Mental Health and Developmental Clinician

Overview

The Child First model is an evidence-based, two-generation intervention that works with very vulnerable young children (prenatal through age 5 years) and their families, providing intensive, home-based services to decrease the incidence of serious mental health problems, developmental and learning disabilities, and abuse and neglect. Child First provides (1) a psychotherapeutic, dyadic intervention to strengthen the parent-child relationship, and (2) care coordination to connect the family to needed services and supports.  Child First has been recognized as an evidence-based home visiting model by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program and rated “Effective” by the National Registry for Effective Programs and Practice (NREPP) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA). 

Summary of Position 

The Child First Mental Health and Developmental Clinician partners with a Family Support Partner to engage families who are referred to the Child First home-based intervention.  Child First’s primary goal is to strengthen the caregiver-child relationship so that it serves both as a protective buffer to unavoidable stress and directly facilitates the child’s emotional, language, and cognitive growth.  The Clinician uses trauma-informed CPP, 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.   

Key Job Responsibilities 

• Engage with the Child First family and the Family Support Partner 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 Family Support Partner 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. 

• Avert 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 Family Support Partner 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 trainings, distance learning curriculum, and specialty trainings. 

• Keep all appropriate documentation for clinical accountability and reimbursement. 

• Participate in other clinical and administrative activities as appropriate. 

Qualifications 

• Licensed or licensed-eligible Master’s or Doctoral level mental health provider (e.g., LCSW, LMFT, LPC, MA, clinical psychologist, other).  

• Experience working psychotherapeutically with culturally diverse children and families, including parent-child therapeutic work and play therapy with very young children (0-5 years), for a minimum of three years.  Past CPP training is highly valued. 

• Openness to learning, capacity for self-reflection, and eagerness to participate in reflective clinical supervision. 

• Knowledge of relationship-based, psychodynamic intervention and early child development; parent-child relationships and attachment theory; effects of trauma and environmental risks on early childhood brain development, especially violence exposure, maternal depression, and substance abuse; and community-level risk factors (e.g., poverty, homelessness). 

• Experience providing mental health assessment and consultation to early care and education sites.  

• Knowledge and experience working with adults with mental health, substance use, and cognitive challenges.  

• Experience providing intervention within diverse home and community settings. 

• Ability to speak a second language (Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, other), highly valued. 

• Strong commitment to the vision, mission, and goals of Child First. 

• Highly organized, self-motivated, reliable, and flexible (including willingness to work non- 

traditional hours, including at least one evening).  

• Able to work as part of a team. 

• Able to communicate well verbally and in writing. 

• Comfortable with computers and experienced with Word and Excel. 
• Reliable vehicle and appropriate insurance for home visits. 

Salary:

Starting with candidacy (LPCC, SWC, MFTC): $57,000

Starting Licensed (LCSW, LPC, LMFT): $60,000

Starting MA Bilingual: $62,000-$65,000

** Supervision towards professional licenses provided in this role

Benefits:

• 10 paid holidays
• Vacation at 6 months
• Sick time starts on first day of employment
• Kaiser Medical insurance, employer pays 90% of individual employee medical coverage
• Dental, Vision, Life, Pet Insurance, 403b, HSA, FSA
• Employee Assistance Program
• Employer Funded Retirement Plan
• CPR & First Aid Training
• Clinical training and supervision
• Professional Development
• Company issued cell phone
• Opportunity for performance increase at 1 year and annually thereafter

EBA’s mission is to support families and strengthen communities through the high-quality implementation of evidence-based programs (EBPs). As a ‘production company’, we focus on the implementation issues back stage so that EBPs and community-based providers can be the ‘stars’ on stage. Over the past 15 years, EBA has served multiple states and counties in the areas of juvenile justice, child welfare, and behavioral health.

EBA offers a team of professionals with backgrounds in social services, juvenile justice, evidence-based programs, information technology and human resources. EBA’s interdisciplinary team brings a combined total of more than 150 years of experience in clinical services and program management related to community-based and evidence-based programs.

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Salary : $63,000 - $68,000