Behavioral Health Support Specialist

Full Time | Hourly

Birch Grove Health Center

We’re committed to compassionate care for all. Our patients. Our employees. You.

At La Clinica, we love our patients and enthusiastically treat them with the same care, respect, and dignity that we would our friends, family, and neighbors because that's who they are. If this appeals to you, La Clinica might be the right place to build your career. We’re looking for the right team members to treat our patients with this level of care.

We extend our commitment to compassionate care to our employees as well. We invest in our employees' lives through competitive pay, comprehensive benefits packages, easy access to wellness, and personal and professional development.

We are seeking a Behavioral Health Support Specialist (BHSS) for our Birch Grove Health Center where we provide primary care services to people with significant mental health and substance use needs that often require care coordination and support to be successful in staying engaged in healthcare. As a BHSS, your primary responsibility is to assist patients in achieving their goals and improving their overall well‑being.

You will work closely with patients to provide support and guidance for goal‑setting and help them access community resources that will help remove barriers that prevent them from reaching their goals.

As part of the primary care team, BHSS team members work closely with the primary care provider, nurse, medical assistant, Behavioral Health Clinician, and other team members targeting behavioral health needs to include the mental health and substance use challenges of our patient population. At Birch Grove, our care team works closely with embedded partners from other mental health and substance use treatment organizations and this role is responsible for close care coordination and collaboration with these and other community partners foster patient wellness and satisfaction in a warm, therapeutic, and respectful manner.

We are dedicated to the primary care behavioral health (PCBH) integration model and support early learner Behavioral Health Support Specialists by offering:

• Support towards obtaining a QMHA certification
• Monthly training/clinical support
• Offerings to shadow both internal and external continuum of care service providers

• Supports patient and team in identifying and advocating for referral to behavioral health‑specific services (internal or external). Provides ongoing follow‑up support in‑person or by telephone to support patient‑identified goals. Identifies when patients may need more intensive case‑management support and refers patients to community partners when indicated (i.e. MH intensive case management support).
• Screens and provides intervention for a variety of health screenings (i.e. PHQ, SBIRT, GAD, etc.)
• Provides coaching to patients with a variety of health conditions with a targeted focus on patients who have behavioral health needs.
• Refers patients with behavioral health needs to BHCs for assessment and intervention and follows care plans providing supportive interventions as identified by BHC team members.
• Screens and provides intervention to a person at risk for suicide, or domestic violence, creates safety plans, consults, and collaborates with BHCs and PCPs on interventions and referrals to appropriate services.
• Assists PCPs and BHCs in delivery of group visits. Responsible for collaborating on group facilitation and curriculum development for group visits.
• Utilizes motivational interviewing to assess patient readiness to change.
• Utilizes a trauma‑informed care practice of engagement with patients; for example, asking a patient, 'What’s happened to you?' rather than, 'What’s wrong with you?'
• Ensures clear concise documentation in EPIC within scope of practice and in alignment with organizational policies.
• Participates in care team huddles, discipline‑specific team meetings, and monthly case consultation meetings.

• Minimum:
  High School Diploma
• Excellent interpersonal communication and problem‑solving skills
• Skills to intervene and promote reconciliation, compromise, and positive outcomes in difficult interactions.
• Registers or is working…