Peer Specialist - WellConnect

Shift: Office Day (8:00am - 4:00pm), with one Late Shift (12:00pm - 8:00pm)

Days Off: Sunday, Monday

Insurance Benefits: Dental, Life, Long-term Disability, Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage)

Other Benefits: Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), ORCA card subsidy, Paid Time Off (34 days per year), Retirement Plan

Union Representation: This position is a part of a union and is represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.

About DESC

Recognized nationally as an innovator and leader in developing solutions to homelessness, DESC is a social services organization, supportive housing operator, and licensed behavioral health treatment provider focused on meeting the needs of people experiencing long-term homelessness and living with complex behavioral health and other medical conditions. Approximately 3,000 people are actively receiving services from DESC at any given point in time. Our vision is a community where all people are shown compassion, treated with dignity, and everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.

DESC operates five shelter/emergency housing programs,19 permanent supportive housing facilities with over 1,750 units, several hundred additional scattered site apartments, and a range of behavioral health services including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment, residential crisis stabilization, street outreach, mobile crisis response, and treatment for opioid use disorder.

WellConnect Peer Specialist

DESC’s WellConnect program is a modified assertive community treatment (ACT) team serving Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) residents with complex needs underserved by traditional office-based care models. This interdisciplinary team of behavioral health providers offers a range of services to help participants meet their personal goals including community integration activities, systems navigation, care coordination, psychiatric medication management, peer support services, housing stability services, co-occurring substance use treatment, and individual and group psychotherapy.

A member of the WellConnect team, the Peer Specialist has experience as a recipient of mental health services for severe and persistent mental illness and is willing to use and share their personal, lived, and practical experience, knowledge, and first-hand insight to benefit the team and its participants. The Peer Specialist provides expertise about the recovery process, advocacy, symptom management, and the persistence required by participants to have a satisfying life.

Team scheduling requirements reflect this commitment to provide participants with intensive wrap-around, 24/7 services onsite at their homes and in DESC PSH Sites. Team members provide rotating coverage for 12 hours per day Monday to Friday and 8 hours per day on weekends & holidays. In addition, all team members participate in on-call rotations to provide 24-hour crisis coverage.

A condition of employment for each individual hired into a Peer position is to have an active Washington State Certified Peer Support Specialist license.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer to validate participants’ experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to actively participate in their own recovery.
• Serve as a mentor to participants to promote hope and empowerment.
• Act as an interpreter to help non-mental health participant team members better understand and empathize with each participant’s unique and subjective experience and perceptions.
• Provide expertise and consultation from a mental health participant perspective to the team concerning participants’ experiences on symptoms of mental illness, the effects and side-effects of medications, participants’ responses to and opinions of treatment, and participants’ experiences of recovery.
• Help participants identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and develop strategies to reduce self-stigma.
• Help other team members identify and understand culture-wide stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness and develop strategies to eliminate stigma within the team.
• Increase awareness of and support participant participation in participant self-help programs and participant advocacy organizations that promote recovery & link participants to recovery-oriented services.
• Support with case management activities including benefits enrollments and re-certifications, appointments, payee services, psychiatric rehabilitation, and other case management tasks.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Psychiatric Treatment and Co-Occurring Substance Use Services

• Assist in the provision of ongoing assessment of participants’ mental illness symptoms and participants’ response to treatment. Suggest appropriate changes in treatment plans to ensure that immediate and appropriate interventions are provided in response to changes in participants’ mental status or behavior which put participants at risk (e.g., suicidality).
• Assist in the provision of direct clinical services to participants on an individual, group, and family basis in the office and in community settings to teach symptom-management techniques and promote personal growth and development by assisting participants to cope with internal and external stresses.
• Assist in the provision of individual and group treatment in a stage- based treatment model that is non-confrontational, considers interactions of mental illness and substance abuse, and has participant-determined goals. Be comfortable with Harm Reduction approaches.

Structuring Time and Employment

• Perform mentoring, problem solving, encouragement and support on and off the job site.
• Provide work-related supportive services, such as assistance securing necessary clothing and grooming supplies, wake-up calls, and transportation.

