What are the responsibilities and job description for the Visitation Counselor position at Acenda Integrated Health?
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Counselor Non-Exempt
Job Title: Visitation Counselor
About Acenda Integrated Health
Acenda Integrated Health provides 100 behavioral health programs, including mental health services, crisis care, substance use recovery, family therapy, maternal and pediatric support, and residential programs across New Jersey. Our team enjoys competitive benefits, work-life balance, professional development, and team engaging events. Acenda is recognized as a multi-year Top Workplace by USA Today and The Inquirer and a Top Workplace Culture award winner for Work-Life Balance as well as Joint Commission accredited and certified by MHCA and the New Jersey Alliance for Children, Youth, and Families. Join #TeamAcenda and make a lasting impact.
Job Overview:
The Visitation Counselor coordinates and supervises family visits in safe, supportive, and least restrictive environments, providing coaching and guidance to strengthen parent-child relationships and promote reunification or permanency. This role includes transporting children, facilitating visit planning meetings, modeling positive interactions, and helping parents develop effective behavior management and parenting skills. The counselor collaborates with DCP&P, coworkers, and community providers, ensuring accurate documentation, culturally competent service delivery, and adherence to agency policies and ethical standards.
As an integrated health organization, Acenda values the use of evidence-based practice or EBP's.
Program Info
Supportive Visitation Services promote and maintain the parent-child bond and support positive family interactions by facilitating weekly visitation with children in an out of home placement and their parents, relatives, and siblings. The goals of the program are to foster effective communication, enhance parenting, achieve permanency and maintain reunification.
Responsibilities:
- Coordinate visits between parents and resource parents and transport children to and from visits
- Facilitate visits in the least restrictive environment, supervising and coaching parent-child interactions.
- Conduct collaborative visit planning meetings with visit participants and relevant stakeholders
- Provide visit planning, pre-visit prep, coaching techniques during the visit and post-visit debriefing; helping to improve parenting skills and interactions so reunification or permanency can occur
- Empower parents to appropriately manage challenging behaviors in their children
- Intervene as appropriate to ensure the safety of children during visits and model appropriate interactions between parents and children
- Help stabilize families who reunify during our intervention
- Work collaboratively with co-workers, DCP&P and other community providers, effectively communicating and problem-solving
- Assist parents with concrete needs and link to resources that can assist with reunification goal
- Complete client documentation, assessment and evaluation tools consistent with program and agency requirements.
- Provide culturally competent service delivery.
- Ensure quality and accuracy of written and verbal communications.
- Educate self on issues impacting the program population.
- Uphold ethical standards in accordance with the Social Work Code of Ethics.
- Conduct self in a professional manner that positively reflects the agency culture.
- Attend agency and program meetings and trainings within established time frames.
- Follow program policies and procedures and encourage the same in others.
Requirements:
- Associate’s degree in a related field with a minimum of 3 years of experience with children and families, particularly families involved in the child welfare system or affected by trauma preferred.
- Must have knowledge of trauma and effect on children and families
- Must have and maintain a valid driver's license with a clean driver’s abstract.
- Must have strong engaging, communication and collaboration skills
- Must be able to exercise independent thinking and good judgment under all circumstances.
- Must demonstrate initiative, reliability and the ability to work well independently
- Must be able to analyze work, set goals, develop plans and utilize time effectively and efficiently.
- Must have experience with crisis intervention and conflict resolution.
Preferred:
- Bachelor's degree in counseling, psychology, or social work from an accredited college or university with a minimum or 1-year experience with children and families
Additional Information:
- Base rate: $26.25
- Sign-on Bonus: $250
- Bilingual Rate: An additional $1.50 added to the base rate if Spanish proficient.
- Schedule: Day, Afternoon, Late Evening, Night, Weekend
What we provide:
- An Innovative culture that encourages you to grow and learn with the agency
- Mission-driven core
- Health, Vision and Dental coverage for you and your family
- 401(k) with 100% employer match on the first 5% of comp
- Generous time-off
- Life Insurance
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Employee Assistance Program
- Year-end bonuses
Acenda Integrated Health is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.
Department/Program
Supportive Visitation Services (SVS)Salary : $26
