Clinical Leader, Behavioral Health

Clinical Lead Job Description for Behavioral Health Department

Reports To: Chief Medical Officer

Position Classification: Exempt

Work Location: All FamilyCare Sites

Physical Requirements:

The employee is regularly required to speak and hear sufficiently to communicate effectively by phone or in person at normal volumes. Specific vision required by this job includes the ability to read correspondence, computer screen, forms, etc. The employee must have good manual dexterity. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Qualifications:

This is a dual role with qualifications needed to practice as a Clinician part time in the Behavioral Health Department and to lead the Behavioral Health Provider Team part time. Ideally, a graduate degree in Psychology is preferred.

For the role of Clinical Psychologist performing patient care, the clinical psychologist must have an independent license to practice psychology in the state of West Virginia. The psychologist must apply advanced professional psychological diagnostic methods and evidence-based intervention strategies to a full range of patient problems in a primary care center. S/he must have advanced knowledge of psychological diagnosis, intervention, and behavioral health that qualifies him/her to provide advice and consultation to professionals representing a variety of disciplines. The primary job functions of psychologists at this level include the provision of direct psychological evaluations where appropriately requested. In some cases, the staff psychologist is also asked to provide education to staff, including classroom instruction, in addition to supervision of trainee's clinical work. Likewise, they may have research, staff supervisory or administrative/managerial duties as needed and when approved by their direct supervisor and other supervisors when applicable. The psychologist working in an integrated primary care setting must have a high level of comfort in working with primary care medical providers using a consultative style and be able to work through brief patient contacts. The psychologist must have a good working knowledge of psychopharmacology and be able to train and teach effective behavioral health interventions and the primary behavioral health model to medical practitioners and other behavioral health providers. S/he must be able to work effectively as a team, interfacing with patients, primary care providers, consulting psychiatrists and mental health specialists, as well as with administrative and support staff. Additionally, s/he should have the ability to exercise balanced judgment in evaluating situations and making decisions and to handle difficult or confrontational situations in a calm, consistent and equitable manner as well as to represent FamilyCare by maintaining effective working relationships among co-workers, public, and professional groups. S/he must have the ability to read, analyze and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures or government regulations.

For the role of Clinical Team Lead, past experience in Management is preferred.

Basic Function:

The clinical psychologist assesses, diagnoses, and treats a wide range of emotional/behavioral disorders in a medical setting including how psychological factors affect health and physical illness. They educate both patients and medical staff on psychological issues and promote healthy-living strategies.

The Behavioral Health Clinical Lead serves to manage the Behavioral Health Providers in the organization and to act as a liaison between the Providers and the Administrative team.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conduct intake evaluations and psycho-diagnostic assessments and provide evidence-based psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and adults. Conduct intake evaluations on routine and emergency basis and conduct more comprehensive psychological evaluations to address complex diagnostic and treatment issues. Prepare evaluation reports with full responsibility for such evaluations.
• Conduct individual, group and family psychotherapy for patients who present with a full range of psychiatric problems. Administer and interpret objective personality and intelligence measures and conduct mental health evaluations.
• Serve as a member of the patient care team providing psychological services to children, adolescents and adults; formulate patient treatment plans, administer and interpret various psychological assessment measures for children and adolescents in order to adequately assess behavior/personality, intellectual abilities and academic achievement. Annotate adjustments to treatment plan as required over the course of therapy.
• Provide a record of care. Carry professional responsibility for findings, interpretations, decisions, recommendations, and reports.
• Promote and preserve a psychotherapeutic atmosphere among the professional treatment team and function as an authoritative source of information in the area of psychology.
• Provide psychological consultation for medical providers as needed. Consult with primary care providers, social workers, or other specialists as part of a treatment team and amend treatment plans as necessary.
• Adhere to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct as established by the American Psychological Association and adopted by the WV Board of Examiners of Psychologists.
• Attend and participate in meetings and Quality Improvement activities as required.
• Work with senior management to ensure coverage within the department at all times.

• Coordinate monthly department meetings and send minutes to designated administrator to keep on file.
• Coordinate peer review every quarter. Send reports to Chief Medical Officer for file and for consideration in granting continuing privileges to practice at FamilyCare. Meet with practitioner who has been reviewed to communicate results and any plans of action if necessary. Follow up action plans as needed.
• Coordinate updates of practice guidelines every two years. Communicate results to designated administrator to make changes in written documents and to disseminate the changes.
• Review/update department level policies and procedures that are not clinical guidelines every two years and communicate to designated administrator.
• Ensure that data for the department quality measures are collected accurately and reported quarterly.
• Respond to any adverse trends in quality data or patient experience surveys with a department level plan for improvement.
• Ensure that each department member has a performance evaluation annually. If an improvement plan is necessary, design this plan with the practitioner and follow up to ensure that the plan is carried out. Send results of performance evaluation to CMO.
• Initiate and/or participate in disciplinary actions on department members.
• Coordinate and schedule risk management and quality improvement training sessions, either at the department level or individually, in compliance with risk management and QA plans.
• Participate in review of organization wide policies and procedures that affect the department.
• Attend monthly Clinical Leads Meetings to review financial information and productivity numbers and approve Continuing Education requests.