Behavioral Health Consultant

Overview

Provide behavioral health consultation as part of a primary care team to children, adolescents, adults and families in order to improve psychosocial functioning.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive assessment and diagnosis of primary care patients identified by the team as having behavioral health needs.
• Assist in the detection of “at risk” patients and development of plans to prevent further psychological or physical deterioration, identified through behavioral health screening, warm hand off from the PCP or other team members or formal referral from the primary care team.
• Assist the primary care team in developing care management processes such as the use of guidelines, disease management techniques, case management, and patient education to improve self-management of chronic disease.
• Provide assessment, consultation, and brief intervention for psychological/psychiatric problems and/or disorders.
• Provide effective treatment planning and assisting clients in successfully achieving goals.
• Evaluate crisis situations and apply appropriate interventions.
• Teach patients, families, and staff care, prevention, and treatment enhancement techniques.
• Actively participate in meetings that support the Cherokee integrated health care model adopted by VNACJ CHC to provide comprehensive care for clients.
• Monitor the site’s behavioral health program, identifying problems related to patient services and making recommendations for improvement.
• Excellent working knowledge of behavioral medicine and evidence-based treatments for medical and mental health conditions.
• Ability to work through brief patient contacts as well as to make quick and accurate clinical assessments of mental and behavioral conditions.
• Should be comfortable with the pace of primary care, working with an interdisciplinary team, and have strong communication skills.
• Good knowledge of psycho-pharmacology
• Ability to design and implement clinical pathways and protocols for treatment of selected chronic conditions.
  
  

Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Social Work required with current New Jersey LCSW licensure
• 1+ year of supervised clinical experience; community health experience preferred
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work with multiethnic and diverse socioeconomic populations
• To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of Word Processing software and be comfortable with documenting and navigating electronic health records.
  
  

EEOC

VNA Health Group provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.