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

Days Off: Saturday, Sunday, Monday

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

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

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 Certified Peer Counselors. 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.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Communicate with and advocate for the person within their faith, neighborhood or other components of the persons’ community.
• 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.
• 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.
• Participate in psychiatric consultation, supervision, program meetings and in-service trainings; participate in clinical reviews and case conferences for clients on caseload.
• 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:

• Relevant bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, or related behavioral science, OR a combination of 1 year of relevant paid work experience and demonstration of the ability to perform required job duties.
• Interest in working with clients who are difficult to engage and maintain in traditional mental health/substance use disorder programs.
• Ability to meet Washington Department of Health requirements for registration as a Registered Agency Affiliated Counselor (AAC) or any other superseding credential
• 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.
• Be able to pass a Washington State Criminal background check.
• Familiar with Recovery Principles, Crisis Intervention and Stabilization, Integrated Treatment of Co-occurring Disorders, Intensive Case Management, Illness Management, Trauma-Informed Treatment, and relevant Evidenced based/Emerging best practices
• Knowledge of Harm Reduction strategies.
• Strong working knowledge of DSM IV (and its successor).
• Be able to assess situations quickly and respond appropriately to any type of mental health and/or chemical dependency crisis to ensure the physical and psychological safety of clients.
• 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.
• Assist clients in accessing internal resources to reinforce the client's ability to resolve crisis on their own.
• Assist clients in identifying unmet needs that may be causing them to have recurrent crisis.
• Have a strong understanding of recovery and resilience, the value of client partnerships and client choice, and the balance between protection from harm and personal dignity.
• Possess strong communication and writing skills.
• Able and willing to provide community outreach anywhere in King County from which a referral may originate.
• Familiar with King County crisis response system, other relevant community resources, and methods of access.
• Ability to communicate and work effectively with staff from various backgrounds.
• Ability to work effectively with clients displaying a wide range of unpleasant and/or bizarre behavior.
• Subscribe to the philosophy of cooperation and continuity across programs and of consideration and respect for program participants.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as social work or psychology.
• Experience and skills in working with mentally ill individuals who are difficult to engage and may resist services.
• Bilingual in Spanish/English (fluent).
• Meet criteria as a Substance Use Disorder Professional (SUDP).

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. Employees 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.