Senior Psychiatric Social Worker

Continuous Exam # 25/60B25/06MJ SUMMARY OF POSITION

Monterey County Health Department's Behavioral Health Bureau (MCBH) seeks experienced behavioral health professionals to fill several vacancies at the Senior Psychiatric Social Worker (Sr. PSW) level.

The Behavioral Health Bureau is a progressive agency that serves children, youth, adults, and their families with System of Care values of being community based, culturally relevant, client and family centered and using evidence-based practices to support clients in the wellness and recovery of their mental illness and substance use challenges. The Behavioral Health Bureau currently has Senior Psychiatric Social Worker vacancies in Access to Treatment (ACCESS), the Adult System of Care (ASOC), the Children’s System of Care (CSOC), and the Quality Division in both Substance Use Disorder Services and Quality Improvement.

Access to Treatment clinics are entry points into services and provide an array of clinical services for individuals of all ages who are seeking to get connected to services for mental health and substance use issues that are impacting their ability to function in work, home, school, social and community settings. Services include screening, assessment, crisis intervention, individual and group therapy, linkage and referral to community resources as well as the Children and Adult Systems of Care.

Adult System of Care provides a wide range of comprehensive integrated care to adults/older adults (18+ years of age) with serious mental illness, co-occurring substance use, and other complex issues. The multidisciplinary teams work together to provide an array of services including but not limited to psychosocial rehabilitation, individual and group therapy, strength-based case management, crisis intervention, family support and community integration.

Clinical teams are based out of the outpatient regional clinics in Marina, Salinas, Soledad, and King City.

Children's System of Care provides an array of clinical services from birth to 25 years of age and their families. Clinical teams include Early Childhood Services, Transition Age Youth (TAY), Post Hospitalization Support, as well as clinical teams that partner with the Child Welfare, Education and Juvenile Probation systems.

Team responds to calls for crisis support and provides brief crisis intervention, de‑escalation, triage, risk/safety assessment, safety planning, referral and linkage to individuals and families experiencing behavioral health crisis in the community. This team seeks to provide support to stabilize the situation in the community to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and divert from emergency resources (hospital/jail) when appropriate while providing linkage to ongoing care as needed.

Team works with justice involved adults (18+ years of age) some of whom are re‑entering society after a period of incarceration (jail/prison) and transitioning to community‑based services to meet their mental health and substance use disorder treatment needs. Clients may be participating in one of the Collaborative Court or Diversion programs, CARE Act (Care Court) or referred to services through Post Release Community Supervision or the Cal AIM Justice Involved Behavioral Health Linkages Initiative.

Quality Division plays a central role in maintaining the highest standards of care within Monterey County Behavioral Health by implementing a comprehensive range of quality assurance and improvement activities that support the functionality, effectiveness, and compliance of specialty mental health and substance use services. Teams are responsible for conducting thorough program utilization reviews to assess service delivery quality, identify areas for improvement, and ensure adherence to regulatory standards.

In addition to oversight and compliance, the Quality Division Teams develop and refine policies that align with federal and state guidelines. They also design and deliver targeted training sessions and provide ongoing support to Monterey…