Healthy Steps Specialist I

Carolina Health Centers•Greenwood, SC

2d•$47,833•Onsite

About The Position

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The Healthy Steps Specialist I (HSSI) is an early child development expert who will join the pediatric primary care team at Hometown Pediatrics to provide interventions, referrals, and follow-up for children and families. HealthySteps, a program of Zero to Three, promotes nurturing caregiving, which supports families and improves healthy development and well-being of babies and toddlers, preparing them for school and life. The HealthySteps Specialist I builds strong relationships with families and providers to increase the efficiency of the medical system and support team-based comprehensive care. The HSSI is responsible for delivering HealthySteps services to caregivers in a timely and coordinated manner and according to program model parameters. HSSI is responsible for providing child behavior and developmental information, guidance, and checkups to families and for helping caregivers to develop confidence in their parenting abilities. The HSSI will create a solid relationship between the caregivers and the HealthySteps team, enhancing communication among providers/family/community partners. The HSSI will promote access to community services and the development of self-management skills among families, while also increasing health promotion activities. The HSSI will be supervised by the HealthySteps Supervisor. Schedule for this position is: Monday-Thursday 8:00-5:30 and Friday from 8:00-12:00

Requirements

All employees of Carolina Health Centers, Inc. are expected to perform the duties of their job and behave in a manner consistent with the Corporate Philosophy which supports the values of: honesty, integrity, openness, the pursuit of individual and collective excellence, and unwavering mutual respect and appreciation.
Master’s degree in psychology, social work, counseling, early childhood education, or related field highly preferred
Clinically licensed mental health professional preferred
Experience and knowledge about early child growth and development, parent-child relationships, child health, and family systems
Experience assessing the growth and development of infants and children less than three years of age
Experience working with parents/caregivers; experience facilitating parent groups preferred
Experience working in a medical setting or with health professionals preferred
Experience working with vulnerable populations such as Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) preferred
Demonstrated flexibility to work on an interdisciplinary team; ability to work in various roles and capacities and to respect boundaries in each role
Commitment to working with underserved populations in a community setting
Ability to work with people of many backgrounds and cultures
Ability to work independently
Demonstrate oral and written communication skills
Strong motivational interviewing skills
Ability to take initiative and a willingness to learn
Ability to collect and enter data for program management, evaluation, and reporting purposes
Ability to multitask and triage/juggle multiple appointments and conflicting priorities
Comfort with an open-door policy, potentially frequent interruptions, and warm hand-offs
Proficient use of computers, word processing, and other software programs
Ability to establish trusting relationships
Knowledge of HIPAA and ability to maintain confidentiality
Willing to engage in building reflective capacity (e.g., capacity for introspection, communicating awareness of self in relation to others, recognizing value of supervision, etc.)
Pass a background check
Have the hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity needed to operate a computer, telephone, copier and medical equipment
Have a normal range of hearing and eyesight to be able to collect data and record where appropriate (i.e. computer and/or paper and telephone)
The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, and to stoop, kneel, or crouch
Visual abilities required by this job include close vision with periods of extended exposure to a computer screen

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in psychology, social work, counseling, early childhood education, or related field highly preferred
Clinically licensed mental health professional preferred
Experience working with parents/caregivers; experience facilitating parent groups preferred
Experience working in a medical setting or with health professionals preferred
Experience working with vulnerable populations such as Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (CYSHCN) preferred
Bilingual in English and Spanish is preferred but not required

Responsibilities

Promotes HealthySteps within the practice to families and providers
Build care relationships among family and team; support the primary caregiving role of the family
Conducts team-based well-child visits before, during, or following the primary care provider. Visits focus on monitoring development, social-emotional functioning, and relational health, and providing anticipatory guidance
Conducts consultations on a short-term basis for needs regarding development and/or behavioral concerns such as sleep, positive parenting, picky eating, etc.
Maintains a child development support line and responds to and tracks call requests within the designated response time
Identify quality resources and provide referrals and follow-up as appropriate to foster community connections
Provide care coordination by assessing child/patient and family needs and create ongoing processes for families to determine and request the level of care-coordination support for their child/youth or family member at any given point in time
Serve as the contact point, advocate, and informational resource for families and community partners
Facilitate/lead parent groups
Maintain timely and accurate data entry and reporting; Document all patient clinical activity and care coordination in EHR
Tracks caseload to ensure capacity to deliver the HS services within the risk stratified service delivery model. This includes ensuring exit criteria is met and that families and children are elevated to higher levels of care or referred to community providers if needed
Assist with the Reach Out and Read program
Attend training as specified throughout the year
Participates in reflective supervision meetings with supervisor
Engages in Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiatives to ensure the HealthySteps model is delivered with fidelity
May conduct minimal home visits and may accompany families to key medical, specialty, and community agency appointments as needed
Be available to serve families in non-traditional work hours if necessary
Perform other duties as assigned which may be necessary to support the organization during times of critical activity