Crisis Intervention Team Specialist

Crisis Intervention Team Specialist

Job Code: CITSPEC - 113

Revision Date: June 29, 2023

Starting Salary: $20.50 hourly; $42,636 annually

FLSA: Non‑Exempt

We are an agency committed to innovative behavioral health services in trauma‑informed care that promote healing and recovery to instill a sense of empowerment and foster a lifelong sense of resilience.

The position of CIT Specialist is a Crisis Intervention Team assignment where you will be partnered with a police officer assigned from the El Paso Police Department, a deputy with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, or an officer with the Socorro Police Department that will respond to mental health crisis calls throughout the community and will offer crisis intervention, stabilization, and assessment services while in the field.

This unit is operational 24 h a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Work involves developing short‑term contact with clients, client families, and service providers for medical, social, educational, and related service needs.

This class works independently, under limited supervision, reporting major activities through periodic meetings.

• Staff all screenings with Administrator on Duty, the clinician, and/or Practitioner on call to provide the most appropriate disposition based on the client’s individual needs, using least restrictive environment to stabilize the individual.
• Respond to mental health community crisis calls.
• Provide on‑ and off‑site face‑to‑face, emergency screening assessments and rapid crisis intervention and crisis management.
• Communicate disposition to the manager on shift and the Crisis Hotline for on‑ and off‑site assessments. Assist the mental‑health response police officer in transporting consumers to service facilities when required.
• Link consumer to immediate crisis stabilization and intervention services under the Crisis & Emergency Services division when required.
• Provide client‑tailored community referrals and linkage to assist the client in meeting individual needs and psychosocial requirements, including psychiatric needs.
• If inpatient stabilization is needed, provide ongoing coordination with psychiatric facilities.
• Document any service delivery, intervention conducted, communication with others (including outside‑agency personnel) with rationale for intervention, date, time, name of person spoken to, and purpose.
• Review clinical documentation for quality, completeness, and timeliness.
• Acquire and maintain credentialing requirements at all times.
• Comply with all additional unit trainings as designated by unit and center management.
• Exemplify teamwork through good communication, cooperation, respect and dignity toward clients, co‑workers, collaborating agency staff, outside agency personnel, and EHN staff.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requires a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Social Sciences or a related behavioral field, supplemented by two (2) years of direct casework/case management experience; or possession of any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience which provides the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Experience with trauma‑informed services; cognitive‑behavioral therapies, including Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT); and motivational therapies including the use of incentives, preferred.

Knowledge of trauma‑informed theories, principles, and practices (includes multi‑faceted understanding of concepts such as community trauma, intergenerational and historical trauma, parallel processes, and universal precautions), preferred.

This is field work where EHN staff will be assigned with a police officer. While in the field there may be physical demands beyond what is required in a typical office environment. The employee may be required to respond physically in the following manner: rapid physical response to protect oneself, strenuous physical exertion resulting from an altercation or exigent circumstance, running and/or sprinting, assuming a bodily‑defensive posture, and the need to exercise PMAB response measures.

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