HealthySteps Specialist

Description

JOB SUMMARY

The Primary role of the HealthySteps Specialist is to function in a pediatric or family practice clinic as part of the interdisciplinary team where you will be involved in: team-based well-child visits; comprehensive assessment of a child (developmental, social-emotional, behavioral, mental, family protective and risk factors, and social determinants of health), including the use of evidence-based screenings; provision of therapeutic clinical interventions to address identified needs; connecting families to community resources; providing care coordination and system navigation; providing psycho-social support to the families between well-child visits; and providing positive parenting interventions, guidance and early learning resources.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Enroll new families into the HealthySteps program, targeting patient’s birth through age 3.
• Determination of tier based services after a comprehensive assessment of child’s development, social-emotional, behavioral and mental wellbeing at recommended intervals with evidence-based screenings.
• Meet with families at well-child visits with the physician/pediatric nurse practitioner or independently.
• Visit with family will include individualized clinical interventions to address problems that cause mental, emotional, behavioral, social and developmental difficulties with an emphasis on child and family strengths.
• Collaborate with health care team members to restore patient to optimum biopsychosocial functioning through the use of therapeutic clinical skills, case management, advocacy, and information and referral.
• Case management/care coordination: identifying quality resources and providing referrals and follow-up as appropriate to foster community connections, including work with other members of the ConnectFirst team. 
• Facilitate/lead caregiver groups, staff resource fairs or other community events targeted at early childhood and young families as needed or as available, provide education/information to interdisciplinary team on infant mental health best practices.
• Utilize the Child Development Telephone Information Line for parenting advice and to coordinate parent communication and relationship.
• Support the clinic with the Reach Out and Read program (where applicable).
• Provide child behavioral and developmental information, guidance, and checkups for families, to develop confidence in their caregiving abilities.
• Establish and nurture a collaborative relationships among the caregivers, medical staff, and the HealthySteps team.
• Complete professional development related to the services provided for children birth through 3 and their and families.
• Engages in Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiatives with supervisor and clinic implementation team to ensure HealthySteps model fidelity.
• Participate in monthly individual and/or group reflective consultations provided by the HealthySteps program.
• Demonstrates the agency’s values and supports the vision and mission of the organization.

Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelors Degree
• Early childhood and child development, pediatric clinical setting, infant mental health counseling, or similar experience.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bilingual in English and Spanish preferred.
• Master’s Degree (will consider 24 months of equivalent experience in lieu of a Master’s degree)
• Knowledge of and experience assessing the growth and development of infants and young children, parent-child relationships, child health, and family systems.
• Demonstrate ability to work on an interdisciplinary team and in a peer relationship with a medical provider or in a medical setting.
• Capacity to be reflective about work and roles.  
• Ability to work independently.
• Understanding and honoring the values of integrity, collaboration, flexibility, growth/learning, and compassion that the HealthySteps team embraces.