Mental Health Specialist; ACSW) Garden Grove, CA

At Healthcare in Action, we serve patients experiencing homelessness through an innovative “street medicine” approach by contracting with Medicare and Medicaid health plans as well as hospitals and health systems. Street medicine entails using a medically equipped van to deliver medical care directly to people experiencing homelessness in locations such as parking lots, encampments, and parks.

The Garden Grove Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) is a co-response program operated by Healthcare in Action (HIA) in partnership with the City of Garden Grove and the Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD), delivering mobile mental health and crisis stabilization services in the field. The program provides eight hours of coverage per day, seven days per week, through two field teams, each pairing an EMT with an associate-level behavioral health clinician—an Associate Clinical Social Worker (ACSW), Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT), or Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC)—who has prior crisis or field-based behavioral health experience.

The Mental Health Specialist serves as the behavioral health clinician on a two-person MCRT field team, working alongside an EMT to respond to crisis calls with GGPD. Once GGPD clears the scene, the clinician leads the crisis assessment, de-escalation, suicide risk assessment, and crisis counseling; triages the individual’s needs; connects them to appropriate services; and completes timely, accurate documentation of each response.

The clinician works under the clinical supervision of the LCSW Supervisor, including supervision toward licensure.

• Conduct crisis assessment, triage, and behavioral health evaluation of individuals in the field once GGPD has cleared the scene.
• Lead de-escalation and provide crisis counseling to individuals experiencing mental health and/or substance use crises, both housed and unhoused.
• Perform suicide and violence risk assessment and safety planning, determining when an individual requires a higher level of care.
• Connect individuals to appropriate services, including HIA’s street medicine team, a community provider, the CAT team, or the Department of Mental Health (DMH), and safely and appropriately transfer care to the receiving provider, including hospital staff, crisis stabilization units, or other mental health facilities, through documented warm handoffs.
• Partner with the EMT on scene safety, maintaining communication with GGPD and approaching individuals only after GGPD clears the scene.
• Complete timely, accurate documentation of each response, including assessments, dispositions, and follow-up, in the applicable systems, and support program reporting requirements.
• Operate within the approved scope of work, observing program boundaries (no involuntary holds, no transport of individuals in program vehicles) and escalating to the CAT team, Police, or DMH when an involuntary hold or higher level of care is needed.
• Escalate to GGPD if a safety concern arises in the field or at a receiving facility, and escalates clinically complex or high-risk cases to the LCSW Supervisor.
• Consult the LCSW Supervisor on cases during the weekdays and the on-call clinicians (advanced practice provider and back-up physician) as needed on weekends; participate in clinical supervision toward licensure, joint training, and case conferencing during midweek overlap activities.
• Protect confidential information by following all HIPAA regulations; actively support the achievement of SCAN’s and HIA’s Vision and Goals; and perform other duties as assigned.

• Master’s Degree in Social Work, Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, or a related behavioral health field
• Active registration with the California Board of…