Volunteer Occupational Therapist

Role Overview As an Occupational Therapist in our rehabilitation team, your role will be to remotely provide age-appropriate and tailored occupational therapy assessment, advice and intervention to children with acute trauma and injuries and those with chronic conditions in Gaza. You will work as part of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation, health, and medical team, alongside staff based in Gaza and internationally across several countries.

Key Responsibilities

Support the Rehabilitation team's mission by effectively engaging with the CNN Multi-Disciplinary Team to remotely provide optimal rehabilitation advice and intervention to injured and disabled children in Gaza. Maintain consistent communication that enables effective patient care, operational efficiency, and timely decision-making. Assess patients' physical and functional conditions and equipment requirements to determine treatment needs. Plan and implement therapeutic interventions to help patients develop, recover, or maintain the skills and function necessary for daily living. Develop, monitor and evaluate individualised treatment plans to improve and/or maintain patients' ability to perform age-appropriate daily activities Provide advice on appropriate therapy to enhance function, independence, coordination, play and fine motor skills. Provide support to the rehabilitation clinicians and team, in and out of Gaza. To offer clear, focused, and accessible rehabilitation advice and interventions through written programmes and other relevant materials, all provided in the local language (translation support available). To use a child-centred, goal/task-focused and functional/play-based approach, alongside ‘SMART’ concepts, and to ensure all advice provided is realistic and achievable. Identify the necessary resources to ensure optimal patient rehabilitation. Collaborate with other healthcare professionals, including doctors, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, and caseworkers Utilise WhatsApp for real-time communication and SharePoint for documentation, as well as other relevant systems and programmes. Maintain accurate patient records and document progress. Stay up to date with best practices and advancements in Occupational Therapy. Contribute to rehabilitation MDT meetings. Contribute to the leadership and coordination of the Rehabilitation team, ensuring effective collaboration and communication among team members. To be proactive in volunteering time and expertise, and to proactively contribute to group discussion and communication, including volunteering for both patient-related and team tasks/responsibilities. Perform any other duties as required from time to time to support the rehabilitation program and CNN’s goals. Skills and Experience Required Qualifications: A degree or equivalent in Occupational Therapy, and relevant regulatory registration. Preferred Experience: Experience working with children. A wide range of experience across paediatric clinical specialities and age groups. Experience with equipment provision, adaptations or wheelchairs. Experience working as part of a team, including multidisciplinary teams. Experience working with people from different cultures and languages, and experience of using app/web-based communications (such as WhatsApp) and virtual meeting and storage platforms (such as MS Teams and SharePoint) Knowledge & Skills Key Knowledge Areas: Paediatric conditions, child development, therapeutic approaches and child safeguarding. Knowledge of techniques and strategies to optimise/improve fine motor skills, independence and access. Key Clinical Skills: Family/child-centred assessment and goal setting, clinical reasoning, intervention techniques (including play-based therapy, developing daily living skills, and sensory integration), and equipment provision and adaptation. Key Personal Attributes: Excellent communication, empathy, teamworking, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving and flexibility. Commitment The role requires a minimum commitment of 5 hours per week Application Process To apply, please submit your CV and a brief cover letter outlining your relevant skills and experience.