Care Control Specialist - On-Site - 988 Crisis Hotline

Position Summary:

The primary goal of the Care Control Specialist - On-Site - 988 Crisis Hotline provides appropriate services to callers across Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County, and Carroll County. These services may include supportive counseling, information and referrals, crisis intervention counseling, suicide prevention, and intake screening of callers to the Mobile Teams and other community services. Position involves answering multiple crisis line calls (including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Maryland Helpline, 211 Health Check, Howard County Homeless Services local line, and others), providing crisis counseling to walk-in clients, and conducting housing assessments for eviction prevention and shelter requests. Grassroots is a 24/7 Crisis Program. The position involves providing resources, de-escalation, scheduling appointments, completing warm hand offs, and following up with callers. 988 Crisis Counselors can provide a range of support from emotional support to full scale crisis de-escalation. Responsible for providing supportive services to help individuals regain a sense of safety, return to their normal level of functioning, and/or access ongoing treatment services as needed. Responsible for providing excellent service to those accessing the service by applying the equivalent of reflective listening and motivational interviewing skills in the context of telephonic and face-to-face exchanges. Must have the special training and skills to interact via phone and in person, to understand consumers’ unique circumstances and needs, render immediate emotional support, provide options for ongoing support/treatment, and follow up to ensure needs are being met. This professional is patient, knowledgeable, empathetic, and helpful.

On-Site shifts:

• Thursday - Monday; 12am - 8am
• Tuesday - Saturday 8am - 4pm
• Wednesday - Saturday 2pm - 12am
• Sunday - Thursday 4pm - 12am

Primary Responsibilities:

• Can work in a highly stressful environment that deals with frequent suicidal callers.
• Assess each caller’s presenting problem, support systems, coping skills, and level of emergency to determine appropriate intervention.
• Intervenes appropriately with callers who present imminent danger to self or others, including assessing lethality and taking necessary steps to intervene.
• Access bed registry and other resources to connect callers to services.
• Comply with the GBRICS Crisis Standards in providing services to the community.
• Adhere to Lifeline Standards, Crisis Now Standards, and appropriate accrediting bodies best practices when providing services.
• Participate in regularly scheduled supervision and debriefing sessions as appropriate.
• If self-identified as a peer, participate in regular peer support sessions.
• Comply with the organization’s Secondary Trauma Prevention policy.
• Adhere to annual training requirements.
• Does an assessment of each caller/walk-in to determine the appropriate means of intervention.
• Achieves good closure on contacts with recommendations or arrangements for follow-up calls, walk-in, or referral to other agencies as needed.
• Is familiar with resources and provides information and referral to clients requesting information.
• Completes follow-ups for all required calls.
• Completes thorough documentation for all calls (incoming & outgoing) and face-to-face interactions. Documentation must be at 100% completion rate and be input in the electronic system at the latest before the end of the shift. Live documentation is strongly recommended.
• Professionally document consumer demographic data and interactions within designated database/databases.
• Follow-up with clients to monitor and track successes and concerns.
• Respect each participant’s privacy rights under HIPAA and other applicable laws and regulations during the provision of services.
• The program will provide daily ongoing monitoring of calls to ensure quality. The expectation is for care control specialists to score a minimum of 75% on the quality evaluation.
• Completes weekly quality evaluation process.
• Arrives or shift on time and properly attired.
• Participates in a brief meeting at the beginning of the shift to review shift business including status of EOS, expected walk-ins, alerts, etc.
• Acts as a liaison between Crisis lines and other crisis programs, such as Shelter, Cold Weather Shelter, Code Blue Staff, Day Resource Center, Springboard, etc.
• Assures that the lobby, counseling and open EOS rooms are clean. If the rooms are not clean, the care control specialist will clean the space.
• Assures that the Care Control Operations Room is properly stocked with copies of paperwork, linens, toiletries, etc. If supplies are running low, the care control specialists will restock the room.
• Responsible for ensuring that the Care Control Operations Room is in clean and organized condition for the incoming shift.
• Assist in training new Care Control staff.
• Meet with Crisis Line Supervisors and Program Manager regularly to discuss program operations, concerns, and potential improvements.
• Other duties as requested and required.
• Assist coordination of services for Code Blue and Cold Weather Shelter Clients
• Other duties as assigned, required, or needed.

Agency-wide Responsibilities:

• Reads 100% of all email communications and responds to emails in a timely manner prior or during their shifts.
• Participates in supervision, in-service training, and staff meetings.
• Maintains good working relationships with co-workers and positively contributes to group morale.
• Completes all administrative duties including time sheets, leave requests, etc. on time.
• Uses appropriate channels of communication to resolve conflicts with other staff.
• Interacts with staff, clients, and visitors in a professional and courteous manner.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited school with a minimum of 120 college credits in Social Work or mental health related field.
• One year of community mental health experience is desired or lived experience.
• Computer skills with various software – Microsoft Products proficient skills required.
• Crisis Worker Certification preferred. Requirement to complete Crisis Worker Certification within 12 months of hire.

Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to work independently with confidence, as well as work as an integral part of a team of professionals.
• Must be mature, empathetic, flexible, and adaptable to varying situations and coverage needs.
• Reliable and able to adhere to schedules based upon call center needs.
• Ability to consistently adhere to call center program policies and procedures.
• Skilled in the use of technology including telephones, computers (PC), laptops, software, and email.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to function successfully in an environment requiring immediate response to urgent situations.
• Knowledge of and familiarity with local and statewide community resources.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Manages multiple tasks at one time; quickly and accurately shifts attention among multiple tasks under distracting conditions without loss of accuracy or appearance of frustration.
• Reads, writes, and speaks fluent English to convey information and ideas effectively. Demonstrates exceptionally strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to prepare concise and accurate records and reports.
• Demonstrates a systematic approach in carrying out tasks and assignments.
• Demonstrates a strong ability to properly identify and analyze problems. Able to follow the proper policies and procedures to solve identified problems.
• Consistently ensures that participants are provided with attentive, courteous, and informative service. Gains and shows personal satisfaction from delivering expected service elements.
• Willing to work with others, collaborating and compromising where necessary; promptly sharing relevant information with others.
• Is open to changing situations and opportunities and is willing to perform all tasks assigned.
• Maintains a positive outlook, rebounds quickly from frustrations and unpleasantness, and maintains composure and friendly demeanor while dealing with stressful situations.
• Gives full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate.

Work Conditions:

• Holidays, Evening, and weekend coverage required. Depending on scheduled shifts.
• Hours are flexible to meet program needs.
• Potential exposure to highly emotional and stressful situations, potential exposure to aggressive encounters.
• Some walking, telephonic work, standing, climbing stairs, and sitting required.
• Must be able to lift 25lbs.

Grassroots Rewards & Incentives:

Grassroots offers to pay 100% of the expenses for its Full-time employees wishing to take advantage in the following areas:

• Licensure and/or Renewal (ex. Clinical, Nursing, Medical, etc.)
• CEUs
• Professional Trainings and/or Conferences
• Field Certifications
• Instant wage increases for certifications achieved while employed.
• $250 Hiring Bonus for full completion of Onboarding and HR trainings.
• $500 Retention Bonus
• Small Loan Option at 0% Interest for 1 year

All incentives and/rewards are subject to the employee meeting the required policies and procedures, including, but not limited to, agency’s 3-month probationary period, performance metrics, and/or signed agreements prior to registration and authorization by Grassroots leadership. All bonuses are subject to completion for all required HR and programmatic training.