Older Adult Consultant in Ithaca, New York at Family & Children's Service of Ithaca

Position Summary

The Consultant for our Older Adult Project to provide clinically informed outreach, consultation, and education services in Tompkins County for older adults aged 65+ years and those who care for them such as family members, in home aids, nursing home staff, etc. This is a grant funded role and the continuation of the role will be dependent on the maintenance of that funding. F&CS has had this grant funded for over 10 years and anticipates that the funding will remain relatively stable.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide outreach, consultation, and education services directly to older adults, care partners, and other related stakeholders.
• Spend approximately 75% of work time on-location in the Tompkins County community; build relationships with community members and service providers and allow this to inform service delivery (locations to be determined and services to be developed according to community need in collaboration with program lead)
• Help to inform quarterly and annual reports developed by the Program Lead on service delivery to demonstrate how grant funding has been spent as well as how it is accomplishing the goals of the program.
• As assigned by the program lead, collaborate externally with community agencies to ensure that information related to program services is disseminated to relevant parties and that services continue to be influenced by what the community is needing for this population.
• Collaborate internally with F&CS staff regarding cross-program referrals, sharing knowledge across staff serving similar populations, and connecting through various meetings and/or trainings to ensure that these programs are not isolated, but have integrations across the organization.
• Maintain boundaries between services provided under this program and clinical services, and reinforce with all stakeholders the difference. This is not a clinical diagnostic or treatment service and is not covered under HIPAA, is not billable to insurance, etc.
• Document all services provided in compliance with standards set by program lead for what is necessary under this program.
• Keep up with professional developments in the field in order to keep knowledge base current with changes in understanding of the needs of Older Adults and those who care for them.
• Continue to adapt service delivery in line with the program vision to meet the ever changing community needs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a mental health discipline (license to practice not necessary).
• Demonstrated professional experience with older adults and their care partners.
• Proficiency in formal and informal presentations delivering content designed to raise awareness, knowledge, and skills.
• Clear understanding of the systems at play in the lives of older adults and their care partners and how these interact with the cultural identities of older adults and their care partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior work experience in a clinical capacity with older adults.
• Experience working with families for whom English is not their first language and may have limited proficiency.