioning or to adjust to their disabilities.

CLASSIFICATION STANDARDS:
Positions allocable to this class receive general administrative supervision from higher-level therapy supervisors or a rehabilitation therapy chief, and clinical guidance from a higher-level occupational therapist. Comprehensive occupational therapy services are provided to patients in a range of settings such as acute medical, psychiatric, or rehabilitation hospitals, out-patient clinics, or in California Children's Services Medical Therapy Units. Incumbents assigned to children's clinics or centers in hospitals, or settings remotely located in special schools provide comprehensive consultation and occupational therapy services coordination for children with severe disabilities. Incumbents work in settings requiring very independent functioning and receive primarily administrative and policy direction from therapy supervisors. Technical guidance is available but incumbents are responsible for determining when they require such assistance. In acute medical hospitals, incumbents may rotate through specialty areas such as neurology, pediatrics, acute burns/plastics and highly involved or intensive care units, may serve as primary therapist and provide occupational therapy services to multiple condition, high-risk patients. Incumbents work within the framework of established procedures, professional standards and practice acts.

Essential Job Functions

Manages caseloads of patients with severe disabilities and varied diagnoses providing interventions, treatments, and services in acute medical, rehabilitative hospital, clinic, or California Children's Services Medical Therapy Units.

Arranges, schedules, and conducts clinics; evaluates and prioritizes patients for treatment; identifies patients for specific treatment eligibility; provides comprehensive follow-up care; initiates referrals for other services; and provides consultation and coordination of services with other agencies and treatment units.

Supervises a small staff of occupational therapy assistants or therapy technicians and student occupational therapists; assigns and demonstrates elements of patients' treatment programs, reviews their work and prepares and discusses their performance with them; may prepare performance evaluation reports.

Serves on a clinic health care team with physicians, orthotists and allied health personnel to coordinate services within a clinic; provides consultative guidance and instruction to inter-departmental agency personnel to resolve problems regarding therapy techniques/treatment, case management and proper use and care of patient equipment.

Manages patients in a unit making key evaluation and treatment decisions; participates as the occupational therapy representative on inter-disciplinary treatment/review teams; advises and reports on the patient's condition to the team, families, and physicians, and recommends additional treatment and/or equipment needs.

Orients and instructs other occupational therapy personnel, allied disciplines, and health and educational personnel in the use and care of functional equipment, behavioral management, and treatment procedures.

Provides technical guidance for Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants or Rehabilitation Therapy Technicians and student therapists in occupational therapy services for acute or rehabilitative patients.

Develops new and improved services through ongoing assessment of existing evaluation methods and treatment techniques and incorporating new techniques in clinical practice.

Serves as a resource person to other occupational therapy staff in coordinating patients' discharges, orienting them to discharge procedures, and familiarizing staff with community or governmental agencies, placement facilities and/or resources.

Provides consultative or liaison services to other occupational therapy personnel, allied health disciplines, and/or community agencies.

Trains patients, family members, and allied health teams in use of adaptive and functional equipment such as environmental controls, electric wheelchairs, myoelectric hand braces, mobile arm supports, electric hand splints, individualized arm or hand braces and follows through with ordering or making arrangements for equipment purchases, loans and repairs.

Requirements

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE:
A Bachelor's degree from an occupational therapy curriculum accredited by the American Occupational Therapy Association Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) -AND- Two years of experience in the practice of occupational therapy. A Master's degree in occupational therapy, public health, special education or a related field may be substituted for one year of the required experience.

LICENSE:
Current license issued by the California Board of Occupational Therapy as an Occupational Therapist.

A valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize an alternative method of transportation when needed to carry out job-related essential functions.

PHYSICAL CLASS:
Physical Class III - Moderate: This class requires that the incumbent stand or walk most of the time with bending, stooping, squatting, twisting, reaching, working on irregular surfaces, occasional lifting of objects weighing over 25 pounds, and frequent lifting of 10-25 pounds.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:
Paid or unpaid experience providing psychosocial rehabilitation services to adults with serious mental illness in a community-based mental health setting.

Paid or unpaid experience providing employment and education services to adults with serious mental illness in the community or in an outpatient or community-based mental health setting .

Paid or unpaid experience providing training or facilitating coordination and collaboration with community partners to support client access to employment, education and volunteer resources.

Paid or unpaid experience providing individualized case consultation to homeless outreach teams or mental health treatment teams to increase their understanding of neurocognition/executive functioning impairments.

Completion of the American Occupational Therapy Association Fieldwork Educator Certificate Program.

Board Certification in Mental Health by the American Occupational Therapy Association.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT INFORMATION:
In order to receive credit for any certifications you must provide a legible copy at the time of filing or within 15 calendar days.

*ACCREDITATION: Accredited institutions are those listed in the publications of regional, national or international accrediting agencies which are accepted by the Department of Human Resources. Publications such as American Universities and Colleges and International Handbook of Universities are acceptable references. Also acceptable, if appropriate, are degrees that have been evaluated and deemed to be equivalent to degrees from United States accredited institutions by an academic credential evaluation agency recognized by The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) or the Association of International Credential Evaluators, Inc. (AICE).

Transcript : *In order to receive credit for any college or university course, or any type of college or university degree, or any certificates, such as Bachelor's or higher, you must include a legible copy of the official diploma or official transcripts from the accredited institution which shows the area of specialization with your application at the time of filing or within 15 calendar days of filing.

Official Transcript is defined as a transcript that bears the college seal and states "official and/or copy" issued by the school's Registrar Office. A printout of the transcript from the school's website is NOT considered official and; therefore, will NOT be accepted and may result in your application being incomplete or rejected.

