Crisis Peer Support Specialist

Job Type: Full Time (40 hours per week), Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm
Pay starting from $20.00 per hour, commensurate with Experience

Overview

Peer Support qualification requires that the candidate self-identify as a present or former primary consumer of mental health services and model successful recovery strategies.

The Peer Specialist provides direct services to clients and will work closely with other treatment team members to ensure clients are engaged in their treatment and feel supported throughout the process. Services are client centered services with a rehabilitation and recovery focus designed to promote skills for coping with and managing symptoms while facilitating the utilization of natural resources and the enhancement of community living skills. PS is a face-to-face intervention with the client with contacts occurring in community locations where the person lives, works, attends school, and/or socializes.

The Crisis Peer Support Specialist is part of the crisis team which includes a Qualified Mental Health Professional and crisis case manager. The crisis response team is part of the CCBHC program, which is dedicated to integrating treatment for mental health, substance use and primary medical care in the Cherokee County area.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

1. Provide face to face services for clients receiving crisis services drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate clients’ experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to clients to actively participate in their own treatment and recovery.

2. Work with clients on skill building, promoting positive relationships and connections to resources in the community.

3. Collaborate with the treatment team to promote a culture in which each client’s point of view, experiences, and preferences are recognized, understood, and respected, and in which client self-determination and decision-making in treatment planning are maximized and supported.

4. The Peer Specialist will help clients identify, understand, and combat stigma associated with mental illness and substance use and develop strategies to reduce self-stigma.

5. Adherence with HIPAA and confidentiality and obtain necessary documentation to satisfy requirements to coordinate care among treatment and service providers.

6. Ability to develop effective, professional relationships and boundaries with clients and families.

7. Demonstrates knowledge of trauma informed care.

8. Helping the client to develop a network for information and support within their communities.

9. Assisting clients with regaining the ability to make independent choices and to take a proactive role in treatment.

10. Accompany crisis team on field visits to provide support with psychosocial assessment to individuals in community settings who present in psychiatric crisis, including risks to suicide.

11. Assist client and crisis team with person-centered safety goal planning, as requested.

12. Assist clients with linkages and navigation with behavioral health, human services, and criminal justice systems as needed.

13. Act as an advocate and liaison for clients in accessing resources to support service plan goals.

14. Use motivational interviewing, recovery, and trauma-informed approaches when delivering peer services.

15. Participates in on-call activities of mobile crisis, including after-hours rotation, approximately 4 weeks a month.

16. Complete required trainings within the requested timeline.

17. Completion of documentation in the EHR in accordance with policy.

18. Other dutioes as assigned.

Typical Physical Demands and Working Conditions

• Requires sitting for long periods of time.
• Occasional bending, stretching or lifting.
• May require contact with individuals with communicable diseases.
• Requires the ability to work under high stress conditions for long periods of time.
• Ability to hear normal range of voice.
• Ability to prepare written reports and use telephone equipment.
• Requires computer keyboard/monitor work.
• Requires prolonged data entry and viewing monitor for extended periods.
• Typically work in a high stress environment providing immediate support to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.
• Respond to crisis calls, either in the client home or in the community.
• The Peer Specialist must be flexible and able to handle unpredictable situations, as each crisis can present a challenge.
• Occasional exposure to communicable diseases and other conditions in a clinic environment.
• Occasional exposure to aggressive or violent consumers.

Job Qualifications

• Must be at least 21 years old and have a high school diploma or equivalent.
• Ability to meet certification in the State of Kansas to provide the service, which includes criminal, abuse/neglect registry, motor vehicle record check, professional background checks and completion of a state approved standardized basic training program.
• Acceptable driving history that allows for insurability and driving of agency vehicles and transporting clients.
• The provided must self-identify as a present or former primary consumer of mental health services and model successful recovery strategies.

Spring River Mental Health amp; Wellness, Inc. Benefits
403(b) Retirement Plan with employer matching
Paid Time Off
8 Company Paid Holidays
Employee Fitness Center Membership
Health Insurance
Life amp; Disability Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Flexible Spending Account
Employee Assistance Program
Professional Development Assistance