Bilingual Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician

Overview

Bilingual Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician #322 role at Life Works NW. The BHC works as a member of the primary care team to provide patient-centered, whole-person care to an underserved population in Washington and Yamhill counties, delivering same-day access to behavioral health services including consultations, assessments, brief interventions, and education. The BHC uses a biopsychosocial approach with the patient, the primary care provider, and other team members to develop targeted treatment plans tailored to the patient’s needs, goals, and readiness for change.

This position is based out of Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center (VGMHC) Beaverton, OR clinic.

Pay: $31.76 starting hourly pay with full benefits.
Differential: additional $2.00 per hour for bilingual Spanish proficiency.
Annual differential: $10,000 once licensure is obtained. Eligible for National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan forgiveness program once licensure is obtained.

• Provides comprehensive assessment and DSM diagnosis (as applicable) of primary care patients in brief (15-30 minutes) integrated healthcare setting consultations.
• Provides effective treatment planning to help patients achieve their goals.
• Assists the primary care team in developing care management processes, including guidelines, disease management techniques, case management, patient education, and motivational interviewing to improve self-management of chronic disease.
• Provides behavioral health consultation to primary care providers, residents, psychiatrists, SUD case managers, care coordinators, nurses, community health workers, and medical support staff.
• Works with medical staff to manage crisis situations.
• May assist Behavioral Health Leadership in training staff on behavioral health topics, including prevention and management of disruptive behavior.
• May serve as project lead on programs with metrics for population-based health.
• Completes and maintains patient records in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) per legal/ethical standards and VGMHC requirements.
• Supports MH staff and primary care team to deliver BH services at the top of licensure.
• Identifies patients who benefit from specialty mental health care and makes referrals to onsite or offsite community resources.
• May carry a caseload of ongoing specialty mental health services, with a varied mix of mental health services and health and behavior interventions based on credentials and site.
• Provides back-up for other staff when needed.
• Maintains awareness of community referral resources and facilitates culturally appropriate advocacy and collaboration.
• May require some evening work.
• Licensure supervision may be requested as part of regular duties in compliance with licensing board rules.

• Licensed or unlicensed master's level clinician (e.g., CSWA, RA, PsyD, LCSW, LPC). If unlicensed, willingness to register with the respective board and progress toward licensure;
  Lifeworks NW will provide licensure supervision.
• Fluency in Spanish and experience with Latinx communities.
• Strong teamwork, communication, and collaboration skills; ability to share patient information with team members and support decisions across departments.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds and education levels.
• Ability to adapt to the fast pace of primary care and provide a high volume of brief, effective patient and provider consultations, while accommodating interruptions and tailoring interventions to the patient’s context.
• Willingness to think creatively to apply behavior change and trauma-informed care to improve health outcomes for patients who may not engage in traditional psychotherapy.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct a biopsychosocial assessment to determine appropriate services.
• Knowledge of treatment methods for individual, family, and group therapy, including motivational interviewing, CBT, DBT, FACT, and solution-focused therapy.
• Ability to maintain case management.
• Knowledge of medications commonly used by the patient population.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook and electronic health records…