Lead Behavioral Health Therapist - Behavioral Health @ Austell

How would you like to work in a place where your contributions and ideas are valued? A place where you can serve with compassion, pursue excellence and honor every voice? At Wellstar, our mission is simple, yet powerful: to enhance the health and well-being of every person we serve. We are proud to have become a shining example of what's possible when the brightest professionals dedicate themselves to making a difference in the healthcare industry, and in people's lives.

Work Shift

Day (United States of America)

Location: Wellstar Cobb Behavioral Health

• 3950 Austell RD. Austell, Ga 30152

Shift/Schedule:  

• Day shift/40 hours per week/Monday - Friday.

Job Summary:
Functioning under the leadership of the Nurse Manager or designee, the Lead Therapist-Licensed provides clinical leadership and therapeutic services for patients receiving care on the inpatient Behavioral Health Unit. This role delivers evidence-based, trauma-informed, and patient-centered individual, group and family therapy; completes psychosocial assessments and safety planning; and collaborates with the interdisciplinary team to develop, implement and maintain individualized treatment plans. The Lead Therapist- Licensed supports safe, high-quality patient care by coordinating therapeutic programming, maintaining the group therapy schedule, guiding the treatment planning process and supporting disposition planning. As a site-based lead, this position provides clinical guidance to therapists and disposition planners and partners with nursing leadership to promote efficient, consistent and clinically appropriate care.

Core Responsibilities and Essential Functions:

1. Individual and Group Therapy
a. Provides individual therapy to assigned caseload using evidence-based, trauma-informed and patient-centered interventions aligned with the treatment plan
b. Develops, maintains, and coordinates the group therapy schedule for the inpatient behavioral health unit, including assignment of team members to facilitate groups.
c. Facilitates group therapy sessions focused on coping skills, emotional regulation, relapse prevention, safety planning, psychoeducation and discharge readiness
d. Conducts family sessions, as appropriate, to support treatment goals, enhance communication, and promote safe discharge planning.
e. Collaborates with the interdisciplinary treatment team to identify therapeutic needs, monitor patient progress, and update individualized treatment plans.
f. Documents individual, group, and family therapy interventions in the electronic medical record in a timely, accurate, and clinically appropriate manner.
g. Provides therapeutic interventions to support crisis stabilization, symptom management, engagement in treatments and continuity of care after discharge.
2. Discharge Planning/Patient Placements
a. Coordinate with the care team to develop an appropriate disposition plan and facilitate referrals to recommended level of care for post-discharge follow-up.
b. Identifies and documents barriers to timely disposition.
c. Obtains collateral from patients family/identified supports to plan for continued care
d. Provides education/counseling to patient/family to assist in understanding, accepting and following medical recommendations of his/her conditions.
e. Understands eligibility processes and criteria for referrals to identified levels of service and resources; .
f. Develops a Safety Plan with all patients.
g. Allows for any cultural or religious beliefs in providing services and continuity of care.
5. Patient Assessment
a. Conduct and interpret comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments for the Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit:
Complete Suicide Risk Assessment
Collaborate with collateral/support contacts
b. Establish a disposition plan appropriate for the clinical, medical and biopsychosocial presentation and resource needs of the patient.
c. Consult with Psychiatry Team, Nursing staff and other appropriate team members to establish the treatment plan
d. Review the treatment plan with the patient/guardian to ensure comprehension of program services available and provide recommendations.
e. Serve as the owner of patient treatment plans, ensuring they are reviewed and updated appropriately in treatment team and signed by all parties.
3. Documentation
a. Documents initial psychosocial/functional assessment in the electronic medical record.
b. Documents suicide risk assessment in the electronic medical record.
c. Documents ongoing reassessments, and safety plan in the electronic medical record.
d. Documents each patient contact.
e. Assists with legal documentation as appropriate (i.e., 1013, 1014, 1015, 1021)
f. Documents all contact with collateral contacts, support systems and resource referrals in a timely and accurate manner.
g. Ensures daily reports are completed to ensure continuity of patient care from shift to shift.
4. Professional Development and Initiative
a. Adheres to ethical business practices by striving to perform in a manner that conforms to the highest standards of ethical behavior, integrity and honesty.
b. Maintains confidentiality of all patient information.
c. Maintains attendance/punctuality in accordance with system policy and procedure.
d. Serves as a team lead by proactively managing the workload across the team, maintaining group schedule and assignments,, working complex cases and offering support to peers.
e. Provides hand-offs to enhance continuity of care, mitigate gaps in services, and escalate barriers in service delivery.
f. Attends and participates in staff meetings, required in-services, process improvement activities, and other meetings as requested.
g. Completes all initial and ongoing professional competency assessments, required mandatory education and population specific education.
Performs other duties as assigned
Complies with all Wellstar Health System policies, standards of work, and code of conduct.

Required Minimum Education:

• Masters Social Work or Masters Professional Counseling

Required Minimum License(s) and Certification(s):
All certifications are required upon hire unless otherwise stated.

• LPC - Lic Professional Counselor or LCSW - Lic Clinical Social Worker GA or MFT - Marriage & Family Therapist
• BLS - Basic Life Support or ARC-BLS - Amer Red Cross Basic Life Support or BLS-I - Basic Life Support - Instructor
• CPI-TRNG - Crisis Prevention Reqd Trng or AVADE (Wellstar) - De-Escalation or AVADE-P (Wellstar) - De-Escalation - Provisional (30 Days) within 30 Days

Required Minimum Experience:
Minimum 4 years experience working with adult/child populations. Required and
It is preferred that candidates have experience working with behavioral health patients. (internships and volunteer experiences may apply) Preferred
informal leadership experience Preferred

Required Minimum Skills:
Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing;
capacity to think abstractly and develop innovative services that can better meet organizational and patient needs;
specific interest in behavioral health and willingness to work at various WellStar sites depending upon need;
knowledge of behavioral health best practices;
basic technological capabilities in Word, and Excel, as well as the ability to utilize a Telemedicine cart for remote assessments.

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