Program Assistant; Mental Health

Overview

This support member to the Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) multidisciplinary team is responsible for organizing, coordinating, and monitoring all nonclinical operations of PACT under the direction of the Team Leader; providing receptionist activities, including triaging calls, coordinating communication between the team and persons served, deescalating situations with persons served who have increases of symptomatology, and assisting persons served, their families, and agencies to get answers to questions;

maintaining accounting and budget records for persons served and program expenditures; and operating and coordinating the management information system.

The essential job duties/responsibilities of the position include but are not limited to the information listed below:

• Prepare the monthly staff work schedule and recommend and revise policies and procedures pertaining to these schedules in collaboration with the Team Leader.
• Maintain staff schedules for the Team Leader and On-Call schedules.
• Maintain and review with the Team Leader the program support budget for operation of the PACT facility and assure that all purchases of supplies and equipment remain within that budget.
• Order and maintain unit supplies, equipment, and furniture; and arrange for repair of office furniture and equipment.
• Assist nurses in ordering medication for persons served from pharmacies according to Massachusetts state regulations.
• Record admissions and discharges to provide a source of information for statistical reports.
• Maintain PACT persons served records according to the standards of Vinfen and the purchasing agencies; including the following: set up records for newly admitted persons served; file materials in persons served charts and files to assure current, accurate information is available; and monitor PACT clinical records in coordination with the Team Leader, to assure that they are being maintained in accordance with PACT policies and procedures.
• Inform and consult with PACT staff for the proper maintenance of PACT records and conduct in‑service training for PACT staff regarding chart requirements.
• Update and maintain a policies and procedures manual to assure that current and accurate information is available to staff.
• Prepare letters, memos, and reports.
• Prepare letters to request medical records and persons served authorizations and maintain log of requests and records received.
• Maintain expenditure spreadsheets for contingency funds and persons served monthly rental assistance.
• Design and maintain forms to obtain and maintain insurance information regarding all PACT persons served.
• Collect necessary data and prepare reports.
• Sort, route, and prioritize incoming mail with distribution to appropriate staff.
• Greet people at the PACT headquarters and answer telephone calls, including performing the following: (1) triage and coordinate communication between the team and persons served; (2) get answers to questions for persons served, families, community resources, and agencies; (3) work with callers to relieve urgent situations or to temporarily manage them until other staff are available; (4) attend to symptomatic behavior (shouting and pacing) of persons served who come into the PACT office for appointments with staff or of those who come in without a clear purpose (persons without something to do or who come in because of distress);
  
  and (5) decide when and how quickly to refer calls to other staff.
• Assess and report clinical behaviors and information (such as poor self‑care, medical problems, and increased overt symptoms such as agitation) that are out of the ordinary for that particular person served.
• Manage and operate a system to disperse money to persons served according to individual persons served budgets in accordance as representative payee for PACT.
• Communicate with landlords regarding persons served rental agreements and payment of rent as appropriate.
• Operate and coordinate the information technology, telephone, and copier systems for the program.
• Perform other related duties, as required.

• Sensitivity to cultural, religious, racial, disability, and…