Crisis Response Internship - Durham, United States - City of Durham, NC

Description

Work, Serve, Thrive. With the City of Durham

Advance in your career while making a real difference in the community you serve.


Salary range:
$22.95 an hour


Shift/Hours:
16-24 hours per week, based on core business hours. Hours worked per week will be determined based on the requirements on your program. Internship is expected to run from Fall 2024 to Spring 2025.

In 2022, the Durham Community Safety Department (DCSD) launched four 911 crisis response programs-collectively known as HEART (Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams)-to meet the needs of people in crisis with compassionate care and behavioral health expertise.

In the first twelve months of operation, and having responded to over 6,000 calls, HEART continues to demonstrate that alternative 911 responses are safe and effective.

Interested applicants can visit our website and dashboard, watch this clip from CNN's Sanjay Gupta, listen to this segment on NPR (WUNC), or read this piece from The Assembly to learn more about our department.

As part of a cohort of municipalities invested in developing transformative 911 crisis response programs, the Community Safety Department generates insights that affect cities across the country who visit, meet, and learn from and about HEART.

In short:
your work at the Community Safety Department will help seed a national movement.

DCSD currently runs four program areas, listed and described below. Many of our Crisis Response Clinicians rotate through at least two programs.

• Crisis Call Diversion embeds licensed clinicians into Durham's 911 call center to triage, assess, and respond remotely to behavioral health related calls that can be resolved over the phone. It also supports in-person response and provides follow-up check-ins when appropriate for people who previously encountered emergency services. Its primary goal is to provide individuals with quality remote care and/or connect individuals to in-person care.
• The Community Response Team program sends three-person teams-consisting of a Crisis Response Clinician, a Peer Support Specialist, and EMT-to 911 calls for service involving behavioral health and quality of life concerns. CRT responds in-person without law enforcement and has a strong track record of safety (responders report feeling safe on over 99 percent of calls). Crisis Response Clinicians are responsible for behavioral health assessment, crisis intervention, and de-escalation in collaboration with their teammates. Crisis Response Clinicians act as team leads.
• Co-Response dispatches a Crisis Response Clinician with a Crisis Intervention Trained (CIT) police officer to the highest risk calls involving behavioral and mental health, substance use, and conflict mediation needs. The Crisis Response Clinician is responsible for behavioral health assessments, therapeutic interventions, and de-escalation in collaboration with the CIT officer.
• The Care Navigation program assigns two-person teams-consisting of a Crisis Response Clinician and a Peer Support Specialist-to follow-up with residents within 48 hours of initial encounter with one of the crisis response teams mentioned above. Care Navigators' primary goal is to connect residents to the care they want and need within 30 days of initial encounter.

As a Clinical Intern you would work with the Care Navigation team, consisting of Clinicians and Peer Support Specialists. Residents are referred to Care Navigation for short term guidance to connect with resources available in the community.

These resources include connecting residents to resources for food, domestic violence, behavioral health, housing, physical health care, and much more.

Clinical interns should expect a collaborative environment to discuss complex cases with the team.

DCSD values meeting residents where they are and engaging in care however the resident is most comfortable, including meeting in their home, in the community, or over the phone.

DCSD's approach to work is flexible, highly collaborative, and evidence-driven. Our departmental culture prizes equity, care, and the health and safety of our staff. We are looking for candidates who share similar approaches and principles. We envision adding team members who are not only colleagues but partners in this challenging and purpose-driven work.

Hours:
hours worked per week will be determined based on the requirements on your program


Schedule:

TBD

• Develop highly collaborative, trusting, and productive relationships with other crisis response team members.
• Develop individual care plans that identify the needs and barriers to treatment for individuals experiencing crisis and draw on the knowledge and insights of other team members.
• Maintain strong working knowledge of DSM5 diagnostic criteria, particularly for substance use, Severe Mental Illness (SMI) and Severe Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI), and Intellectual Developmental Disability.
• Provide "second response" follow-up to individuals who experienced crises, and others potentially affected by that crisis, to assess if and how further support might be extended.
• Assure that connections are made to services and supports based on individual choice and clinical assessment. Facilitate warm handoffs to other services as needed, which could involve directly transporting the individual in assigned work vehicle.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation as required by program deliverables and departmental, local, state, and federal policy and requirements.
• Develop and maintain clear, open, timely, cooperative, and collaborative communication and working relations with all staff, clients, community partners, and partner agencies.
• Participate in clinical and administrative supervision, case conferences, staff meetings, in-service training, continuing education units, and other staff development activities.
• Contribute to strategic planning activities and conversations regarding the performance and direction of the department, particularly in regard to crisis response and departmental culture.
• Demonstrate a high level of resilience and self-care as part of maintaining wellness in a high crisis and first responder position.
• Working toward a Master's degree in social work, psychology, or related human services field.
• A track record of demonstrating initiative and sound judgment when handling ambiguity.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality, and particularly HIPAA confidentiality, at all times.
• Must be able to travel to and from worksite and other locations within Durham
• A commitment to and interest in the mission of the department: to enhance public safety through community-centered approaches to prevention and intervention as alternatives to policing and the criminal legal system.
• A commitment to equity, which could include having already attended racial equity trainings.
• Must be able to walk/stand up to 75% of any assigned shift.
• Two or more years of crisis response experience.
• Experience working with Peer Support Specialists or other individuals with lived experience with behavioral and mental health, substance use, and/or Intellectual Developmental Disability crises.
• Prior experience in outreach/engagement to populations experiencing frequent behavioral and mental health, substance use, and/or Intellectual Developmental Disability crises.
• Strong knowledge and experience with service delivery documentation (including counseling/treatment planning), HIPAA/Confidentiality standards, utilization review, and data management.
• Ability to speak two or more languages, with a high priority on Spanish.
• Familiarity with Durham health systems and community resources/services for physical health behavioral and mental health, substance use, Intellectual Developmental Disability, family dynamics, sexual/physical a