Certified Peer Specialist

Job Description:

Job Title:
Certified Peer Specialist

Location:
Independence, Missouri (Kansas City area)
Department:
Recovery Services

Employment Type:
Full Time

Job Summary:

Are you a passionate and dedicated mental health professional looking to make a positive impact in the lives of children and adolescents? Do you want to work in a supportive and dynamic environment where you can grow your skills and advance your career? Join our team at Burrell Behavioral Health as a Certified Peer Specialist in the Kansas City, Missouri area!

Our Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) provide recovery-focused support to individuals experiencing mental health challenges. Drawing upon their personal experience with mental illness, CPSs offer hope, inspiration, and guidance to those seeking to manage symptoms, navigate complex systems, and reclaim their lives. Key job duties of a CPS include empowering individuals to recognize their strengths, set goals, and make informed choices; advocating on behalf of consumers to improve systems and policies;

providing emotional support through active listening, validation, and shared experiences; offering crisis intervention when necessary; teaching practical skills like problem-solving, communication, stress management, symptom management, and relapse prevention; linking individuals to community resources; guiding individuals through complex service systems; modeling a recovery-oriented perspective centered around wellness, self-determination, and person-centered planning; exhibiting cultural competency; and adhering to strict ethical standards. By combining their own experiences with formal training, CPSs play a critical role in fostering growth, independence, and recovery among people navigating mental health challenges.

Position Perks & Benefits:

• Employee benefits package - health, dental, vision, retirement, life, & more
• Paid time off - 29 days per year including vacation & holiday pay
• Mileage reimbursement - company paid for work functions requiring travel
• Top-notch training - initial, ongoing, comprehensive, and supportive
• Career mobility - advancement opportunities/promoting from within
• Welcoming, warm, supportive - a work culture & environment that promotes your well-being, values you as a human being, and encourages your health and happiness

Key Responsibilities:

• Empowerment:
  Helping individuals with mental illness recognize their strengths, set goals, and make informed decisions about their lives.
• Advocacy:
  Supporting individuals in advocating for themselves and accessing needed resources and services, while also advocating on behalf of consumers to improve systems and policies.
• Emotional Support:
  Providing emotional support through active listening, validation, encouragement, and sharing personal experiences in ways that inspire hope and resilience.
• Crisis Intervention:
  Assisting individuals during crises, helping de-escalate situations, connecting them to appropriate services, and supporting coping skills development.
• Skill Building:
  Teaching practical skills like problem solving, communication, stress management, symptom management, and relapse prevention.
• Resource Connection:
  Connecting individuals to relevant community resources, such as housing, employment, education, vocational training, transportation, financial assistance, and peer support groups.
• System Navigation:
  Guiding individuals through complex service systems, explaining options and benefits, facilitating appointments, and accompanying individuals to meetings with service providers.
• Recovery Model Promotion:
  Encouraging a recovery-oriented philosophy focused on wellness, self-determination, and person-centered planning.
• Ethical Standards:
  Adhering to ethical guidelines and codes of conduct, safeguarding privacy, obtaining consent, avoiding dual relationships, and practicing self-care.

Education and/or Experience

Qualifications:

• Must be a Certified Missouri Peer Specialist with at least a high school diploma or GED.
• Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals.
• Ability to write routine reports and correspondence.
• Ability to communicate effectively before groups of clients, employees of the organization, family members, and other contacts in the community.
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
• Ability to apply common-sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral or diagram form.
• Ability to deal with problems involving several concrete variables in standardized situations.
• Shall successfully complete all mandatory continuing education to maintain certificate and successfully complete CPR, First Aid, and CPI Training.
• Shall be able to establish effective relationships via telephone and personal contacts.
• Shall be able to follow direction and accept supervision.
• Shall have the ability to work with a variety of human problems and the competence to handle crisis…