Social Worker​/Release Planner

Position Summary

Empower Lives, Evoke Change:
Join Our Public Health Social Work Team Today! Jail Health Services (JHS), a division of Public Health – Seattle & King County, is actively seeking four (4) career service compassionate Social Worker (Release Planner) positions to join our dedicated Social Services section. In this dynamic, multidisciplinary healthcare team, you will play a crucial role in assisting individuals to access resources for healthier and more meaningful lives.

• Facilitate referrals and connect individuals to medical care, behavioral health treatment, and various benefits and social services.
• Work to eliminate barriers by providing support such as medication, transportation, cell phones, clothing, and assistance with benefit activation upon release.
• Apply equity and social justice principles and practices and understand the effects of place, race, policy, and systems‑based oppression for people experiencing legal involvement, housing instability, economic insecurity, substance use, and mental health conditions.
• Provide culturally sensitive bio‑psychosocial‑legal evaluation to assess the legal context, biological, psychological, and social factors in order to inform a patient‑centered release plan.
• Conduct clinical interviewing, ensuring the patient feels heard, respected, and supported while navigating noise and distractions and remaining culturally mindful.
• Assess, plan, coordinate, implement, track, and evaluate services and resources to ensure successful referrals and linkages for individuals at time of release for a full caseload with complex needs.
• Coordinate with a diverse team of legal, medical, mental health, and social service providers to ensure seamless release care.
• Implement personalized release plans that facilitate a smooth transition from custody to the community.
• Maintain accurate and up‑to‑date case records, document interventions, progress, and outcomes, and report patient status to support effective case management in the electronic health record.

• Master’s degree in social work, psychology, or counseling from an accredited university or equivalent.
• State of Washington associate license (LMHCA, LMFTA, LICSWA, LSWAA) or recognized equivalent, or ability to apply for licensed agency‑affiliated counselor (LAAC) within 30 days of employment.
• Two (2) years of full‑time work experience (within the last 5 years) in a counseling, social work, or case management capacity with adult populations experiencing severe and persistent behavioral health conditions.
• One (1) year of full‑time work experience (within the last 5 years) providing psychosocial assessment and managing a caseload where you routinely coordinated medical, mental health, substance use, and other social services.
• One (1) year of full‑time work experience (within the last 5 years) in a counseling, social work, or case management capacity in King, Snohomish, or Pierce County, or ability to demonstrate knowledge of local social and behavioral health services.
• Experience coordinating with the criminal legal system.
• Knowledge of specific challenges, trauma responses, behaviors, and needs for people experiencing legal involvement, housing instability, economic insecurity, substance use disorder, and mental health conditions compounded by discrimination and systemic oppression.
• Pass a security clearance and/or background check to secure access to the jails.
• Proficiency in personal computers, with working knowledge of MS Word, MS Excel, database programs, Internet, cell phones, Outlook, and electronic health record.
• Ability to travel to various sites within Seattle‑King County.

• Bilingual/ bicultural or individuals with diverse backgrounds, including people with lived experience with behavioral health and recovery, incarceration, houselessness, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ communities.
• Experience coordinating medical, mental health, substance use, and other social service resources in King County for Medicaid‑eligible adults.
• Experience coordinating with the criminal legal system in King, Pierce, or Snohomish (courts, defense attorneys, prosecution, probation,…