Crisis Outreach Specialist

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Job Type

Full-time

Days Off: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Shift: Day (7:00am - 5:30pm)

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

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

DESC (Downtown Emergency Service Center) is a nonprofit organization working to help people with the complex needs of homelessness, substance use disorders, and serious mental illness achieve their highest potential for health and well-being through comprehensive services, treatment, and housing. Our vision is a community where no person is abandoned, ignored, or experiencing homelessness.

As the region's leading provider of services to multiply disabled adults who have experienced chronic homelessness, DESC serves almost 3,000 people each day. Our integrated service model is designed to help people secure and maintain appropriate, safe and affordable housing. DESC is recognized nationally and regionally as an innovator in developing solutions to homelessness.

The Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Team (MRRCT or “Meerkat”) at DESC, is a county funded program responsible for addressing the imminent and emergent needs of community members in crisis, in the central region of King County primarily covering the entirety of Seattle. The DESC team has been providing mobile crisis response services to the community for well over a decade.

As a nonprofit with over 45 years of experience focused on serving our community’s adults living with long histories of homelessness, behavioral health, and other disabling conditions, DESC is uniquely positioned to connect people in crisis to the important support and survival services they may need to overcome and prevent future occurrences of crisis, behavioral health distress, or other instabilities in our community.

As a member of DESC's Mobile Rapid Response Crisis Team, you will be on the front lines responding to adults in the community experiencing mental health or substance use crises, as dispatched to us by Crisis Connections (988). You will work in a team alongside other skilled colleagues, including Mental Health Professionals and Certified Peer Counselors. Once called into action, teams of two will assist individuals responding to wherever they are in the community in identifying appropriate therapeutic options and next steps to resolve their crisis, while avoiding unnecessary usage of emergency rooms or other non-therapeutic settings like jail.

We are working to stop the trend of criminalizing mental health disabilities and homelessness, and we want to make sure individuals in crisis get the help they need. Following our initial interaction, our teams will also follow up to ensure recommended service connections have been made to prevent future crisis events. The team works all throughout the central region of King County, primarily Seattle, in a wide variety of community settings every day throughout the year, and in all types of weather.

• In response to and cooperation with Crisis Connections and other referents (such as police, fire, medics), perform timely outreach services to individuals needing crisis intervention services, assessment, referral, and linkage to needed services.
• As a member of a multi-disciplinary team, conduct meaningful engagement to provide observation for multi-axial assessments, and substance use disorder assessments.
• Engage in crisis intervention, stabilization, and related activities.
• Establish and implement a plan to successfully engage clients in relevant services and other resources.
• As needed, provide follow-up services aimed at establishing linkage to services for program participants.
• Complete all data collection and documentation required.
• Develop and maintain cooperative relationships with programs providing services for the population served.
• Comply with all agency policies and procedures, and relevant titles of the Washington Administrative Code and Revised Code of Washington.
• Advocate for clients' access to community resources and services, ensuring that clients' needs are met and rights maintained; consult and collaborate with community providers to ensure continuity of care.
• Participate in psychiatric consultation, supervision, program meetings and in service trainings; participate in clinical reviews and case conferences for clients on caseload.
• Provide support to other DESC staff and programs around client crisis situations, including consultation and in-person responses to help assess and prevent emerging crisis events.
• Participate in verbal de-escalation and be able and willing to assist other staff as needed to maintain a safe, secure environment.
• Other duties as assigned.