Behavioral Health Clinician

Purpose:

Youth Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) services are focused on improving or ameliorating the significant functional impairments and sever symptomatology experienced by youth due to mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. Clinical and rehabilitative interventions are also focused on enhancing family functioning to foster health/wellbeing, stability and re-integration for youth who are returning home after residential treatment or in-patient hospitalization.

The Youth ACT Team is a multi-disciplinary team and works together to provide family-driven, youth-guided and developmentally appropriate services to comprehensively address the needs of youth within the family, school, medical, behavioral, psychosocial and community domains.

Position Overview: 

The Youth ACT Team Licensed Behavioral Health Clinician works as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide treatment and support services to families and children, ages 10 to 21, who have significant behavioral health needs and who are at risk of entering, or returning home from high end services, such as inpatient settings or residential services. The role involves providing highly individualized services focused on clinical treatment, family psychoeducation and skills development. The Behavioral Health Clinician provides services to youth and families in their homes and communities and collaborates closely with other service providers and systems with which the family interacts. The role will require some evening availability and rotating on-call coverage.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide treatment to the child and their family/caregivers to address the clinical needs of the child and the complex needs of the family unit
• Engage child/youth and family as active partners in developing, reviewing, and modifying a course of care that supports the child/youth’s progress towards identified goals related to restoring, building or enhancing functionality as well as the development of a relapse prevention plan where appropriate.
• Engage the child/youth and family in defining their desired goals and the action steps by which to achieve them. • Assess risk, develop safety plans and provide crisis intervention services
• Participate in both the development and implementation of a person-centered care plan that includes formal and informal supports that increase opportunities for improved quality of life. Focus is on creating meaningful and productive daily activities in the community.
• Actively participate and function as part of a multi-disciplinary team providing services, as a unit, to youth and families
• Monitor appropriate discharge and ongoing care planning at pre- and post-transition for individuals transitioning to community.
• Establish collaborative working relationships and acts as a liaison with community providers, Managed Care Plans, schools, and medical providers.
• Completes casework documentation and collects and reports data, as required, while adhering to productivity standards.
• Foster relationship with community provides to ensure that recipients relate to appropriate services as they transition back into the community and to share or collect collateral information.
• Appointment navigation by accompanying to appointments-including but not limited to travel training, reengagement in community care, and ability to identify needs and barriers to services as well as making appropriate referrals
• Monitor, evaluate and record participant progress with respect to care plan goals. • Provide on call after hour crisis intervention services when needed to participants and their support network, including respite referrals and other diversion and stabilization services.
• Attend and participate in team meetings and supervisory sessions.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Core Competencies

• Knowledge of mental illness, serious emotional disturbance and substance use disorders.
• Delivers services that are trauma-informed and attend to cultural considerations and incorporate an Anti-oppressive lens
• Proactive in terms of therapeutic interventions, continuous monitoring and engagement efforts
• Commitment to building and strengthening therapeutic and family relationships across all interactions
• Identifies and builds on individual, family and community strengths; empowers youth and families
• Ability to develop, evaluate, implement and modify a clinical treatment plan/intervention to meet the needs of individual youth and families with a focus on achievable outcomes
• Team player who functions well in a multi-disciplinary team environment
• Ability to document assessments, plans and interventions

Educational / Training Required

• Licensure (LMSW, LCSW, LMFT, LCAT) in a Behavioral Health or related field

Experience Required / Language Preference

• A minimum of one (1) year of experience in providing direct services to children with serious emotional disturbance and their families
• Fluency in Spanish preferred

Computer Skills Required

• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, ability to learn electronic health records and other software as required

Work Environment / Physical Effort

• Frequent travel throughout the assigned borough (Bronx or Queens); infrequent travel throughout NYC