SUD Counselor/Recovery Support Specialist - Las Vegas, United States - Healthy Minds

Description

We challenge the professional hierarchy by putting the trained, licensed professional with the most rapport and knowledge of substance use disorders, clients' symptoms, family dynamics, and psychosocial needs in charge of the treatment team: the SUD Counselor.

Through rapport building, diagnostic interviewing, and individual & family case conceptualization, this person determines the pace, focus, and coordination of treatment.

What should other professionals involved in the case be doing to supplement your clinical work? How should the treatment team prioritize presenting problems? What's really going on in this case that people have been missing? How should the team change the course of treatment to overcome resistance or stagnation? You're the captain, but you also have a team that brings various strengths and perspective, so make sure the team acknowledges and avails itself of them.

Healthy Minds believes that, with rare exception, substance abuse and mental health treatment cannot be effective if we are not addressing the family system with a multi-disciplinary approach.

These frameworks should inform your therapeutic technique, strategy, and conceptualization as you complete your diagnostic interview, develop and update treatment plans, and engage with your clients.

• Screen, assess, and diagnose co-occurring disorders using stage-wise assessments involving multiple sources of information (e.g., patients, families, collaterals, etc.) that focus on both substance use and mental health motivation.
• Know when it's time to focus on rapport instead of information gathering.
• We couldn't leave it up to the front desk to make decisions about gathering releases of information (i.e., who, how many, what information), so that became your job.
• Deliver evidence-based, stage-wise treatment for both substance use and mental health disorders involving individuals, families, and groups.
• You must be able to transform biopsychosocial and diagnostic information into a clinical treatment plan with time-limited, realistic, measurable objectives upon opening a case and on an ongoing basis with treatment plan updates, in collaboration with the patient's therapist.

encourage clients to express their feelings, discuss what is happening in their lives, empathize, teach them about coping and changing behavior, foster insight when clinically appropriate, help them think biopsychosocially and count victories, etc.

Counsel clients and patients, individually and in group sessions, to assist in overcoming dependencies, adjusting to life, and making changes.

• Make specific efforts to acquire knowledge about groups you're working with to help you recognize institutional barriers that prevent your clients from using organizational and societal resources.
• Treatment planning occurs and is documented in every session, including perceptions of risk associated with ongoing use of substances and/or severity of mental health symptoms.
• Participate in treatment team meetings and provide information surrounding evidence-based treatment practices to the team.
• Being in charge of the treatment team means thinking about everyone's role before the meeting, coming in prepared to discuss treatment priorities and each member's treatment contribution, and having a suggested plan for staying or changing the course of treatment based on progress or lack thereof. Please do that.
• Show everyone how you understand the difference between a clinical treatment plan and a coordination of treatment plan by not copying and pasting one to the other. Develop client treatment plans based on research, clinical experience, and client histories.
• Review and evaluate clients' progress in relation to measurable goals described in treatment and care plans.
• Provide clients or family members with information about addiction issues and about available services and programs, making appropriate referrals when necessary.
• Modify treatment plans to comply with changes in client status.
• Coordinate counseling efforts with mental health professionals and other health professionals such as doctors, nurses, and social workers. Lots of tasks involved in coordinating care do not require your level of training, so use our case managers or staff exchange programs by assigning non-clinical tasks to integrate care, such as making and following up on referrals to auxiliary services.
• Facilitate coordination between the SUD program and other programs, so that collaboration contributes to a holistic approach to patient care.
• Provide and facilitate safe discharges by identifying/ensuring appropriate aftercare and/or continuity of care at discharge.
• Premature discharge can lead to crisis, hospitalization, homelessness, or even suicide. Delayed progress toward discharge can foster dependence, ignore stagnation, and preclude growth.

client sobriety and relapse prevention plan, resolution of trauma and psychiatric symptoms, adequate housing and resources, confirmed contact with permanent connections, awareness of and ongoing access to services, financial literacy, and opportunities to practice life skills and transition to independence.

