Behavioral Health Therapist

As part of the behavioral health telehub team, the Behavioral Health Therapist (BHT) identifies, assesses, triages, documents and manages patients who are in crisis and/or need follow up care due to medical and behavioral health problems. The BHT will utilize safety planning and suicide management, along with skill training through psycho-education and patient education strategies to develop patient self-management, and will develop specific behavioral change plans for patients using best practice and brief evidence based treatment interventions.

The BHT is a core member of the collaborative team, including the patient's emergency department or inpatient medical providers, psychiatrists, Community Mental Health staff, as well as the primary care teams. The BHT is responsible for supporting and coordinating the mental and physical health care of patients in the ED and on an assigned caseload, while also providing crisis intervention and short-term therapy for patients in urgent need of same day contact.

• (30%) Assesses the clinical status of patients referred by ED providers, inpatient providers and primary care providers due to mental health crisis. Assists in the detection of "at risk" patients and intervenes to attenuate further psychological or physical deterioration. Provides de-escalation and crisis intervention, and addresses opportunities for intervention. Assists providers in decision making regarding appropriate levels of care. Consults with the physician as necessary and refers cases to other behavioral health providers for longer term care as appropriate.
  
  Provides, facilitates and ensures patient engagement and follow-up care after crisis has stabilized. Works with primary care team to treat and manage patients with chronic emotional and/or physical health problems efficiently and effectively. Provides brief tele-behavioral interventions using evidence-based techniques. Assists in preventing suicides and relapse in conditions that tend to recur over time. Provides on-call services to the EDs to cover overnights and other times when teammates are not directly working.
• (30%) Uses brief assessment tools with patients to assist in identifying concerns, triaging, and outcomes measurement. Systematically documents treatment response and monitors patients (via tele-therapy) for changes in clinical symptoms and treatment side effects or complications. Connects with new and established patients regarding crisis plans and ongoing stabilization post crisis. Evaluates patient care plans and develops appropriate goals for behavioral health conditions and handoff to ongoing care.
  
  Performs coding/billing following appropriate guidelines.
• (20%) Assist in program development and process improvement. Curates knowledge of best practice to share with others on the team. Obtains and keeps available patient education materials about common mental health and substance use disorders and local available treatment options for distribution and education of patients and their family.
• (20%) Tracks patient follow up and clinical outcomes using a registry. Documents encounters in the registry and uses the system to identify and re-engage patients. Documents patient progress and treatment recommendations in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) and other required systems to be shared with medical providers, psychiatric consultants and other treating professionals.

• Eliminate barriers to treatment, increase patient/family satisfaction, and improve appropriate utilization of resources.
• Facilitate referrals for clinically indicated services outside of the health system (e.g., social services such as housing assistance, vocational rehabilitation, mental health specialty care, substance abuse treatment).
• Identify the need for and conduct family meetings, with or without the physician, that result in understanding, comfort, decision-making, and other important outcomes.
• Build professional relationships with patient, families, facilities and resources to address conflict resolution with positive outcomes.
• Summarize a patient and family situation concisely, with helpful guidance to…