Counselor II

About Casa Esperanza

Casa Esperanza, Inc. is a bilingual/bicultural behavioral health treatment provider serving Boston and the Merrimack Valley. Our mission is to empower individuals and families to recover from addiction, trauma, mental illness, and other chronic medical conditions; overcome homelessness and discrimination; and achieve health and wellness through comprehensive, integrated care.

About the Program

Casa’s Conexiones Individualized Treatment Services is an integrated Acute Treatment Services/Clinical 
Stabilization Services (ATS-Detox/CSS) program that supports individuals from medically monitored withdrawal management through clinical stabilization and works to transition patients to ongoing care in the community. This model provides increased support for individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders that have had unsuccessful previous treatment. Staff take a personalized approach to meet each patient’s needs and help them develop a treatment plan so they can thrive in the community. Our goal is to stabilize and support patients as they move forward in their recovery.

Conexiones is a 32-bed inpatient facility located on the campus of Tewksbury Hospital. Our care plans integrate the CSS and ATS-Detox services tailored to individual needs.

About the role

The Conexiones (ATS/CSS) program includes education and counseling regarding the nature of addiction, relapse prevention, and aftercare for clients with mental health, substance use, or dual diagnosis issues.

As part of the Casa Esperanza, Inc. integrated care team, the ATS/CSS Counselor provides services in a fully integrated, holistic, and collaborative manner using a team-treatment approach to ensure the coordination of all client services, both across Casa programs and with external providers. This integrated model aims to facilitate clear communication amongst all providers and eliminate duplication of efforts or conflicting approaches to care, follow-up, and assignments, and ensure wrap-around support services are in place to maximize treatment effectiveness and clinical outcomes.

What you'll do

 Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Greet new clients and create a welcome, comfortable atmosphere for them
• Establishes orientation, session and follow-up appointments with patient
• Acts as primary counselor and point of contact for both internal and external collaborators
• Provide high-quality, compassionate care in a culturally responsive manner
• Completes a needs assessment including risk and safety planning
• Ensures evidence-based practices are appropriate per patient diagnosis and assessed needs
• Maintains and adheres to all confidentiality and HIPAA 42 CFR laws
• Communicates professionally and effectively with colleagues, collateral contacts, supervisors, etc. regarding client care, both verbally and in written formats
• Complete assessments utilizing the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria to make clinical recommendations regarding appropriate levels of treatment
• Conduct substance use screening and overdose assessment
• Interviews clients, reviews records, and confers with other professionals to evaluate the condition of the client.
• Completes a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment of the client
• Shares responsibility for therapeutic, educational, and other group programming
• Facilitate clinical sessions, discuss relevant issues, and prepare a treatment plan in consultation with the resident
• Facilitate a variety of groups ranging from relapse prevention to other evidence-based topics regarding health and wellness in recovery
• Participates in care management for patient needs, including case management and referral services
• Provides client education around symptom management in an individual and group setting
• Completes intake enrollment as needed
• Counsels clients individually and/or in family and in group sessions to assist clients in achieving treatment goals under the direction of the Clinical Supervisor
• Prepares and maintains reports and case histories in accordance with agency guidelines for format, timeliness, and quality assurance
• Enter client data into paper and electronic records in a timely manner as outlined in program policies
• Maintains all regulatory and licensing guidelines around clinical workflows
• Manages client crises and de-escalation techniques in a holistic, trauma-informed approach
• Respond promptly to client needs
• Completes extension authorizations and clinical reviews with insurance and payers
• Complete discharge notes and client disenrollment forms to close cases upon client discharge
• Attend staff meetings and supervision sessions
• Participates in multidisciplinary team meetings
• Acts as liaison and advocate for patient needs
• Maintains milieu management and comprehensive clinical interventions in crisis response.
• All other related duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Substance Abuse Counseling Certificate Program or a bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, or a related field and experience in substance use treatment (required)
• CAC, CADC, LADC, or LADC-II (required)
• Bilingual English/Spanish (preferred)
• Minimum of 5 years working in a substance use therapy program
• Must demonstrate ability to relate to a substance use treatment population in a sensitive manner and an interest and willingness to work in a multicultural setting
• Have a sense of compassion, patience, and empathy
• Proficient with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office
• Must display use of appropriate independent judgment to determine the appropriate course of action in resolving problems and in emergencies.
• Must be able to express self adequately in written and oral communication and to communicate effectively in an interdisciplinary, culturally diverse setting with clients, families, staff, and regulatory agencies.
• Must share a customer service orientation
• Manages difficult or emotional client situations
• Responds promptly to client needs
• Focuses on solving conflict, not blaming
• Maintains confidentiality
• Knowledge of relevant community resources for continuing care/aftercare placement. Describe the role and team the candidate will be joining

What we offer:

Casa Esperanza Benefits Package:

• Compensation: $24.52 - $30.00/hour
• 401(k) Retirement Plan: All eligible employees may elect to participate after 1 year of service. Casa Esperanza, Inc. will match a contribution of up to 6% of your annual salary
• Holiday Pay (12 days per year + 1 floating holiday)
• Paid Time Off (PTO)—18 days year one, 20.5 days in year two, 23 days in year five
• Sick Pay—10 paid days per year
• Long/Short-Term Disability 
• Paid by Company Life Insurance
• Health Insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision)
• Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
• FSA/DCA (Flexible Spending Account & Dependent Care)
• ComPsych Guidance Resources - EAP
• Educational Opportunities
• Tuition Remission
• Employee Ticket at Work (Discounts for Entertainment, Travel, Movies, etc.)
• Career Advancement Opportunities
• Increased Salary for Credentials
• and more...

Physical & Mental Requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to walk, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include distance vision, peripheral vision, and depth perception.