Social Worker – Community Stroke Rehabilitation

Location: Ewart Building/Wellington Hospital and Kenepuru Hospital

Contract: Permanent, Part Time 0.8 FTE 

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is firmly grounded in the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is dedicated to serving all New Zealanders. Through integration and collaboration, we’re building a health system underpinned by partnership, equity, sustainability, whānau-centred care, and excellence. 

About the Role 

The Advancing Wellness at Home Initiative (AWHI) has an exciting opportunity for a Registered Social Worker to join our Early Supported Discharge service for Stroke.  This role is community based with some in-reach into the inpatient setting to identify patients that will benefit from our service. Day to day you will be working as part of an interdisciplinary team to support patients in their own homes to meet their rehabilitation goals. This role will involve a variety of Social Work tasks with a large aspect of the role focusing on grief and loss. You will be working in an interprofessional practice model which means you will also complete rehabilitation interventions that may traditionally sit with other disciplines. With training you will be supported to develop your clinical reasoning and be able to tailor your assessments & develop a holistic treatment plan with your patient. For example following assessment you may provide your patient with support around loss of independence but also education around managing their life style risk and support them with a basic exercise programme. The in-reach component of the role involves attending ward multidisciplinary team meetings, supporting with discharge planning and meeting patients on the ward to help them establish goals that they wish to work on at home.  This role is split between North and South sites and will be worked two days at Kenepuru Hospital and two days at Ewart Building/Wellington Hospital.

About the Team/Service Location 

The AWHI Team is split geographically into North & South teams with the North team based at Kenepuru Hospital and the South Team based at Ewart Building, Wellington Hospital. Each team is then split into two streams which are Stroke & Medical/Health of the Older Person. This role is based in the South team, Stroke stream however team members often flex across streams and sites to support each other with workloads. You will be joining a friendly, fun and enthusiastic team from a mix of professional groups. Our team currently includes Registered Nurses, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Therapists, Social Workers and Allied Health Assistants.  We offer on-going professional development opportunities including inter-professional practice training, professional support, profession specific training though the relevant professional leaders and clinical supervision. Cultural professional supervision is available from Māori and Pacific Health teams. Our team is continuing to grow and there will be opportunities to innovate and develop the service. 

About you 

We are looking for a Social Worker who is interested in expanding their skill set to working in an interprofessional role whilst sharing Social Work knowledge and skills with the team. You will have current registration/APC and recent clinical experience working with people under stroke/neurology or community rehabilitation specialties. The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 3 years’ experience and will hold a current NZ driver’s license. You will be able to demonstrate ability to build rapport with patient and whānau from all backgrounds and have a clear understanding of the health needs of our Māori and Pacific Island communities. You will have a flexible approach to working in a high turnover, fast paced environment and have an understanding of interprofessional practice. If you are passionate about being the best you can be, thrive on working in a team setting and are ready to expand your practice further then we’d love to hear from you. We strongly encourage applicants from all backgrounds with the right skills and experience who share our values to apply and would greatly value seeing more applicants from our Māori and Pacific Peoples communities.

Working at Health New Zealand 

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is ‘the weaving of wellness’. We're dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of Aotearoa/New Zealand. 

Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Health New Zealand are committed to being good employers and honouring our equal employment opportunity obligations. We embrace diversity and welcome application from all people, including all gender identities, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and disability. A workforce that is diverse and inclusive means that we are better positioned to understand and service our community. We are pro-equity health organisation, with a particular focus on Māori, Pacific Peoples, and the Disability Community. 

How to Apply 

To apply please click “apply now.” All applications must be submitted through our online careers’ portal by 19 October. If you have any questions about the role, please contact Philip.Adamson@tewhatuora.govt.nz

We will review applications as received and may proceed with the recruitment process, before the closing date of this advertisement.