Peer Specialist​/Case Manager - PACT

Peer Specialist / Case Manager – PACT

Job Type: Full-time

Shift: Office Day (8AM – 4PM), with one evening shift 12PM-8PM.

Days off: Sunday, Monday

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

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

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.

A member of the Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) team, the Peer Specialist has experience as a recipient of mental health services for severe and persistent mental illness and is willing to use and share their personal, lived, and practical experience, knowledge, and first‑hand insight to benefit the team and its participants. The Peer Specialist provides expertise about the recovery process, advocacy, symptom management, and the persistence required by participants to have a satisfying life.

The PACT Team provides services in participants' homes/community at least 75% of the time. All members of the team are expected to work with participants in a variety of shared functions. This team is designed to work with individuals who have experienced chronic or multiple episodes of severe mental illness, co‑occurring substance use disorders and possibly homelessness. These individuals have either been unable or unwilling to participate and succeed in traditional treatment settings.

Therefore, it is critical that the members of this team work together in a collaborative manner that eliminates many traditional treatment borders and barriers. PACT team members interact with enrolled clients in a variety of settings: private homes, supportive housing, day centers, emergency shelters, jails, hospitals, and in the community.

Due to the extended hours the PACT team operates, some staff, including the Peer Specialist, will work at least one weekend day in their weekly schedule and rotate holiday shifts. Team members also participate in on‑call rotations to provide 24‑hour crisis coverage – one staff and one supervisor will be on‑call at any given time to ensure back‑up coverage and safety while doing crisis work.

Condition of employment for each individual hired into a Peer position is to have an active Washington State Certified Peer Support Specialist license.

• Provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate participants’ experiences and to provide guidance and encouragement to actively participate in their own recovery.
• Serve as a mentor to participants to promote hope and empowerment.
• Act as an interpreter to help non‑mental health participant team members better understand and empathize with each participant’s unique and subjective experience and perceptions.
• Provide expertise and consultation from a mental health participant perspective to the team concerning participants’ experiences on symptoms of mental illness, the effects and side‑effects of medications, participants’ responses to and opinions of treatment, and participants’ experiences of recovery.
• Help participants identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and develop strategies to reduce self‑stigma.
• Help other…