Additional Information

EXAMINATION CONTENT : This examination will consist of an evaluation of training and experience weighted 100%. The evaluation of training and experience will be based on application information and the information submitted on the supplemental application form at the time of filing. Additional credit will be given for education, experience, training, and/or certificates related to desirable qualifications.

CANDIDATES MUST ACHIEVE A PASSING SCORE OF 70% OR HIGHER IN ORDER TO BE PLACED ON THE ELIGIBLE REGISTER.

Notice of non-acceptance and final results will be sent via email.

ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION: The names of candidates receiving a passing score in this examination will be placed on the eligible register in the order of their score group for a period of twelve (12) months following the date of promulgation.

SPECIAL INFORMATION: Past and present mental health clients and family members are encouraged to apply.

All County workforce members must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. Successful candidates for this position will be required to submit proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or request an exemption for qualifying medical or religious reasons during the onboarding process. Candidates should not present proof of vaccination until instructed to do so by the hiring department.

VACANCY INFORMATION: The resulting eligible register for this examination will be used to fill vacancies within the Department of Mental Health.

Appointees may be required to work any shift, including evenings, nights, weekends and holidays.

APPLICATION AND FILING INFORMATION: All applicants are required to submit a Standard County of Los Angeles Employment Application online only. Resumes cannot be accepted in lieu of applications, although resumes may be uploaded as attachments to the applications.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILING ONLINE
Apply online by clicking on the green "Apply" tab for this posting.

Applicants must complete and submit their online applications and upload required documents (e.g. License, Resume, Official Transcripts, etc.) as attachment(s) during application submission, or send by email to exams@dmh.lacounty.gov within 15 calendar days from date of application submission. Indicate the Exam Title on the subject line when sending required documents by email.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Prime Variance Reports (PVRs), also known as Master Time Records, are not accepted, or required as part of the application process; this includes the selection interview and the background-check.

Many important notifications including invitation letters will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application. It is important that you provide a valid email address. Please add “najordan@dmh.lacounty.gov,” as well as noreply@governmentjobs.com, and info@governmentjobs.com to your email address and list of approved senders to prevent email notifications from being filtered as spam/junk/clutter mail. Applicants have the ability to opt out of emails from LA County. If you unsubscribe, you will not receive any email notification for any examination for which you apply with Los Angeles County. Regardless of whether you choose to unsubscribe, you can always check for notifications by logging into governmentjobs.com and viewing your profile inbox, which saves a copy of all emailed notices. It is your responsibility to take the above steps to view correspondence. Los Angeles County will not consider claims of not viewing or receiving notification to be a valid reason for late test administration or rescheduling of a test component.

Applications must be submitted online only. We must receive your application from the first day of filing at 9:00 a.m. (PT) to the last day of filing before 5:00 PM. (PT). Applications submitted by U.S. Mail, Fax, or in person will not be accepted. Plan to submit your online application well in advance of the 5 p.m. deadline on the last day of filing to ensure you have sufficient time to verify your email address. You may be required to verify your email address before the application can be submitted. This is to enhance the security of your online application and to ensure you do not enter an incorrect email address.

The acceptance of your application will depend on whether you have clearly shown that you meet the Minimum Requirements. Your online application must show complete license, education and work experience information necessary to evaluate your qualifications. License information section must show title of license, license number, original date of issue, and expiration date. Education information section must include name and address of school attended, complete dates attended, name of course/s taken, number of units earned, and degree/s earned. Work experience section must include job title, employer name and address, name of work area/facility, actual payroll title held and not the working and/or functional titles, from/to dates of employment including month, day and year, total number of months, total number of hours worked per week - not a range of hours (full or part-time), and complete detailed description of related job duties. List separately each job experience to be evaluated.

IMPORTANT NOTES:All information is subject to verification. Applications may be rejected at any stage of the selection process.Utilizing VERBIAGE from class specifications and Minimum Requirements serving as your description of duties WILL NOT be sufficient to demonstrate that you meet requirements. Doing so may result in an INCOMPLETE APPLICATION and you may be DISQUALIFIED. The County of Los Angeles is a Fair Chance employer. Except for a very limited number of positions, you will not be asked to provide information about a conviction history unless you receive a contingent offer of employment . The County will make an individualized assessment of whether your conviction history has a direct or adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job, and consider potential mitigating factors, including, but not limited to, evidence and extent of rehabilitation, recency of the offense(s), and age at the time of the offense(s). If asked to provide information about a conviction history, any convictions or court records which are exempted by a valid court order do not have to be disclosed.

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER: Please include your Social Security Number for record control purposes. Federal law requires that all employed persons have a Social Security Number.

COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS AT PUBLIC LIBRARIES: For candidates who may not have regular access to a computer or the internet, applications can be completed on computers at public libraries throughout Los Angeles County.

NO SHARING OF USER ID, E-MAIL AND PASSWORD: All applicants must file their application using their own user ID and password. Using a family member's or friend's user ID and password may erase a candidate's original application record.

DEPARTMENT CONTACT:
HR Examinations Unit: (213) 972-7034
HR Examinations Unit Email: exams@dmh.lacounty.gov
Analyst Contact Phone: Nicholas Jordan, (323) 705-3925
Analyst Contact Email: najordan@dmh.lacounty.gov

ADA COORDINATOR PHONE: (213) 972-7034
TELETYPE PHONE : (800) 735-2922
CALIFORNIA RELAY SERVICES PHONES : (800) 735-2922

For detailed information, please click here

Closing Date/Time: Continuous

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• Los Angeles County

• (800) 970-5478

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