Mental Health Clinician I- Schools

The School-Based Mental Health Clinician primarily works out of the School-Based Health Center (SBHC) to support a unique health care model for comprehensive physical, mental and preventive health services for youth and adolescents either within a school or on school property by providing direct patient care through brief interventions, referral, and coordination of specialty mental health services as needed, and psycho-education. With easy access to health care in a school setting, SBHCs reduce barriers such as cost, transportation, and concerns surrounding confidentiality that often keep children and youth from seeking the health services they need.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Works closely as part of a multi-disciplinary team, in collaboration with primary care providers, to support the behavioral, physical, and psychosocial needs of a diverse patient population within a school-based health center setting;
2. Works with other members of primary care team to assess, treat, and manage patients effectively within an integrated behavioral health care model;
3. Assists in the development of patient care plans, provides consultation as needed, and makes referrals when appropriate;
4. Plans and provides psychological assessment and diagnosis in a primary care setting with brief psychotherapeutic interventions as needed;
5. Develops and maintains strong collaborative relationships with a wide range of community partners, public health, and the medical community including (but not limited to): local school districts, DHS-Child Welfare, the County Juvenile Department, Public Health, local health clinics and other programs and departments;
6. Gathers, tracks, and presents outcome data;
7. Provides one-to-one, group, and family counseling, case management, and mental health outreach;
8. Works collaboratively with treatment team members and other agencies and documents those services in the client file;
9. Leads psycho-educational, skill development, anger management, parenting, process, gender-specific, and family groups as assigned;
10. Although stationed and working in the school-based health center, remains very closely linked to the Mental Health Team/BestCare and attends weekly mental health team meetings (i.e. child/family team meeting, and others as assigned);
11. Learns and remains abreast of local social service network to be able to assist students and families with accessing needed resources (housing, counseling, food bank, local medical community, etc.);
12. Maintains documentation within agency timelines in client files;
13. Models appropriate counselor behavior to the newer staff and help train and orient new staff to the program;
14. Completes training/certification required to perform mental health crisis work and be part of the after-hours MH crisis rotation;
15. Will include hours in BestCare’s clinic depending on caseload size and service demand;
16. Other duties as assigned by the Clinical Program Supervisor or Program Directo