Crisis Advocate

Summary
The Crisis Advocate I is responsible for providing and coordinating crisis intervention services during office hours and after hours.  Position provides hospital advocacy, crisis intervention, and follow up services, information and referrals for anyone seeking sexual assault/abuse support through The Center’s crisis intervention programs: Sexual Assault Resource Service (SARS), 24 hour/7 day bilingual Crisis Line, Accessing Safety (TTY/TTD/Text) Line and Walk-In Services, as applicable.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides direct crisis intervention and advocacy to survivors of sexual violence (phone and/or face-to-face):
  • Coordinates SARS calls and responds to offsite locations to provide advocacy, crisis intervention, information, and referral services to recent sexual assault/abuse survivors.
  • Coordinate services as needed with other members of the crisis services program to ensure continuity of care.
  • Provides the following services via the crisis line: crisis intervention, information, referrals, and complete mental health referrals for clients wanting therapy.
  • Provides face-to-face crisis intervention. 
  • Assists with follow-up support services via telephone and in-office to crisis clients requesting a follow-up call, as needed.
•  Provides ongoing, complex personal advocacy services to ongoing clients via telephone or in person.
• Creates plan of action with clients including coordination with and referrals to community resources.
• Advocates for clients and accompanies clients to appointments, as needed.
• Provides assistance with Victim’s Compensation, orders of protection, and injunctions against harassment, as needed.
• Maintains hospital inventory.
• Maintains stocks of clothing, personal hygiene products, emergency 911 phones, paperwork, materials and other advocacy items for exam sites.  
• Coordinates and manages crisis services inventory as needed which includes collaborators, regulatory agencies and/or stakeholders.
• Prepares and provides reports as needed to collaborators, regulatory agencies and/or stakeholders.
• Provides staff back-up services on a rotating basis, after-hours in support of the On-Call/Relief SARS Crisis Advocates, Supervisors, and English/Spanish/TTY Crisis hotline staff and volunteers.
• Assists in the development of materials for survivors and resource manuals for team members.
•  Must be able to safely and effectively monitor consumer activities, with or without a reasonable accommodation.
• Performs integrated health care assessments during intake. 
• Represent agency at community events while engaging with community members and agency partners.  
• Performs other related duties in accordance with agency growth and changes
   

Education:    

• Masters or Bachelor’s degree in a healthcare related field and no related experience OR;
• Masters or Bachelor’s degree in a non-healthcare related field and 3 months relevant related experience OR;
• Associates’ degree in a healthcare field and 6 months related experience OR;
• Associate’s degree in a non-healthcare field and 1-year related experience OR;
• Certified Medical Assistant and 1-year related experience OR;
• Certified Peer Support Specialist and 1-year years related experience OR;
• High School diploma or General Education Equivalent (GED and 2 years related experience.

Additional Experience:    

•  Minimum 2 years’ experience working in the behavioral health/mental health field, preferably providing crisis intervention.

Certifications: 

• CPR 
• First Aid
• Arizona Department of Public Safety Fingerprint Clearance, required

Additional Requirements:    

• Valid Arizona Driver’s license, proof of current insurance and willingness to use personal vehicle.  Driver’s license is an essential requirement for performing duties for this position.
• Clean Motor Vehicle Record - no more than 2 moving violations or a license suspension in past 3 years.
• Must be able to provide own transportation to and from clients’ homes and/or other relevant organizations/agencies.

Skills:

• Bilingual a plus.
• Extensive knowledge of community resources.
• Extensive knowledge of behavioral health challenges which include knowledge of the impacts of mental illness, domestic violence, and the dynamics of addictive behavior.
• Familiarity with various ethnic and cultural groups.
• Intermediate to advanced computer skills using MS Office products, Word, Excel, Access, etc., importing/exporting data to/from applications.
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing