Clinical Therapist

MAJOR FUNCTION

Under the direct supervision of the Behavioral Health Director, the Clinical Therapist counsels individuals and/or family’s regarding psychological or emotional problems, such as stress, trauma, substance abuse, or family situations, using evaluative techniques, and develops and implements therapeutic treatment plan in a medical setting. Interviews patient to obtain information concerning medical history or other pertinent psychosocial information. Is responsible to work independently, managing a diverse and sometimes difficult caseload; does related work as required.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Direct Service:

• Provide comprehensive assessment and diagnosis of behavioral health patients.
• Provide effective treatment planning and assisting patients in successfully achieving goals.
• Evaluate crisis situations and apply appropriate interventions.
• Assist in the detection of “at risk” patients and development of plans to prevent further psychological or physical deterioration.
• Collaborates with the primary care team to provide a partnership in maintaining integrated care for the patient.
• Provide assessment, consultation, and intervention for psychological/psychiatric problems and/or disorders.
• Teach patients, families, and staff care, prevention, and treatment enhancement techniques.
• Ongoing assessment for psychiatric intervention as well as a higher level of care as indicated.
• Other duties as assigned.

Program Development and Maintenance:

• Develops and maintains liaison relationships with community resources as able, specifically other behavioral health and substance abuse agencies. Works to establish collaborative services and to lessen duplication of care.
• In conjunction with other staff, maintains standardized current community resource directory.
• Participates in the development, implementation, and evaluation of special projects and/or pilot programs.
• Interprets Center behavioral health policies and procedures to providers, institutions, agencies, recipients, and other concerned individuals.

• Establishes and maintains necessary records and files. Drafts correspondence in the course of official duties.
• Collects, records, and analyzes significant program-related data; develops monthly statistical and programmatic reports.
• Expectation of completing a minimum of an average of 8-10 encounters per day to provide program sustainability
• Completion of documentation of clinical encounters and bills within 24 hours of providing the service to patients.

Staff Development:

• Serves as a full member of the HJAHC clinical staff team.
• Participates fully in Behavioral Health departmental meetings and other agency meetings as warranted.
• Participates in professional and related meetings, conferences, and continuing education training as available; prepares reports as requested.
• Keeps appraised of developing areas of behavioral health and provides colleagues with updates as appropriate.
• Assists in behavioral health departmental tasks, including programmatic and infrastructure design, implementation, and evaluation.
• Learns and implements various types of electronic and/or manual recording and information systems used by the Center or its related units.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Performs other duties and assumes other responsibilities as apparent and/or as assigned by Director of Behavioral Health. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.

Benefits

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:

• Master’s Degree in Social Work or PhD in Clinical Psychology required
• Minimum years of experience required in a specific area
  • You may include the preferred years of experience
  • You may include specific types of preferred experience

LICENSURE AND/OR CERTIFICATIONS:

• Certificates and Licenses: Licensed in the State of New Jersey as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) or a Licensed Psychologist.
• Excellent working knowledge of mental health and evidence-based treatments for medical and mental health conditions.
• Ability to work through patient contacts, create an accurate clinical assessments of mental and behavioral conditions.
• Should be comfortable with the pace of primary care, working with an interdisciplinary team, and have strong communication skills.
• Good knowledge of psycho-pharmacology.
• Ability to design and implement clinical pathways and protocols for treatment of selected chronic conditions.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES AND OTHER (KSAO’s)

• Computer Skills: To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of Word Processing software.

PHYSICAL & WORK REQUIREMENTS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

This position requires the manual dexterity sufficient to operate phones, computers and other office equipment. The position requires the physical ability to kneel, bend, and perform light lifting. This person must have the ability to write and speak clearly using the English language to convey information and be able to hear at normal speaking levels both in person and over the telephone. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. Generally, the working conditions are good with little or no exposure to extremes in health, safety hazards and/or hazardous materials.