Activities of Daily Living Services

• Provide ongoing assessment, problem solving, side-by-side services, skill teaching, support (prompts, assignments, encouragement), and environmental adaptations to assist participants with activities of daily living.
• Assist participants to find and maintain a safe and affordable place to live, apartment hunting, finding a roommate, landlord/property manager negotiations to support housing tenure, cleaning, furnishing and decorating, and procuring necessities (telephone, furniture, utility hook-up).
• Assist and support participants to organize and perform household activities, including house cleaning and laundry.
• Assist and support participants with personal hygiene and grooming tasks.
• Provide nutritional education and assistance with meal planning, grocery shopping, and food preparation.
• Ensure that participants have adequate financial support (help to gain employment and apply for entitlements).
• Teach money-management skills (budgeting and paying bills) and assist participants in accessing financial services (e.g., professional financial counseling, emergency loan services).
• Help participants to access reliable transportation (obtain a driver’s license and car and car insurance, arrange for cabs, use public transportation, find rides).
• Assist and support participants to have and effectively use a personal primary care physician, dentist, and other medical specialists as required.

Social and Interpersonal Relationships and Leisure Time

• Provide side-by-side support, coaching and encouragement to help participants socialize (going with a participant to community activities, including activities offered by participant-run peer support organizations).
• Assist participants to plan and carry out leisure time activities on evenings, weekends, and holidays.
• Organize and lead individual and group social and recreational activities to help participants structure their time, increase social experiences, and provide opportunities to practice social skills.

Support

• Provide practical help and supports, mentoring, advocacy, coordination, side-by-side individualized support, problem solving, direct assistance and supervision to help participants obtain the necessities of daily living including medical and dental health care; legal and advocacy services; financial support such as entitlements (SSI, SSDI, veterans’ benefits); housing subsidies (HUD Section 8); money- management services (e.g., payee services); and transportation.

Living Conditions

Support your clients with achieving and maintaining healthy living conditions. This can include but is not limited to attending care conferences related to living conditions, outreaching and supporting clients in their residential units with tools and skills to maintain their units, coordinating with housing staff, participating in cleaning out clients’ units, and documenting barriers to maintaining healthy living conditions.

Other

• Participate in daily team meetings, psychiatric consultations, clinical supervision, program meetings and in-service trainings; participate in clinical reviews and case conferences.
• Comply with the agency's clinical accountability policies and procedures; maintain current, timely and complete clinical records; participate in quality assurance reviews when assigned.
• Comply with applicable program research and evaluation procedures.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Current Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS) or Certified Peer Support Specialist Trainee (CPSS-T) credential through the Washington State Department of Health.
• Lived experience as a consumer of behavioral health services (mental health and/or substance use treatment) or be the parent or legal guardian of a child who has received behavioral health services.
• Ability to drive an agency or personal vehicle to conduct agency-related business. A current Washington State driver's license and insurable driving record are required.
• Interest in working with clients who are difficult to engage and maintain in traditional mental health/substance use disorder programs.
• Participation in regular on-call rotation (paid) to provide 24-hour crisis coverage (both on the phone & in person) for mental health issues for WellConnect clients.
• Reliable internet access at home for after-hours crisis coverage shifts.
• Good oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate and work effectively with participants and staff from various backgrounds.
• Ability to complete clinical documentation in a timely manner, in accordance with agency guidelines.
• Ability to prioritize multiple responsibilities, work independently, and exercise professional judgment.
• Have the skills and competence to establish supportive trusting relationships with persons with severe and persistent mental illnesses and respect for participants’ rights and personal preferences in treatment is essential.
• Clear understanding and respect for the importance of maintaining participant confidentiality in compliance with HIPAA.
• Ability to work effectively with clients displaying a wide range of unpleasant and/or bizarre behavior.
• Experience working with adults who are experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, have a mental illness and/or co-occurring substance abuse disorders.
• Subscribe to the philosophy of cooperation and continuity across programs and of consideration and respect for clients.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• One or more years' experience in community-based behavioral health services or like industry serving a diverse client/participant population.
• Two or more years’ experience leveraging personal peer story as a peer specialist.
• Bi-lingual in Spanish/English.
• Basic understanding of psychiatric medications.
• Experience creatively engaging individuals in treatment.
• Experience navigating Social Security and DSHS benefits applications.