Peer Support Specialist

VitalCore Health Strategies • Charlotte, NC

22d • Onsite

About The Position

VitalCore Health Strategies (VCHS), an industry leader in correctional healthcare, has an opening for a Peer Support Specialist at Mecklenburg County Detention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This role is part of the Behavioral Health Acute and Residential Program and provides peer support services to clients with serious behavioral illnesses. The Peer Support Specialist functions as a role model to peers, demonstrating competency in personal recovery and coping skills, and serves as a consumer advocate. The PSS performs a wide range of tasks to assist individuals in regaining independence and mastery over their own recovery process, potentially utilizing recovery resources like booklets, tapes, and pamphlets.

Requirements

• Knowledge of the Recovery process and the ability to facilitate recovery using established standardized Behavioral Health processes.
• Knowledge and skill to teach and engage in basic problem-solving strategies to support individual clients in self-directed recovery.
• Knowledge of the signs and symptoms of behavioral illness (i.e. auditory and visual hallucinations, aggressive talk and behavior, thoughts of self-harm or harm towards others, isolation) and the ability to assist the client to address symptoms using strategies such as positive self-talk.
• Knowledge and skills sufficient to use community resources necessary for independent living and ability to teach those skills to other individuals with severe behavioral illness.
• Knowledge of how to establish and sustain self-help (mutual support) and educational groups by soliciting input from Behavioral Health consumers on their strengths and interests.
• Peer Support Certification required (CPRS)

Responsibilities

• Assist clients in articulating personal goals for recovery through one-to-one and group sessions.
• Support clients in identifying and creating goals and developing recovery plans with the skills, strengths, support, and resources to aid them in achieving those goals.
• Assist clients in working with their Qualified Behavioral Health Professional and treatment team in determining the steps they need to take to achieve their goals and self-directed recovery.
• Utilize tools such as the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) to assist clients in creating their own individual wellness and recovery plans.
• Teach and utilize problem-solving techniques with individuals and groups, where clients share common problems in daily living and methods they have employed to manage and cope with these problems.
• Share personal experiences, skills, strengths, support, and resources used in recovery.
• Share personal recovery story and demonstrate how personal recovery has been directed.
• Support clients’ vocational choices and assist them in choosing a job that matches their strengths, overcoming job-related anxiety by reviewing job applications, and providing interview tips.
• Assist clients in building social skills in the general population that will enhance job acquisition and tenure.
• Teach and model the value of every individual’s recovery experience.
• Assist the client in obtaining decent and affordable housing of their choice upon release by showing them how to work with community agencies that can aid in the transition.
• Model effective coping techniques and self-help strategies.
• Serve as a recovery agent by providing and advocating for effective recovery-based services that will aid the client in daily living.
• Assist in obtaining services upon release that suit the individual’s recovery needs by providing community resources and groups that may be useful.
• Inform clients on community and natural support and how to use these in the recovery process.
• Assist clients in developing empowerment skills and combating stigma through self-advocacy.
• Provide opportunities through role-playing/modeling for others to show/demonstrate how they have handled similar problems, how to present themselves in certain situations, or how to handle problems that may arise in interactions with others.

Benefits

• Holiday Pay: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day
• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Health Savings Account
• Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
• Life Insurance
• Short Term/Long Term Disability
• Identity Theft Protection
• Pet Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program and Discount Center
• 401K & Plan Matching
• PTO

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed