Community Response Specialist

Job Details

Job Location:

Hartford, CT 06120

Position Type:
Per Diem

Education Level: Graduate Degree

Travel Percentage:
Yes, travel required

Job Shift: Day

Community Response Specialist

Clinical Services

Non-Exempt

Lead Community Response Specialist

The Community Response Specialist is an integrated peer specialist and case manager who is responsible for responding to crisis calls. In nature, these calls will have an inherent high risk associated with them as individuals may be suffering from mental health and/or substance use. He/she is to serve as a liaison/link/intermediary between health/social services and the community to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.

This position is responsible for being a trusted member of the community, where they can be engaged to provide psychosocial support to participants who were at increased need for an array of community-based harm reduction services. The general duties are to develop authentic peer-to-peer relationships to promote recovery, referrals to appropriate treatment resources and supports, and, to promote safety for persons in crisis.

All activities are designed to be consistent with CRT’s Salesforce ISP service model, based on educating and empowering individuals for self- advocacy and to make self-identified changes in their lives with reducing need for emergency services.

This position is considered as an essential employee and will be expected to work during inclement weather, holiday and based on business needs.

• Respond to crisis calls and/or referrals.
• Perform outreach activities and prevention education to foster good community relations, educate about program services and assess needs in Hartford neighborhoods where there is high crime and utilization of 911 for crisis intervention.
• Engage high-risk, hard to reach people who struggle with mental health, drug use, or engage in sex work.
• Identify potential recruitment locations. Engage in dialogue with participants and other community members to continually improve our services and ensure that CRT is operating its sites and engaging in outreach activities in the best locations at the best times.
• Culturally appropriate harm reduction, health promotion, and health education such as safer sex and safer drug use education. This also includes distribution of harm reduction supplies such as syringes (and collection of used syringes) and other health-related resources and tools in accordance with public health regulations.
• In a manner consistent with Harm Reduction principles, provide substance use and sexual risk assessments and discuss individualized risk reduction and harm reduction strategies (including safer injection practices; safer sex practices; overdose prevention and reversal; drug use management techniques; HIV, HCV and STI prevention; and other topics relevant to people who use drugs, or participate in other high-risk behaviors).
• Manage a caseload of program participants and provide low-threshold referrals and connect participants with medical care, substance use and mental health treatment, and other life-stabilizing services.
• Solicit and track feedback from participants to ensure that the agencies to which we refer are effective and treat participants with respect and in a manner appropriate to harm reduction programs. This includes, helping connect to schedule appointments to identified service/resource.
• Emphasizes person-centered, recovery-oriented approaches and interventions
• Prepares participants to recognize and respond to various mental health and addiction crises, including trauma; develop…