Juvenile Services Counselor

SALARY: $60,000 minimum, compensable on experience

The purpose of this position is to provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning and well-being of juveniles and families. This is accomplished by providing counseling and education services to juveniles and families as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

• Provides counseling services for youth and families who are referred by the courts and Probation Officers to participate in a variety of educational, supportive or recovery-oriented programs.
• Conducts thorough substance abuse screening; intakes; orientation; bio-psychosocial assessments and screenings of potential clients. Initiates social services assessments; gathers social histories and other required treatment documentation.
• Facilitates group, individual and family counseling sessions; provides efficient comprehension of various counseling theories; maintains records for program participants; maintains responsibility for required documentation and confidentiality of client records.
• Counsels youth under the department's supervision, and their families, while juveniles are receiving inpatient services in residential placement settings.
• Coordinates Family Preservation services as needed for youth engaged in both outpatient and inpatient programming.
• Participates in the Community Resource Coordination Group (CRCG) staffings and serves as the Juvenile Services CRCG representative.
• Attends staff meetings as needed; attends placement visits with Probation Officer and conducts family sessions and home visits; maintains familiarity with community services for referrals or continuum of care; provides information and referral services; maintains client confidentiality; protects clients' rights.
• Formulates individual clinical plans/treatment plans for client services, which may include individual; family; group psychotherapy; delivery of evidence based on clinical strategies and crisis intervention.
• Develops discharge summaries and plans.
• Responsible for client case management; defines goals; special outcomes and time frames for individuals and family treatment plans; provides individual and family counseling relevant to work with target probationary period; assists families with meeting basic needs by linking families with community resources.
• Identifies and screens clients for groups; develops and implements evidence based curriculum; generates group documentation; facilitates parent education and support groups.
• Provides crisis intervention services; needs assessments; discusses situations and normalizes situations with families; defuses crisis situations.
• Completes required reports; manages programs and counseling budget; staffs cases with multi-disciplinary team; maintains timely and thorough case/client records; program statistics; maintains record of contact hours; conducts follow-up status calls; attends and documents continuing education units as required for licensing.
• Maintains timely progress notes in JCMS reflecting movement towards goals and objectives; provides monthly progress reports to Probation Officers.
• Presents information to the public and at colleges and at conferences.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

This position has no supervisory responsibility or budget responsibility.

• Knowledge of principles of juvenile law;
  Texas Juvenile Justice Department standards;
  Texas Family Code;
  Code of Criminal Procedure, Education Code and Texas Penal Code.
• Knowledge of applicable State and Federal rules, codes and regulations and County policies and procedures.
• Knowledge of principles, techniques, procedures and trends related to juvenile probation case work;
  State laws, rules, regulations procedures and techniques involved in the preparation of case records and related documents.
• Ability to create legal, professional and technical correspondence; read legal documents and extract relevant information; plan, prioritize and carry out assignments with minimum supervision; demonstrate effective interpersonal relationships by assisting others in solving problems.
• Experience…