Peer Specialist

Job Type

Full-time

Days Off:
Saturday, Sunday

Shift: Day (8:00PM - 4:00PM)

Insurance Benefits:
Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage) , Dental, Life, Long-term Disability

Other Benefits:
Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), ORCA card subsidy, Paid Time Off (34 days per year), Retirement Plan

Union Representation:
This position is a part of a union and is represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW

Recognized nationally as an innovator and leader in developing solutions to homelessness, DESC is a social services organization, supportive housing operator, and licensed behavioral health treatment provider focused on meeting the needs of people experiencing long-term homelessness and living with complex behavioral health and other medical conditions. Approximately 3,000 people are actively receiving services from DESC at any given point in time.

Our vision is a community where all people are shown compassion, treated with dignity, and everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.

DESC operates five shelter/emergency housing programs,19 permanent supportive housing facilities with over 1,750 units, several hundred additional scattered site apartments, and a range of behavioral health services including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment, residential crisis stabilization, street outreach, mobile crisis response, and treatment for opioid use disorder.

The Peer Specialist/Counselor at DESC's Pioneer Square Clinic is responsible for running the Lew Middleton Drop-In Center for individuals experiencing severe and persistent mental illnesses in partnership with two other Peer Specialists, community volunteers, client volunteers and a Peer Supervisor. The position carries a caseload of 15 clients and partners with multi-disciplinary teams, both internally and externally, to support client care and recovery work.

Peer specialists/counselors are individuals who self-identify as persons with mental illness, substance use disorder or lived experience with their own recovery. They are well established in their own recovery and provide expertise that professional training cannot replicate. Through shared understanding, respect, and mutual empowerment this position will help people become and stay engaged in the recovery process and focus on reducing the likelihood of relapse.

Peer specialists/counselors provide consultation to the team to promote a culture in which each client's point of view and preferences are recognized, understood, respected and integrated into treatment, recovery and community self-help activities.

Peer Counselor is a temporary position available to qualified individuals who have not yet obtained Washington State Peer Counselor certification. The goal for each individual hired into this position is to complete the Washington State Peer Counselor Training and obtain certification within 1 year of employment ting this goal will enable Peer Counselors to move into the Certified Peer Specialist position.

• Assist with monitoring and day-to-day operations of the Lew Middleton Drop-In Center.
• Participate as a member of a multi-disciplinary team providing outreach, engagement and support of on-going case management services to housed and homeless adults experiencing severe and persistent mental illness and/or co-occurring disorders.
• Integrate personal experience with mental illness into work with program participants.
• Utilize a recovery-based approach to assist consumers to reach their fullest potential.
• Assist case managers in coordinating consumer supports and linkage. This includes facilitating access to food, clothing, hygiene services, medical care, community resources and services.
• Plan and facilitate consumer meetings with the purpose of eliciting consumer input regarding mental health program performance and to assure the consumer perspective is well-understood and reported back to the team and the Recovery Plan Review Group.
• Participate in the Bar Review Committee, crisis intervention and safety management tasks.
• Assist consumers with voicing their interests and goals through a variety of channels including Goal Plans, Crisis Plans, WRAP and other methods of expressing individual preference for their recovery goals.
• Participate in the planning, organizing and co-facilitating of self-help and educational group treatment services for consumers served by the mental health…