Professional Counselor (40 Hour)

State of Connecticut•Newtown, CT

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The State of Connecticut, Department of Correction (DOC) is seeking to fill a position for a highly motivated Professional Counselor at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown, CT. This position is full-time, following a second shift schedule, 40 hours a week, scheduled Monday - Friday between 2:00 pm and 10:00 pm, with rotating weekends and holidays. This is a Hazardous Duty Position and offers a pension plan - the State Employees Retirement System Tier IV. Licensed Professional Counselors within the correctional setting provide a range of clinical and case management functions to those entering the custody of the Department of Correction. Professional Counselors at the Garner Correctional Institution work within a dynamic, multidisciplinary team comprised of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists and APRNs, as well as medical personnel and custody staff, all sharing the common goal of providing high quality, service-oriented care. In this position you will also discover the opportunity to work within a clinically rich setting; provide intake assessments, individual psychotherapy and group therapy, crisis management, suicide risk assessment, case management services and other clinical activities; and engage in collaborative discharge planning with external support services and research driven programming. Additional opportunities to engage in collaborative discharge planning with external support services and research driven programming, are also encouraged and available. The Connecticut Department of Correction is a diverse agency with a wide variety of employees from Correction Officers, to Educators, to Managers and Skilled Professionals. We value differences that make us stronger as a team and support our mission statement. The Connecticut Department of Correction (DOC) is the agency responsible for corrections in the U.S. state of Connecticut. The agency operates 13 correctional facilities. It has its headquarters in Wethersfield. The DOC protects public safety by ensuring offenders serve their sentences of imprisonments in facilities that are safe, human, and provide re-entry programming. The State of Connecticut, Department of Correction is a unified system; all sentenced and un-sentenced offenders are supervised by the DOC. The Department also provides supervision for offenders on parole, community release, and other discretionary release programs. The DOC shall strive to be a global leader in progressive correctional practices and partnered re-entry initiatives to support responsive evidence-based practices aligned to law-abiding and accountable behaviors. Safety and security shall be a priority component of this responsibility as it pertains to staff, victims, citizens and offenders. The Garner Correctional Institution incarcerates both pretrial and sentenced offenders. Through proven programmatic innovation and intervention, the Garner Correctional Institution provides positive alternatives for inmates to assist in their successful reintegration into the community as productive members of society. Under the administration of then Commissioner Theresa C. Lantz, care and treatment for adult male offenders with significant mental health issues throughout the Department of Correction were consolidated at this level 4 high-security facility. Based upon their mental health needs, offenders from throughout the system, both pretrial and sentenced, are assigned here. The facility's staff utilizes a highly progressive mental health treatment approach. Individualized treatment plans, based upon an offender's level of functionality include extensive programming and therapy, in a group and one on one setting. The staff at the facility, both custody and mental health, operate through an integrated team approach which insures a continuity of custody, care, treatment and control. The program is designed to return as many of these offenders as is possible to the ability to function in either a general population prison setting or ultimately to life in the community.

Requirements

Licensure as a professional counselor in the State of Connecticut.
Incumbents in this class must possess and retain a license to practice professional counselor work pursuant to Sec. 20-195 (aa-jj) of the Connecticut General Statutes.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Correctional or Forensic Behavioral health treatment
Experience with crisis intervention
Experience with behavior management
Experience with individual and group psychotherapy
Experience with criminal justice involved adults
Knowledge of sign language and communication ability with the deaf and hearing impaired in certain designated positions.
Ability in Spanish oral and written communication in certain designated positions.

Responsibilities

Provides case management, needs assessment and supportive counseling in addressing client strengths, weaknesses and needs.
Develops, implements and maintains individualized treatment and rehabilitation plans for clients.
Works with treatment teams to assist individual patients in achieving social and emotional stability.
Develops psychosocial assessments through clinical interviews.
Provides clinical treatment services such as: triage, crisis intervention, individual and/or group counseling, screening and planning.
Makes use of available community services and facilities to assist clients in meeting identified needs.
Interprets and synthesizes client information, professional observations and evaluation reports in order to form professional judgments about services.
Monitors and evaluates effectiveness of treatment plans, documents treatment in clinical records.
Completes reports in accordance with agency and accrediting bodies.
Consults and collaborates with other behavioral health providers to improve delivery of services to clients.
Maintains counseling treatment and standards as required.
Performs related duties as required.