Peer Recovery Specialist – Patient Services

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus seeks three full-time, University Staff (non-classified) Peer Recovery Specialists within the Addiction Research and Treatment Services (ARTS) Adult Outpatient Program, with clinic locations in Denver, Aurora, and Arvada. The ARTS Adult Outpatient Program is within the School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. ARTS Adult Outpatient clinics provide drug and alcohol assessment, psychosocial and pharmacological treatment for adults.

Programs in various clinic locations include traditional outpatient, intensive outpatient and may contain specialty services for clients referred by the criminal justice system, county departments of human services, and services for pregnant women, individuals who are HIV-positive and gender-responsive services.

The person in this position is an individual with lived substance use disorder (SUD) experience to support positions providing drug and alcohol assessment, psychosocial, and pharmacological treatment for adults with substance use disorder (SUD), who first enter into care at ARTS Adult Outpatient Program clinic locations, ARTS Medication Mobile Unit, or through other medical/clinical settings such as the UC Health hospital.

Peer Recovery Specialists can often use their own experiences to help patients navigate through their journey of recovery from SUD by offering practical advice and emotional support that can help patients feel empowered and not alone. Peer Recovery Specialists can help clients identify their strengths and coping strategies, as well as offer guidance on how to manage any life challenges.

These positions help patients to feel confident, and provide patients with support from an experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate ally who is dedicated to helping them live a healthier, fulfilling lifestyle and to achieve their goals through recovery.

This is a full-time, University Staff (non-classified) position that provides activities to engage, educate, and offer support to adults with SUD, their family members, and caregivers to connect patients to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up sessions. This position is also responsible for conducting outreach activities with patients, staff, community partners, subcontracted agencies, and/or other entities as appropriate, travel to various sites, and perform other duties as assigned or required.

Working hours are based on a standard 40-hour work week, to include breaks, as follows:

• 6:00am-2:30pm on Mondays to Fridays.

Note:

The above working hours and locations may be subject to change according to the needs of the clinic, and this position may be required to work periodically on some weeknights and/or some Saturdays or Sundays, to represent ARTS at outreach events for example.

• Serve as a Peer Recovery Specialist and peer educator to improve health outcomes for patients who enter care at ARTS Adult Outpatient Program (AOP) clinic locations in Denver, Arvada, Aurora, and/or the ARTS Medication Mobile Unit, and are identified for medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for substance use disorder (SUD).
• Use a strengths-based, patient-focused approach with patients to identify any problems or challenges.
• Conduct case management activities for patients, especially around social determinants of health such as issues of housing, transportation, Medicaid and/or Medicare enrollment, food/nutrition, access to health care, provide referrals to necessary, appropriate resources such as those offered through community/partner agencies.
• Conduct structured, Peer-led individual and group interventions that focus on health education, care coordination, identifying and reducing barriers to care for patients, and conduct outreach activities in the community in order to engage patients into SUD treatment and/or MAT treatment.
• Actively collaborate with supervisor and clinic staff to coordinate and provide timely, effective efforts to ensure successful delivery of services to patients and monitor their progress with respect to their care plan and/or treatment plan.
• Attend and actively participate in all clinic meetings, huddles, trainings, etc.
• C…