OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST DMH

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST DMH

REPORTS TO: Program Manager

HOURS: Full-Time

CLASSIFICATION: Exempt

REQUISITION #

SUMMARY: 

The Occupational Therapist (OT) provides therapeutic and rehabilitation case management support services as a member of the Department of Mental Health (DMH) teams. Members are generally homeless or at-risk of homelessness at enrollment or being discharged from a hospital or jail setting prior to enrollment. Step Up on Second’sis a Department of Mental Health contractor with MHSA (prop 63) funded programs. Step Up embraces evidenced based practices (EBPs), such as Mental Health Recovery, Housing First, Trauma Informed Care, Motivational Interviewing, Krupa et al’s Action Over Inertia, and any additional recovery-oriented evaluation tools/methods for assessing client function and environment. The team and position are field-based and interdisciplinary in structure. The team provides services to all members on the census with “whatever it takes and is appropriate” including adequate outreach and engagement services prior to enrollment to ensure services will be successful. Position requires frequent driving and transporting.

Benefits and What We Offer:

1. Opportunities for growth and professional development.
2. Generous paid time off (13 paid holidays, 10 days of EPTO, 12 sick days).
3. Competitive salary and benefits package. Health, dental, vision, Aflac, and life insurance $25,000.00
4. 403(b) retirement plan available on the first day of work. After working 1000 hours, Step Up matches 3% of the 6% the employee contributes.

DUTIES: The following reflects essential functions for this job, but does not restrict other tasks, which may be assigned:

• Leadership, Administration, Oversight
• Utilize occupational therapy knowledge and skills to provide consultation to team members regarding the functional, activity engagement and context/environmental support needs of clients.
• Collaborate with team members to assist clients in identifying needs and goals and working towards completing those goals.
• Coordinate with team members to assure client has access to local resources, including psychiatric and medical care/appointments, housing, benefits establishment, community rehabilitation and socialization activities, educational and vocational services, drug/alcohol services, providing transportation and accompanying the client using personal or public transportation when necessary.
• Collaborate and coordinate with team members to provide essential skill building behaviors to consumers to support transition into permanent supportive housing and sustaining said placement.
• Support the targeted outreach efforts of the Westside Mental Health team to initiate contact, develop rapport, and in coordination with Multidisciplinary team members, assess homeless adults for mental illness, co-occurring substance use and other health care needs in the community until linkage and services are accepted.
• Communicate regularly with team and other treatment providers involved in client’s care.
• Attend staff and community meetings as requested by Program Manager. 
• Engage in all scheduled supervision with management to consult about caseload and discuss any pertinent issued related to consumer care and/or documentation.

Direct Service and Support

• Evaluate client’s functioning, with particular focus on cognitive and sensory problems, associated with mental/physical health conditions and their housing, employment, education, and other environments in order to promote recovery and optimal functioning and contribute to comprehensive biopsychosocial evaluation.
• Utilize information from evaluation of client’s functioning and their contexts/environments to collaborate with client and others involved in their care to implement task and environmental adaptations to optimize client’s highest level of engagement, functioning, and recovery.
• Conduct client and/or family centered evidenced-based interventions informed by occupational therapy and recovery-oriented principles targeting symptom management, emotion regulation, engagement in meaningful activity, self-care management of chronic medical conditions, and other life skills to optimize client’s highest level of engagement, functioning, and recovery.
• Collaborate and coordinate with team members to actively outreach clients on caseload who have not been in contact and ensure engagement in services.
• Provide mental health rehabilitation and case management services for adults with psychiatric disabilities to assist them in improving their current level of functioning in the community.

Documentation and Data Collection

• Complete all program-required paperwork such as DMH/Medi-Cal and maintain documentation according to those program standards of practice in Electronic Health Record – Welligent within prescribed timeframes as outlined in SUOS documentation policy.
• Maintain consumer’s chart on EHR system by ensuring all relevant documents pertaining to client care have been scanned into attachments.
• Meet weekly, monthly and quarterly billing quota as outlined by Program Manager.    
• Work cooperatively with other Service Coordinators including sharing responsibility for 24 hour on-call coverage.
• Perform all other duties as assigned.

SKILLS: 

• Knowledge of recovery-oriented perspective, trauma-informed care, psychiatric rehabilitation principles, mental health diagnoses and level of functioning and/or experience with EBP’s such as Critical Time Intervention, Motivational Interviewing, Trauma Informed Care, Housing First, Harm Reduction, etc. 
• Ability to work collaboratively with others and on a team.  
•  Initiative and solution focused practice. 
• Uses good time management skills and resources to balance case load direct service and paperwork. 
• Works within skills and scope of practice asking for support and training to improve abilities when needed. 
• Ability to work as a team member on the streets, in homeless facilities or with other homeless community providers such as police, churches and hospital ER’s.  
• Ability to engage individuals on the streets in a meaningful manner, which imbues trust enough to accept services offered.   
• Understands and promotes safety first to self and team members.

QUALIFICATIONS: 

1. Must be a graduate of a university-based ACOTE accredited entry-level occupational therapy educational program, be NBCOT certified, and hold a current California occupational therapy license. 
2. Experience working with adults with mental illness in a community setting is preferred. 
3. Candidate must have their own transportation and current California driver’s license and insurance.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION:  

Work with people experiencing homelessness whether on the streets, in shelters, or other places of habitation or services, may present inherent challenges and difficulties such as: exposure to bed bugs or other infestations, unpleasant smells or odors, individuals who may have poor hygiene or unclean homes due to homelessness, mental health symptoms, or poverty.   Additionally, in working with our members, employees may encounter instances of profanity, sexually explicit or derogatory language, or verbal or physical expressions of anger and trauma. Very rarely do these situations ever escalate to physical contact, and negative or derogatory communication patterns can often be negotiated successfully.   All direct care staff are provided adequate training to develop skills to deescalate crisis situations that may arise, and Step Up has established procedural safeguards for all employees to mitigate (but not eliminate) these inherent risks of employment.

Please Note: This position is part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU721) Bargaining Unit. 

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands and fingers; handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; talk; and hear.   The employee is frequently required to walk, balance, stoop, kneel, and/or crouch. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 15 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.   Keyboard data entry required.

Step Up utilizes the principles of trauma-informed care and mental health recovery. These principles inform our Core Values of Hope, Wellness, Voice and Choice, Respect, and Collaborative Relationships. As representatives of Step Up, employees agree to adhere to these values in their interactions with members, colleagues, supervisors, and associated community members.

STEP UP CORE VALUES

HOPE – We believe all people have the capacity for positive growth and change. We use hope to inspire and motivate ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.

WELLNESS – We believe in promoting a culture that supports healthy and fulfilling lives. We use a supportive environment to foster well-being for ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.

VOICE AND CHOICE – We believe in the right to choose and be heard. We use voice and choice to create meaningful outcomes and empowerment for ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.

RESPECT – We believe in promoting interactions that are non-judgmental, transparent. We use respect to guide all of our words and actions with ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.

COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS – We believe in forming partnerships to share resources, knowledge, and experiences. We use collaborative relationships to strengthen accomplishments for ourselves, our members, our colleagues, and our community.

Step Up is committed to providing quality services that adhere to the highest ethical standards and principles. All Step Up employees agree to adhere to the ethical policies and codes of conduct, as outlined in the Employee Handbook and those specified for this grant.

Step Up provides equal employment opportunities without regard to age, ancestry, color, creed, mental or physical disability, marital status, medical condition, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws.

STEP UP IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER