Child First Mental Health & Development Clinician
Job Description
- Health Insurance
- Dental & Vision Insurance
- Accrue sick time and vacation time
- Paid holidays
- 401K with matching after 1 year of service
JOB SUMMARY:
The Mental Health and Developmental Clinician partners with a Care Coordinator to support families referred to Child First. The Clinician uses Child Parent Psychotherapy, a relationship-based, dyadic, parent-child treatment model, which focuses on the primary attachment relationships of the young child. The Clinician engages with both the caregiver and child in a supportive, reflective, and exploratory manner which fosters a protective, nurturing, and responsive parent-child relationship. The Clinician’s therapeutic intervention focuses on 1) helping caregivers understand typical developmental challenges and expectations; 2) increasing caregivers’ ability to reflect on the meaning and feelings motivating a child’s behavior; 3) supporting caregivers’ problem solving; and 4) helping caregivers understand the psychodynamic relationship between parental feelings, history, and the caregiver response to the child. The Clinician also provides consultation to teachers in early care and education settings, as needed. The best candidate for this position is highly organized, self-motivated, reliable, and flexible with an openness to learning, capacity for self-reflection, eagerness to participate in reflective clinical supervision, and desire to be part of a team.
JOB DUTIES/ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
-
Engage with the Child First family and the Care Coordinator in the collaborative family assessment process (i.e., gather information from interviews, observations of interactions and play, reviewed records, collateral sources, and standardized measures).
-
Use all available information to develop a thoughtful, well-integrated clinical formulation and Child and Family Plan of Care, in partnership with the Care Coordinator and family.
-
Provide Child First home-based psychotherapeutic intervention with young children and their caregivers using relational, dyadic psychotherapy (CPP) and other modalities.
-
Help the caregiver gain insight regarding personal history (including trauma history), feelings for the child, and current parenting practices.
-
Support crisis situations by assisting the family in times of urgent need (e.g., risk of harm to child or caregiver, pending child removal), in consultation with the Care Coordinator and Clinical Supervisor.
-
Provide mental health and developmental assessment and consultation within early care and education settings and to other early childhood providers.
-
Embrace use of videotaping to enhance both therapeutic work with families and reflective supervision.
-
Engage in weekly individual, team, and group reflective clinical supervision with Clinical Supervisor.
-
Engage actively in all aspects of the Child First Learning Collaborative, including in-person or live-remote training, distance learning curriculum, and specialty trainings.
-
Track completion of all assessments and enter in the appropriate database.
-
Keep all appropriate documentation for clinical accountability and reimbursement.
-
Maintain schedule and complete tasks to achieve home visiting Benchmarks and meet Accreditation standards.
-
Participate in other clinical and administrative activities as appropriate.
- Licensed or license -eligible (provisionally licensed) master's level mental health provider.
- Three (3) years of experience in delivery of direct mental health services, preferably in a community-based setting.
- Current CPR/First Aid certification or obtain upon hire.
- Current valid driver’s license with acceptable driving record.
- Automobile liability insurance that meets minimum requirements.
- Ability to work as part of a team while demonstrating respect and professionalism.
- Ability and willingness to approach and respond to both situations and individuals flexibly and creatively.
- Ability to professionally and effectively interact and negotiate with the private sector and other community leaders.
- Ability to clearly and effectively communicate both verbally and in writing. Ability to communicate with people of all levels and backgrounds.
- Intermediate computer skills, including working knowledge of Microsoft Office, specifically Word, Excel, and Outlook.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize multiple tasks and meet all deadlines.
- Excellent attention to detail.
- Ability to maintain strict confidentiality and exercise discretion when handling sensitive situations.