Family Crisis Clinician

• Provide crisis intervention and stabilization services to families in need 24 hours a day by responding to all calls within 20 minutes and providing families with counseling, guidance and/or referral assistance needed to stabilize immediate juvenile family crises, pursuant to the FCIU Operations Manual Goal 1 and its Objectives.
• Conduct a full comprehensive, biopsychosocial assessment with youth/family by obtaining information regarding the current crisis as well as other information such as: family history, adolescent school performance, previous/current services and any other background/collaborative information that may provide insight into the current crisis.
• Provide face to face intervention services to families within 24-48 hours of the referral, unless requested otherwise by the family.
• Provide in-home and in-community psychotherapeutic services and client-centered advocacy as determined by individual service plans. In addition to normal business hours, Crisis Clinicians should be available for in-home and/or out-of-office conferences/interventions after-hours in order to accommodate families
• Crisis Clinicians will rotate an after-hours on-call crisis phone, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays. Crisis Clinicians are responsible for providing telephone triage as it relates to mental health crisis intervention.
• Maintain a caseload of youth that meet FCIU referral criteria, including an unauthorized absence by the youth from the home, serious conflict between parent and youth, a pattern of unauthorized absences from school, and/or a serious threat to the well-being and safety of the youth (ex. mental health diagnosis, juvenile court and/or police involvement, substance use/addictions, and other high risk behaviors)
• Develop individual behavioral and/or treatment plans and contracts with families as well as crisis plans to stabilize the crisis and work towards individual goals. Case planning, monitoring of treatment plans, and continual evaluation of services is required.
• Identify additional services and provide advocacy and linkage to those services, such as but not limited to wrap-around therapy, drug and alcohol treatment and health/nutritional needs.
• Collaborate with other agencies involved or linked to the family such as, but not limited to, police departments, schools, juvenile and/or municipal court, mental health and/or drug and alcohol counseling agencies and faith or family based agencies.
• Complete all required documentation in youth case files on a timely basis as per policies and applicable regulations. Strict confidentiality is to be maintained. Progress notes will make reference to youth/familys preferences and reflect the youths status, interventions provided, and any change in service provision. Follow appropriate intake and termination process to best meet the needs of the youth/family. All high risk/crisis incidents with a youth/family are to be reported to the Program Manager.
• Crisis Clinicians will rotate the facilitation of psycho-educational training and facilitate group discussion with at-risk youth and families as needed.
• Prepare either family crisis or out-of-home placement petitions to the Court for families as needed and attend the Court proceedings. Write letters to Judges to inform them of childs progress in program and attend any Court proceedings for the enrolled child, when applicable.
• Develop strong relationships youth, family members, Family Court officials, police departments, Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P), schools and other community service providers in order to collaborate with intervention services.
• Assist in the training of new FCIU Crisis Clinicians in the daily functions and procedures of the job and work cooperatively with program interns.
• Provide community outreach presentations about the program to community agencies, schools and/or police departments as needed.
• Meet with the program manager for supervision and attend required meetings, including peer supervision, team meetings, and agency meetings.
• Complete required data sets and reports as defined by the program.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education:

• A master's degree in a mental health discipline is preferred with licensure to practice as required by New Jersey laws governing the discipline. May substitute with two years' experience working with adolescents and possess a bachelors degree in a human services related field. (Masters level credentialed staff are assigned an increased level of more high risk cases that require clinical skills and intervention.)
• A valid drivers license in good standing.