Clinician I – Certified Peer Support Youth

Children's Services                                 

~ Tuscaloosa, AL ~ 

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POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Certified Peer Support—Youth (CPS-Y) role is to provide intentional, authentic support to youth consumers with emotional, physical, behavioral, and/or mental health challenges. The skilled unrelenting focus of the CPS-Y is using his/her life experience with a serious emotion disturbance and specialize training to promote recovery and resiliency.

Primary Functions:

• Provide authentic and purposeful support to promote youth and family recovery
• The services are geared toward promoting self-empowerment of the youth, enhancing community living skills, and developing/enhancing natural supports.
• Provide resources and educational materials to help assist youth with understanding services, options, and treatment expectations, as well assistance with developing wellness tools and coping skills.
• Facilitating and creating advocacy, balance, and cohesion between the youth/family served, professionals (including CPS-Ps who may be supporting the family), and other supporting partners..
• Deliver intentional support activities that build on the strengths and resiliency traits of parent/primary caregiver
• Collaborate with agency staff internally and representatives from community-based organizations and child-serving systems in providing support to families receiving service.

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COMPETENCIES

1. Must possess a strong commitment to assisting parent or care giver of a young person with emotional, physical, behavioral, and/or mental health challenge.
2. Successfully complete the Department of Mental Health certifications and trainings.
3. Must be able to comprehend and maintain program standards.
4. Must possess professional verbal and written communication skills.
5. Must be able to interact with children and families in a respectful and sensitive manner.
6. Must be able to work within the Organization to effectively serve the needs of the consumers.
7. Must be knowledgeable in cultural diversity and be able to work well with multi-problem families.
8. Must possess competent computer skills.

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ESSENTIAL SKILLS REQUIRED: All six of the following meta-skills competencies listed below should be reliably and consistently demonstrated in every interaction with the parent.:

Peer-based relationships:

• Must be able to introduce yourself to the consumer and community partners and explain your role as a CPS-Y.
• Ability to establish peer-based relationships by using strategic self-disclosure to build connection based on understanding the consumer's experience.
• Ability to build a strong sense of connection based in equality, common respect, and mutuality.
• Ability to demonstrate active listening skills, empathetic responses and validate the youth's experience.
• Must be able to use person-first and strength-based language in every interaction with consumer and those working with the consumer.

Encourage Growth as a Peer:

• Ability to create conditions for youth to make decisions that are best for their life and determine their course of action.
• Ability to estimate right fit and match of support and follow through on a varied range of support activities.
• Support others to understand and appreciate the youth's positions.
• Understand the youth's position, interests and preferences and actively support them.

Actively Accept:

• Continually work to ensure the youth feels empowered and confident in their own decision-making ability.
• Ability to extract functional strengths from the consumer's story and share them with family and other team members.
• Ability to actively accept youth's decisions and communicate a sense of acceptance even when you disagree.
• Ability to manage personal bias and disagreement so it does not interfere with the support relationship.

Respect throughout the relationship

• Ability to communicate a sense of respect that youth's voice matters and deserves to be heard.
• Ability to identify, extract and utilize the youth's functional strengths and family culture to develop individualized support plans.
• Ability to communicate a sense of cultural humility in connecting with each consumer.
• Ability to identify unmet needs as a key to establishing understanding.
• Ability to assist youths in reflecting on their own journey and encourage empowerment.
• Ability to model a relational stance of respect and acceptance in all interactions with and about youths.

Link with Others in Collaboration & Problem Solving:

• Build collaborative partnerships with others demonstrating a non-adversarial advocacy approach.
• Participate as needed in team meetings.
• Connect youth with other youth with similar life experiences to reduce isolation, shame and blame and increase natural supports.
• Ability to model a strength-based approach and utilize collaborative problem-solving techniques with others.
• Utilize consumer strengths and resiliency traits in problem solving and brainstorming solutions.
• Ability to recognize strengths of collaborative partners.

Suspend and Interrupt Bias & Blame

• Strategically use own life experiences to empower others to suspend their own bias about youth.

