Behavioral Health Consultant

Behavioral Health Consultant

Reports to Director of Behavioral Health

Background: Cahaba Medical Care Foundation is a community health center providing medical, pharmacy, dental, and behavioral health services to diverse underserved communities in Jefferson, Bibb, Perry, and Chilton counties. We are a Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home and Joint Commission accredited organization, committed to increasing integration and coordination of behavioral health and primary care. This is an exciting, fast paced practice with a strong mission and commitment to providing high quality care.

Purpose: Provide behavioral health consultation to children, adolescents, adults, and families in order to improve psychosocial functioning.

Cahaba Medical Care expects all of our licensed providers to host learners from time to time, since we are a teaching institution. This is our pipeline for recruiting excellent providers who want to serve the populations we take care of. Every student we accept applies for the chance to be here through a competitive process and is reviewed and assessed for their likelihood of working in an underserved, underresourced area in the future. We want to ensure they fit our mission. We try to give our newer providers time to get settled before adding them to our pool of available preceptors, and we offer best practices for integrating learners into your clinic without compromising efficiency.

Responsibilities:

• Provide comprehensive assessment and diagnosis of behavioral health clients.
• Provide effective treatment planning and assist clients in successfully achieving goals.
• Evaluate crisis situations and apply appropriate interventions.
• Actively participate in meetings that support Cahaba’s integrated healthcare model to provide comprehensive care for clients.
• Assist in the detection of “at risk” patients and development of plans to prevent further psychological or physical deterioration.
• Assist the primary care team in developing care management processes such as the use of guidelines, disease management techniques, case management, and patient education to improve self-management of chronic disease.
• Provide assessment, consultation, and brief intervention for psychological/psychiatric problems and/or disorders.
• Teach patients, families, and staff care, prevention, and treatment enhancement techniques.
• Monitor the site’s behavioral health program, identifying problems related to patient services and making recommendations for improvement.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Education/Experience: Masters Degree in Social Work or Counseling
• Computer Skills: To perform this job successfully, an individual should have knowledge of Word Processing software.
• Certificates and Licenses: Licensed in the State of Alabama as a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW), Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), Associate Licensed Counselor (ALC), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC); or if unlicensed, under the supervision of a LICSW, LPC, or PhD; unlicensed individuals must be registered with the Alabama Board of Social Work Examiners.

Requirements:

• Excellent working knowledge of behavioral medicine and evidence-based treatments for medical and mental health conditions.
• Ability to work through brief patient contacts and make quick and accurate clinical assessments of mental and behavioral conditions.
• Should be comfortable with the pace of primary care, working with an interdisciplinary team, and have strong communication skills.
• Good knowledge of psycho-pharmacology
• Ability to design and implement clinical pathways and protocols for the treatment of selected chronic conditions.
• past experience with the criminal justice system is preferred