Early Childhood Clinician - Weld

This position requires working in or near the location of the posting. This role does require traveling to the homes and in the community of the clients we serve.

Hiring for: 

Weld County

Are You Eager To Make A Difference In The Life Of A Young Child?

Paragon is urgently hiring licensed and pursuing licensure mental health and developmental clinicians in Colorado to be part of our Child First Team! At Paragon we believe in providing services for the whole family system to ensure exceptional effectiveness. With Paragon you and your team can focus on providing outstanding care for families, while we handle the administrative work (obtaining referrals, verifying insurance, credentialing, billing, support, audits, and compliance).

Why Join Paragon?

We are not regionally based, which means we are able to provide services to those in need statewide. This means you can support not only those who live in your region but those who have a harder time accessing care in rural communities of Colorado as well.

• Career Development: You will receive $15,000 worth of formal training in Child-Parent Psychotherapy, an evidence-based program proven to help young children and families heal from stressful and traumatic events.
• Clinical Skills Training
• Learning Sessions
• Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC):0-5
• Absorb Learning Management System
• COS and much more
• Clinical Leadership & Supervision: Paragon’s executive team includes licensed providers engaged in business decisions and planning, ensuring the provider perspective is always included. They also provide licensure supervision as an added perk of employment and is provided at no additional cost to you.
• Receive your Clinical License up to 2x times faster by receiving FOUR hours a week of Reflective Supervision.
• Benefits: Company-paid health, dental, vision, short-term/long-term disability, and life insurance coverage available through United Health Care, Delta Dental, and Principal. This ensures you are receiving 100% of your salary – well after taxes of course.

Program Description:

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.

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 their 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 caregivers, 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 using videotaping to enhance 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.

Supervisory duties:

• As the clinical lead, you will be responsible for overseeing and motivating a multi-disciplinary team while managing your team’s day-to-day operations. As well as ensuring employees have proper training and providing any additional training if needed. Other duties may be assigned at the discretion of leadership.

Knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Strong written and oral communication skills via phone and face-to-face.
• Understand HIPAA, protected health information, and confidentiality.
• 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).
• Openness to learning, capacity for self-reflection, and eagerness to participate in reflective clinical supervision.
• 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.
• Comfortable with computers and experience with Word and Excel.
• Proven ability to work with a high level of independence, maintain confidentiality, prioritize assignments, and manage time effectively.
• Strong conflict resolution skills.
• Be committed to building trust and engagement with individuals and families from diverse backgrounds.
• Demonstrates rational decision-making skills.
• Demonstrate sensitivity and acceptance of individual experiences.
• Knowledge of parenting skills, childhood developmental stages, and similar.

Education:

• Has a confirmed master’s degree in Counseling, Social Work, or related field is required.

Experience:

• 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.
• 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.

Additional Requirements/Licenses/Certifications:

• Licensed or licensed-eligible (must be able to obtain a preliminary license within two months of employment) Master’s or Doctoral level mental health provider (e.g., LCSW, LMFT, LPC, MA, clinical psychologist, other).
• All licensures must stay up-to-date and valid during employment.
• A valid driver’s license and proof of automobile insurance are required.

Additional Preferred Qualifications/Licenses/Certifications:

• A clinical license (i.e., Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Marital and Family Therapist (LMFT), MA, clinical psychologist, other).
• Remains ethical and eligible to apply for a National Provider Identifier (NPI) and Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) to be able to provide clinical services under Medicaid.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: $60,000.00 - $75,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• After school
• Choose your own hours

Work setting:

• Outpatient

People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply

Ability to commute/relocate:

• Colorado: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Education:

• Master's (Required)

Experience:

• working with children and families (ages 0-5): 3 years (Preferred)

License/Certification:

• LSW, LPC, LPCC, LAC, MFT, or equivalent (Preferred)

Work Location: On the road

Salary : $60,000 - $75,000