• Plan and implement follow-up and aftercare programs for clients to be discharged from treatment programs.
• Attend training sessions in order to increase knowledge and skills.
• Participate in supervision by, for example, providing input and feedback regarding program development specific to SUD programming and patient needs.
• We expect you to attend clinical group consultation meetings every week so you can confer with your teammates and eventually know everything.
• Provide crisis intervention and support as needed and debrief all crisis interventions with clinical/program director within 24 hours
• Many of our patients are court-involved. Read and consult your board's guidelines for court involved therapeutic care within the probationary period so you can ensure adequate informed consent occurs with all parties.
• Develop and maintain partnerships and collaborative working relationships with community providers, resources, and court systems to identify ways to better serve patients with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders.
• Act as liaisons between clients and medical staff.
• Coordinate activities with courts, probation officers, community services and other post-treatment agencies.
• Set a good example by using objective, behaviorally-based language, not subjective, vague euphemisms when completing all documentation.
• Confidentiality of health information is important. Follow HIPAA, HITEC, and 42 CFR guidelines surrounding patient confidentiality.
• When critical incidents occur, it is critical for you to write detailed reports including antecedents, interventions, and debriefing and to send them to your supervisor along with treating providers.
• You don't have to document in the office, but you do have to finish all of the current week's documentation by Monday next week. (We have electronic medical records to accommodate your Hawaii travel.)
• Oh, and your documentation must be accurate down to the proper billing code and procedures. No making stuff up.
• We run around telling people our services are evidence-based. Please regularly review state and national standards of practice for substance abuse and mental health disorders to ensure the safest and highest quality care.
• Be able to consult with peers in the field whenever appropriate and document these consultations.
• Be able to work with and appropriately collaborate with medical, as well other staff in the office
• Participate in utilization reviews and/or management to identify areas of improvement and to increase program outcomes.
• Sometimes we have to ask insurance companies for permission to render certain services, which means will you have to complete prior authorization requests.
• Conduct drug tests
• If you have difficulty with your peers, consult with your supervisor about how to proceed. If you have difficulty with your supervisor, consult with the ADP employee support line about how to proceed. One of the things we specifically pay ADP for is to be a resource for you.
• When conflicts or problems arise in the workplace, be solution-focused and action-oriented. Don't cry over spilled milk. Don't fan the flames of gossip or hearsay.
• Pair your complaints and criticisms with solutions. For example, in reading and complying with our Substance-Use Disorder policies and procedures, take the time to develop thought-out improvements
• We aim to cover you in your absence, and we'd like you to do the same for others, including days off.
• It's especially important to tell your supervisor when you feel overwhelmed, stuck, or in need of training or professional development.
• Try to avoid saying some version of "that's not my job" when someone asks you to do something. We love delegation and job descriptions too, but it makes for a better workplace when your teammates show a sense of excitement about supporting one another.
• This company values your feedback and constructive criticism regarding management, administration, and company policies and procedures. Let your direct supervisor know when you have input.
• And for the catch-all statement: you must function as a resource to all staff on daily basis.

• Bachelor or Graduate degree in addictions studies, social work, psychology, marriage and family therapy, or professional counseling
• Certificate/License Alcohol and Drug Counselor
• Effective, efficient googling skills
• Leads by example, team player attitude, and shares our values - integrity, flexibility, empathy, excellence
• Thorough knowledge of the DSM and ASAM criteria
• Knowledge of the Stages of Change and Motivational Interviewing
• Awareness, sensitivity to, and respect for cultural variation and the power of personal values and biases
• Ability to remain calm and courteous in the face of rudeness and disrespect
• Ability to be aware of and understand clients' reactions and your reactions to clients
• Ability to predict the future. Not really but you have to be able to identify warning signs for when something is likely to go wrong and then generate and implement solutions.
• Ability to consider multiple perspectives and alternate explanations when problems arise
• Ability to identify pair problems with solutions along with alternative solutions when you don't get your way
• You have to be able to prioritize and get things done