Flex & Follow Up Crisis Outreach Peer Specialist - MRRCT in Seattle, Washington at Downtown Emergency Service Center

Shift: Flex (8:00am - 6:30pm)

Days Off: Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Insurance Benefits: Dental, Life, Long-term Disability, Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage)

Other Benefits: Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), ORCA card subsidy, Paid Time Off (34 days per year), Retirement Plan

Union Representation: This position is a part of a union and is represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.

About DESC:

Recognized nationally as an innovator and leader in developing solutions to homelessness, DESC is a social services organization, supportive housing operator, and licensed behavioral health treatment provider focused on meeting the needs of people experiencing long-term homelessness and living with complex behavioral health and other medical conditions. Approximately 3,000 people are actively receiving services from DESC at any given point in time. Our vision is a community where all people are shown compassion, treated with dignity, and everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.

DESC operates five shelter/emergency housing programs,19 permanent supportive housing facilities with over 1,750 units, several hundred additional scattered site apartments, and a range of behavioral health services including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment, residential crisis stabilization, street outreach, mobile crisis response, and treatment for opioid use disorder.

About Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Team (MRRCT):

The Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Team (MRRCT or “Meerkat”) at DESC, is a county funded program responsible for addressing the imminent and emergent needs of community members in crisis, in the central region of King County primarily covering the entirety of Seattle. The DESC team has been providing mobile crisis response services to the community for well over a decade.

As a nonprofit with over 45 years of experience focused on serving our community’s adults living with long histories of homelessness, behavioral health, and other disabling conditions, DESC is uniquely positioned to connect people in crisis to the important support and survival services they may need to overcome and prevent future occurrences of crisis, behavioral health distress, or other instabilities in our community.

JOB DEFINITION:

As a member of DESC's Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Team, you will be working on the front lines responding to adults in the community experiencing mental health or substance use crises, as dispatched to us by Crisis Connections (988). You will provide follow up care after initial crisis resolution and provide service connection supports to the individual after their initial crisis outreach and assist in initial evaluation of crisis intervention needs. You will work in a team alongside other skilled colleagues, including Mental Health Professionals and Crisis Outreach Specialists. Once called into action, teams of two will assist individuals responding to wherever they are in the community in identifying appropriate therapeutic options and next steps to resolve their crisis, while avoiding unnecessary usage of emergency rooms or other non-therapeutic settings like jail. We are working to stop the trend of criminalizing mental health disabilities and homelessness, and we want to make sure individuals in crisis get the help they need. Following our initial interaction, our team’s follow-up will help ensure recommended service connections have been made to prevent future crisis events. The team works all throughout the central region of King County, primarily Seattle, in a wide variety of community settings, and in all types of weather. The Flex & Follow Up Crisis Outreach Peer Specialists work in a culture in which each client's point of view and preferences are recognized, understood, respected, and integrated into treatment, recovery, and community self-help activities. This position requires a high degree of coordination and collaboration with all DESC programs and other outside agencies.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• In response to and collaboration with first responders and other referents, perform timely outreach services to individuals needing services, assessment, referral and linkage to needed services.
• Identify individuals in need, screen for services, develop rapport and trust while offering case management support, and assist with immediate and basic needs to individuals who are homeless/at risk of homelessness, support with connection to long term services.
• Provide peer recovery support.
• Work with clients to determine personal recovery goals, shelter, basic needs, connection to providers as desired.
• Provide assistance in obtaining and coordinating social services for eligible individuals experiencing homelessness. Services including resources related to daily living activities, personal financial planning, transportation, habilitation and rehabilitation services, prevocational and vocational services, and housing services (assessment, applications, and supportive with CEA process).
• Integrate personal experience with mental health concerns and substance use disorders into work with program participants.
• Help participants identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with mental health concerns and substance use disorders and develop strategies to reduce self-stigma.
• Advocate for clients' access to community resources and services, ensuring that clients' needs are met, and rights maintained; consult and collaborate with community providers to ensure continuity of care, facilitate linkages to collaborative resources when appropriate.
• Assist consumers with voicing their interests and goals through a variety of channels including Goal Plans, Crisis Plans, WRAP, and other methods of expressing individual preferences for their recovery goals.
• As a member of a multi-disciplinary team, provide psychosocial assessments, refer to substance use screenings, stabilization and meaningful engagement for adults referred to MRRCT; in the field.
• Provide support to other DESC staff and programs around client crisis situations, including consultation and in-person responses to help assess and prevent emerging crisis events.
• Establish and implement a plan to successfully engage clients in relevant services and other resources.
• As needed, provide follow-up services aimed at establishing linkage to services for program participants.
• Complete all data collection and documentation required of the project and DESC.
• Develop and maintain cooperative relationships with programs providing services for the population served.
• Comply with applicable program research and evaluation procedures.
• Comply with the all-agency policies and procedures, and relevant titles of the Washington Administrative Code and Revised Code of Washington.
• Participate in verbal de-escalation and crisis intervention in emergent situations and be able and willing to assist other staff as needed to maintain a safe, secure environment.
• Other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Current Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS) or Certified Peer Support Specialist Trainee (CPSS-T) credential through the Washington State Department of Health.
• Completion of “Crisis Awareness and Communication in Peer Support (CACPS)” training or ability to complete within 90 days of hire.
• Lived experience as a consumer of behavioral health services (mental health and/or substance use treatment) or be the parent or legal guardian of a child who has received behavioral health services.
• Ability to drive an agency or personal vehicle to conduct agency related business. A current Washington State driver's license and insurable driving record are required.
• Interest or experience in working with clients who are difficult to engage and maintain in traditional mental health / substance use disorder programs.
• Have a strong personal understanding from own experience in recovery and resilience, the value of client partnerships and client choice, and the balance between protection from harm and personal dignity.
• Be willing to seek to understand each client's unique circumstances and personal preferences and goals and incorporate them into the crisis response to help the client regain a sense of control.
• Possess the cultural humility to learn to work effectively with individuals who are Black, Latinx, Native American, Alaska Native, Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA, and other groups who routinely face discrimination and have difficulty accessing the health care they deserve.
• Strong knowledge of relevant community resources and methods for accessing them.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• One or more years' experience in community based behavioral health services or like industry serving a diverse client/participant population.
• Two or more years’ experience leveraging personal peer story as a peer specialist.
• Bilingual in Spanish/English (fluent).
• Knowledge of de-escalation skills, crisis intervention stabilization, and harm reduction strategies, preferred.
• Experience in outreach or crisis work.
• Experience working with adults who are experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, have mental health and/or co-occurring substance use disorders.

Strong applicants are able to demonstrate the ability to be positive in their empathetic responses to all persons; understand the value of meaningful and deep client engagement; have the potential to acquire the necessary knowledge, attitudes and skills of an effective crisis worker; and value a non-judgmental response to sensitive issues. Candidates should be able to accept feedback and work in a highly collaborative and potentially stressful environment.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be required to sit, drive, walk, stand, communicate with other employees and vendors, is required to lift and carry items weighing up to 10 pounds and to operate computer hardware systems. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. Considerable stress may occur. Employee will be working both indoors and outdoors in all types of weather.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER:

DESC is committed to diversity in the workplace and promotes equal employment opportunities for all staff members and applicants. The Agency will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, caste, marital status, or the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability in any employment practice, unless based on a bona fide occupational qualification. Minorities and veterans are encouraged to apply.