Behavioral Health Clin

Summary

The Behavioral Health Clinician is responsible for providing high quality patient care, displaying effective skills in assessment, treatment planning, and counseling models and modalities to include individual, group, and family counseling. Additionally, he or she is expected to assist with care coordination and discharge planning to access patients needed medical, psychiatric, social, educational, vocational, and other supports essential to meet their basic needs.

The Behavioral Health Clinician also performs direct and indirect patient care activities for mental health patients, including duties in support of the delivery of psychiatric nursing care and assists in the milieu management to ensure a safe, therapeutic environment for patients and staff.

• Provide comprehensive assessments to identify cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning and risk assessment, using a biopsychosocial approach.
• Identify disposition decisions, determining the appropriate level of care for each patient.
• Attend treatment team huddles and coordinate care in close collaboration with other treatment team members (i.e., physician, psychiatrist, nurse, community service board clinician, case manager, etc.).
• Complete clinical formulations to include diagnosis and treatment approach, taking the lead on and providing input to a patient’s Individual Service Plan (ISP).
• Complete progress notes on interventions conducted and patient response. This includes daily documentation of patient mental status, behaviors, activities, and incidents.
• Stimulate patients’ interest and cooperation in various individual and group activities and therapeutic interventions.
• Engage patients at their level of functioning with recreation, movement, art, music, psychoeducation, and/or other empirically supported therapeutic intervention.
• Utilize effective strategies for the management of emotional and behavioral crises.
• Provide appropriate crisis intervention as necessary by anticipating and responding quickly to escalating behaviors, utilizing de‑escalation techniques to diffuse the situation, correctly prioritizing safety concerns, following proper restraint technique guidelines, and displaying neutral emotions.
• Use appropriate counseling skills to include active listening skills, appropriate voice tone, and volume of voice, providing a high frequency and variety of positive reinforcements, maintaining appropriate boundaries, and promoting a positive peer culture.
• Positively utilize feedback regarding performance and use supervision to improve performance.
• Attend required hospital‑wide orientations, meetings, and in‑services.
• Take responsibility for ongoing professional growth and development; maintain current facility competencies and annual competencies.
• Bring to Behavioral Health manager and Charge Nurse’s attention significant issues related to the special issues presented by mental health care.
• Complete petitions for emergency custody order or temporary detention orders, if deemed necessary and coordinate with local community service board clinicians. Assist physicians in navigating the medical temporary detention orders, when needed.
• Link behavioral health patients to services and supports specified in their Individualized Service Plan.
• Assist the individual directly for the purpose of locating, developing, or obtaining needed services and resources.
• Coordinate services and service planning with families, other agencies, and providers involved with the individual.
• Enhance community integration by contacting other entities to arrange community access and involvement, including opportunities to learn community living skills, and use vocational, civic, and recreational services.
• Make collateral contacts with the individuals’ significant others to promote implementation of the service plan and community adjustment.
• Engage in timely, efficient discharge planning.
• Work in close conjunction with patient, family, nursing staff, attending physician, and referral sources.
• Demonstrate knowledge of referral/placement process and available community resources.
• Communicate effectively with families and agencies conveying…