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ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS/RESPONSIBLITIES

1. Ensure that all assigned duties are implemented according to IRBH and DMH policies and procedures.
2. Ensure all safety, fire prevention, and health measures are followed while on duty.
3. Meet or exceed productivity requirements of 40 billable hours per month. 
4. Maintain a minimum case load of no less than 10 families, but no more than 30 in the first year. After one year, a minimum of 20, but no more than 50 families.
5. Work in conjunction with paraprofessionals and professional staff.
6. Establish and maintain supportive relationships, observing professional boundaries.
7. Follow the DMH/DD standards for provision of services.
8. Ensure that agency vehicles have pre-trip inspections, monthly maintenance checks, and provide report documentation to supervisor and Facilities Manager.
9. If a company vehicle is not available utilize personal vehicle to accomplish work related duties.  Indian Rivers will reimburse mileage.
10. Ensure client charts are up to date and accurate.
11. Attend staffings and team meetings as assigned.
12. Ensure safety of consumers, preserving basic human and legal rights.
13. Demonstrate appropriate and ethical behavior at all times.
14. Demonstrate a positive attitude toward work and the completion of work assignments.
15. Address any consumer concerns to the Supervisor or Program Manager.
16. Provide all necessary data as required by the center and the state.
17. Maintain communication and awareness of current Organization events by reading memos, emails, bulletin boards, and communication logs and respond in a timely manner.
18. Work independently to complete assigned tasks accurately and in a timely manner with minimum supervision.
19. Support Organizational Code of Conduct, Standards Compliance, HIPAA, and Security Programs by ensuring job tasks are performed in a legal and ethical manner, assessing the work area for non-compliance and notifying the supervisor, manager, Executive Director or designee as appropriate, and maintaining training requirements and understanding that training is a required condition of employment.
20. Maintain the confidential nature of all consumer and Organization related activities by not divulging information outside the facility, discussing information within the facility on a need-to-know basis, acknowledging policy annually by signing confidentiality statement, and by referring media and general inquiries to the Executive Director.
21. Adhere to attendance and punctuality policy by allowing adequate time to arrive, clock-in and assume responsibilities at designated time, adhering to meal and break times and making timely requests for annual leave and reporting the need for sick leave in accordance with policy.
22. Comply with all standards related to safety and health by maintaining current TB Test, CPR/First Aid, CPI, and by reporting infections and on-the-job injuries in accordance with policy.
23. Provide accurate documentation of billable time and service reports in a timely manner.
24. All other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Supervisor or Clinical Director.

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MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

1. Minimum of High School Diploma or G.E.D. required.
2. Must be at least 18 years of age.
3. Must have the capacity to work flexible hours, including evenings/weekends based on the needs of our clients.
4. The CPS-Y is an individual who has personal experience with children's mental health, who is willing to share his/her personal experiences, and articulates an understanding of recovery, with the ability to assist other individuals in their own recovery process.  
5. Must satisfactorily complete all assigned DMH and IRBH trainings and requirements, within the expected time frames.
6. Current Alabama driver's license and good driving record as defined by Indian Rivers' policy, as well as reliable transportation and proof of automobile insurance.
7. Must be able to read, write legibly, speak, and comprehend English.

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WORKING CONDITIONS, HIPAA, OTHER GUIDELINES

Job Specifications:  To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each primary duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform the essential functions.

HIPAA:  Must be knowledgeable of and abide by HIPAA regulations regarding protected health information as defined by HIPAA and IRBH. Minimally accesses verbal, written, and /or electronic PHI, usually incidentally to an approved use and /or disclosure as pertains to consumer's financial, demographic, and/or clinical data.

Working Conditions:  Works in general office environment and in homes, schools, and community settings; may require long hours. Must have the use of sensory skills to effectively communicate and interact with other employees and the public using the telephone and personal contact. Physical capability to effectively use and operate various items of office related equipment, such as, but not limited to, computer, copier, multi-line phone and fax machine. Some risk involved in the event of aggressive/out-of-control consumers. Must possess a valid Alabama driver's license.

Physical Requirements: The Physical Requirements described herein are representative of those which must be met by an employee to successfully perform the primary functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities, who are otherwise qualified, to perform essential functions.

Physical presence onsite is essential.  Hearing and vision must be normal or corrected to within normal range.  Able to perform the duties with or without reasonable accommodation.

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Indian Rivers is an Equal Opportunity Employer
This Employer participates in E-Verify