Behavioral Health Consultant

Job Title: Behavioral Health Consultant 

Location: Columbia/West Columbia 

Company Overview: Eau Claire Cooperative Health Center, Inc. (dba Cooperative Health) is a leading community health center serving the Midlands of South Carolina since 1981. It is deeply rooted in its mission of providing accessible, high quality, compassion health care in the spirit of the Good Samaritan. The organization’s values of: treating each other with respect, putting people first, being excellent at what we do, promoting a collaborative work environment, improving community/population health, fostering innovative thinkers, and getting results, are core attributes of every employee at Cooperative Health. 

Description: Under supervision of the Lead Behavioral Health Consultant, the Behavioral Health Consultant (BHC) attends to patient care along with administrative responsibilities. The BHC is part of the primary care team and directly serves in the areas of assessment, triage, and management of patients who have uncontrolled medical conditions and/or behavioral health needs in the primary care setting. The BHC will also provide psycho-education to patients, providers, and staff, and directly work with patients on treatment plans geared toward symptom remediation.

Principal Responsibilities:

• Act as a contributing member of the primary care team, assisting primary health care providers in recognizing, treating, and managing behavioral health and biopsychosocial issues
• Provide brief evidence-based interventions and use outcome-based models to track patient improvement
• Be available for same day warm hand-offs and consultation with primary care providers while maintaining scheduled patients appointments.
• Implement both Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) and Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) services.
• Perform targeted brief assessment and evaluation, including diagnostic impressions and functional status focused on chief concern.
• Engage patient in self-care and self-management strategies, lifestyle enhancements, and motivational techniques to prevent or manage chronic physical and behavioral health conditions.
• Collaborate with patients, families and primary health care providers to formulate a plan of action toward well-being.
• Documentation of patient care and health monitoring via progress notes, patient cases or other forms as necessary in the electronic medical record in a timely and accurate manner.
• Work as team member in efforts toward quality improvement and Patient-Centered Medical Home initiatives.
• Abide by HIPAA as well as patient, organizational, and practice standards for confidentiality.
• Participate in regular interdisciplinary group case consultations and coordinate with psychiatric providers, traditional counselors and external partner and/or community organizations as needed
• Attend staff meetings, other work-related meetings, training, and perform other related job duties as required or requested.
• Assist in the care management of patients with chronic medical and mental health conditions in an efficient manner, including relapse-prevention planning.
• Maintain active efforts toward quality improvement

Education & Experience :

• Master’s or Doctoral Degree in Social Work, Psychology Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy or related field from an accredited college or university
• LISW-CP or LMSW
• Licensed Psychologist
• LPC or LPCA
• LMFT or MFT Associate
• Minimum of two (2) years of experience as a behavioral health provider, counselor or therapist
• Excellent interpersonal communication and problem solving skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with an emphasis on presentation skills
• Knowledge of statistics, data collection, analysis and data presentation
• Understanding of diagnosis using DSM-5-TR and relevant evidence based treatment options.
• Knowledge of common concerns treated in primary care (e.g., depression, anxiety, insomnia, diabetes, obesity, smoking cessation, ADHD, parent education, etc.)

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Supervise behavioral health students/interns, including shadowing, reverse-shadowing, live feedback, and written evaluations.
• If provider is an eligible LISW-CP: Supervise LMSWs
• If provider is an eligible Licensed Psychologist: supervise pre and post-doctoral interns
• If provider is an eligible LPC-S: Supervise LPCAs
• If provider is an eligible LMFT: Supervise MFT Associate

Company Conformance Statement:

In the performance of their respective job assignments all employees are expected to conform to the following:

• Cooperative Health’s policies and procedures.
• Cooperative Health’s confidentiality and professional provisions
• Cooperative Health’s compliance program
• Cooperative Health’s standards of conduct

Cooperative Health provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Cooperative Health complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.