Certified Peer Support Youth - 3728

Indian Rivers Behavioral Health•Tuscaloosa, AL
•Hybrid

About The Position

The Certified Peer Support—Youth (CPS-Y) role is to provide intentional, authentic support to youth consumers with emotional, physical, behavioral, and/or mental health challenges. The skilled unrelenting focus of the CPS-Y is using his/her life experience with a serious emotion disturbance and specialize training to promote recovery and resiliency.

Requirements

  • Must possess a strong commitment to assisting parent or care giver of a young person with emotional, physical, behavioral, and/or mental health challenge.
  • Successfully complete the Department of Mental Health certifications and trainings.
  • Must be able to comprehend and maintain program standards.
  • Must possess professional verbal and written communication skills.
  • Must be able to interact with children and families in a respectful and sensitive manner.
  • Must be able to work within the Organization to effectively serve the needs of the consumers.
  • Must be knowledgeable in cultural diversity and be able to work well with multi-problem families.
  • Must possess competent computer skills.
  • Must be able to introduce yourself to the consumer and community partners and explain your role as a CPS-Y.
  • Ability to establish peer-based relationships by using strategic self-disclosure to build connection based on understanding the consumer's experience.
  • Ability to build a strong sense of connection based in equality, common respect, and mutuality.
  • Ability to demonstrate active listening skills, empathetic responses and validate the youth's experience.
  • Must be able to use person-first and strength-based language in every interaction with consumer and those working with the consumer.
  • Ability to create conditions for youth to make decisions that are best for their life and determine their course of action.
  • Ability to estimate right fit and match of support and follow through on a varied range of support activities.
  • Support others to understand and appreciate the youth's positions.
  • Understand the youth's position, interests and preferences and actively support them.
  • Continually work to ensure the youth feels empowered and confident in their own decision-making ability.
  • Ability to extract functional strengths from the consumer's story and share them with family and other team members.
  • Ability to actively accept youth's decisions and communicate a sense of acceptance even when you disagree.
  • Ability to manage personal bias and disagreement so it does not interfere with the support relationship.
  • Ability to communicate a sense of respect that youth's voice matters and deserves to be heard.
  • Ability to identify, extract and utilize the youth's functional strengths and family culture to develop individualized support plans.
  • Ability to communicate a sense of cultural humility in connecting with each consumer.
  • Ability to identify unmet needs as a key to establishing understanding.
  • Ability to assist youths in reflecting on their own journey and encourage empowerment.
  • Ability to model a relational stance of respect and acceptance in all interactions with and about youths.
  • Build collaborative partnerships with others demonstrating a non-adversarial advocacy approach.
  • Participate as needed in team meetings.
  • Connect youth with other youth with similar life experiences to reduce isolation, shame and blame and increase natural supports.
  • Ability to model a strength-based approach and utilize collaborative problem-solving techniques with others.
  • Utilize consumer strengths and resiliency traits in problem solving and brainstorming solutions.
  • Ability to recognize strengths of collaborative partners.
  • Strategically use own life experiences to empower others to suspend their own bias about youth.
  • Minimum of High School Diploma or G.E.D. required.
  • Must be at least 18 years of age.
  • The CPS-Y is an individual who has personal experience with children's mental health, who is willing to share his/her personal experiences, and articulates an understanding of recovery, with the ability to assist other individuals in their own recovery process.
  • Must satisfactorily complete all assigned DMH and IRBH trainings and requirements, within the expected time frames.
  • Current Alabama driver's license and good driving record as defined by Indian Rivers' policy, as well as reliable transportation and proof of automobile insurance.
  • Must be able to read, write legibly, speak, and comprehend English.
  • Must be knowledgeable of and abide by HIPAA regulations regarding protected health information as defined by HIPAA and IRBH.
  • Minimally accesses verbal, written, and /or electronic PHI, usually incidentally to an approved use and /or disclosure as pertains to consumer's financial, demographic, and/or clinical data.
  • Must have the use of sensory skills to effectively communicate and interact with other employees and the public using the telephone and personal contact.
  • Physical capability to effectively use and operate various items of office related equipment, such as, but not limited to, computer, copier, multi-line phone and fax machine.
  • Hearing and vision must be normal or corrected to within normal range.
  • Able to perform the duties with or without reasonable accommodation.

Nice To Haves

  • Must have the capacity to work flexible hours, including evenings/weekends based on the needs of our clients.

Responsibilities

  • Provide authentic and purposeful support to promote youth and family recovery
  • Provide resources and educational materials to help assist youth with understanding services, options, and treatment expectations, as well assistance with developing wellness tools and coping skills.
  • Facilitate and create advocacy, balance, and cohesion between the youth/family served, professionals (including CPS-Ps who may be supporting the family), and other supporting partners.
  • Deliver intentional support activities that build on the strengths and resiliency traits of parent/primary caregiver
  • Collaborate with agency staff internally and representatives from community-based organizations and child-serving systems in providing support to families receiving service.
  • Ensure that all assigned duties are implemented according to IRBH and DMH policies and procedures.
  • Ensure all safety, fire prevention, and health measures are followed while on duty.
  • Meet or exceed productivity requirements of 40 billable hours per month.
  • Maintain a minimum case load of no less than 10 families, but no more than 30 in the first year. After one year, a minimum of 20, but no more than 50 families.
  • Work in conjunction with paraprofessionals and professional staff.
  • Establish and maintain supportive relationships, observing professional boundaries.
  • Follow the DMH/DD standards for provision of services.
  • Ensure that agency vehicles have pre-trip inspections, monthly maintenance checks, and provide report documentation to supervisor and Facilities Manager.
  • If a company vehicle is not available utilize personal vehicle to accomplish work related duties. Indian Rivers will reimburse mileage.
  • Ensure client charts are up to date and accurate.
  • Attend staffings and team meetings as assigned.
  • Ensure safety of consumers, preserving basic human and legal rights.
  • Demonstrate appropriate and ethical behavior at all times.
  • Demonstrate a positive attitude toward work and the completion of work assignments.
  • Address any consumer concerns to the Supervisor or Program Manager.
  • Provide all necessary data as required by the center and the state.
  • Maintain communication and awareness of current Organization events by reading memos, emails, bulletin boards, and communication logs and respond in a timely manner.
  • Work independently to complete assigned tasks accurately and in a timely manner with minimum supervision.
  • Support Organizational Code of Conduct, Standards Compliance, HIPAA, and Security Programs by ensuring job tasks are performed in a legal and ethical manner, assessing the work area for non-compliance and notifying the supervisor, manager, Executive Director or designee as appropriate, and maintaining training requirements and understanding that training is a required condition of employment.
  • Maintain the confidential nature of all consumer and Organization related activities by not divulging information outside the facility, discussing information within the facility on a need-to-know basis, acknowledging policy annually by signing confidentiality statement, and by referring media and general inquiries to the Executive Director.
  • Adhere to attendance and punctuality policy by allowing adequate time to arrive, clock-in and assume responsibilities at designated time, adhering to meal and break times and making timely requests for annual leave and reporting the need for sick leave in accordance with policy.
  • Comply with all standards related to safety and health by maintaining current TB Test, CPR/First Aid, CPI, and by reporting infections and on-the-job injuries in accordance with policy.
  • Provide accurate documentation of billable time and service reports in a timely manner.
  • All other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Supervisor or Clinical Director.

Benefits

  • Reimbursement for mileage
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