Position Summary 

The Behavioral Health Specialist (BHS) provides oversight and support services to clients and staff in a residential treatment facility for adults with co-occurring diagnoses. BHS are responsible for around-the-clock supervision of clients and helping to create and maintain a therapeutic milieu for treatment initiatives. The BH-S position is an advanced-level position. 

Primary Duties & Responsibilities 

• Provides case management support to clients with direction from clinician.
• Attends treatment team and provides non-clinical and case management updates; acts as a liaison between treatment team and client population. 
• Plans and leads group curriculum as directed by Clinical Director.
• Has experience in a chosen “specialty” and provides specialty services to client population (i.e., legal/criminal justice, child/adult protective services, self-help topics/relapse prevention, aftercare/discharge planning). 
• Has expert skills in “ATA blocking” and helps to engage other staff in blocking efforts.  
• Assist clients with daily activities, adherence to schedules, and following program rules. 
• Maintain active awareness of clients’ locations and attendance of programming. 
• Observe, monitor, intervene upon, and document client behaviors and presentations.
• Maintain high quality documentation using appropriate forms in appropriate clinical language.  
• Ability to perform responsibilities of Behavioral Health Advocate and Behavioral Health Technician. 
• Facilitates non-clinical group sessions effectively within skill set and scope of practice.

Job Qualifications and Requirements 

• Minimum of two years’ experience in the addition or mental health fields. 
• High school diploma or equivalent preferred.
• Valid Driver’s License, required. 
• Ability to speak clearly and persuasively in positive or negative situations; listen and get clarification; responds well to questions. 
• Knowledge of organization, communication, and interpersonal skills. 
• Ability to exercise sound judgement, be attentive to detail, and maintain positive work attitude.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of all medical, financial, and legal information. 
• Ability to complete work assignments accurately and in a timely manner. 
• Ability to understand and utilize program knowledge, such as the disease model, motivational interviewing, trauma-informed approaches, experiential approaches, CBT, self-help approaches, and evidence based practices in client care. 
• Familiarity with acute intoxication and/or withdrawal potential, biomedical conditions that affect treatment, emotional/behavioral/cognitive conditions that complicate treatment, the stages of change model/readiness to change scale, relapse potentials, and supportive recovery environments for aftercare (the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria for levels of care)
• Ability understanding of how to utilize medical knowledge, complete medication observations, observe and assess detox clients, and complete and document vitals. 
• Ability to document thoroughly in an electronic medical record. 
• Ability to professionally interact and communicate with clients, client family members, referral sources, and vendors. 
• Knowledge of MS Office and office equipment such as copiers and scanners.
• Must meet pre-employment and maintain all applicable state and job related guidelines for background screening, fingerprinting, drug test, health screening, DMV, insurance, CPR/Basic First Air, and license/credential verifications.