Healthysteps Specialist

MAJOR FUNCTION

The HealthySteps Specialist is an early child development expert who will join the pediatric primary care team at Henry J Austin Health Center to provide interventions, referrals, and follow-up for families with patients ages 0-3. The HealthySteps Specialist builds strong relationships with families and providers to increase the efficiency of the medical system and support team-based comprehensive care.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Requirements

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:

·       Master’s degree in psychology, social work, counseling, early childhood education, or related field highly preferred

·       Experience and knowledge about early childhood growth and development, parent-child relational health, infant and early childhood mental health, and family systems

LICENSURE AND/OR CERTIFICATIONS:

·       Clinically licensed mental health professional preferred

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES AND OTHER (KSAO’s)

·       Competency—knowledge, skills and abilities

·       Excellent oral and written communication skills

·       Commitment to working with underserved populations in a community setting

·       Empathic, supportive, and patient

·       Strong motivational interviewing skills

·       Ability to work with people of many backgrounds and cultures

·       Ability to take initiative and a willingness to learn

·       Ability to work well in teams and independently

·       Ability to collect and enter data for program management, evaluation, and reporting purposes.

·       Interest in the use of technology to improve care quality a plus. Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.

·       “Grace under pressure” with the ability to multitask and triage/juggle multiple appointments and conflicting priorities

·       Comfort with an open-door policy, potentially frequent interruptions, and warm hand offs

·       Flexibility in communication: able to switch between being on the floor playing with young patients and communicating with medical professionals regarding mental health interventions in a professional, coherent, and efficient manner

·       Ability to tolerate isolation as the HS Specialist may be the only behavioral health professional on site.

·       “Professional backbone,” confidence, and assertiveness with providers and colleagues (shaping appropriate referrals, etc.)

·       Reflectiveness, insight, and curiosity about oneself

PHYSICAL & WORK REQUIREMENTS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

This position requires the manual dexterity sufficient to operate phones, computers and other office equipment.  The position requires the physical ability to kneel, bend, and perform light lifting.  This person must have the ability to write and speak clearly using the English language to convey information and be able to hear at normal speaking levels both in person and over the telephone.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.  Generally, the working conditions are good with little or no exposure to extremes in health, safety hazards and/or hazardous materials.