Social Worker | Center for Jewish Mental Health

PURPOSE:

The Jewish Board’s Community Behavioral Health treatment programs provide compassionate, high-quality, evidence-based services to individuals and families. The Center for Jewish Mental Health is a specialty unit within the Seymour Askin Counseling Center/Brooklyn CCBHC that offers outpatient mental health care through a culturally responsive Jewish lens. The program serves clients across New York’s diverse Jewish communities, including those seeking support related to Jewish communal, family, cultural, grief, trauma, immigration, intimate partner violence, or other clinically relevant experiences.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

This position provides outpatient clinical services within the Center for Jewish Mental Health, an Article 31 OMH-certified MHOTRS clinic in the Seymour Askin Counseling Center/Brooklyn CCBHC. The social worker will carry a caseload and provide assessment, treatment planning, psychotherapy, crisis intervention, care coordination, and documentation in accordance with agency and regulatory standards. Services are evidence-based, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive, with attention to Jewish identity, culture, family and community life, religious experience, antisemitism, grief, trauma, domestic violence, immigration-related stressors, relationship concerns, and other clinically relevant needs. The role requires strong clinical judgment, comfort working with clients from diverse Jewish backgrounds and levels of observance, and collaboration with internal programs, community partners, and referral sources.

KEY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS :

• Conduct comprehensive evaluations, psychosocial assessments, and risk assessments for clients referred to the Center for Jewish Mental Health.
• Develop, review, and update treatment plans in collaboration with clients and, when clinically appropriate, family members or other supports.
• Provide culturally responsive individual, couples, family, group, collateral, and crisis services to clients served through the Center for Jewish Mental Health.
• Integrate Jewish cultural context into assessment and treatment when clinically appropriate, while maintaining a client-centered, non-assumptive, and respectful approach.
• Work effectively with clients across a broad spectrum of Jewish identity, background, affiliation, observance, language, family structure, and community experience.
• Provide clinical care for presenting concerns that may include anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and bereavement, intimate partner violence, immigration-related stressors, family or religious conflict, relationship concerns, and adjustment or life transitions.
• Coordinate care with psychiatric providers, medical providers, schools, community agencies, Jewish communal partners, and other collateral supports as clinically indicated.
• Collaborate with OneCall, CIAD, Jewish Community Services, Lev Initiative, bereavement services, psychiatric services, care coordination, and other internal partners to support appropriate referrals, assignments, and continuity of care.
• Participate in clinical meetings, staff meetings, CJMH/Jewish Services team consultation, required trainings, and supervision.
• Maintain timely, accurate documentation according to standards and time frames established by The Jewish Board, Article 31/OMH, CCBHC, payer, regulatory, and funding requirements.
• Maintain professional behaviors and ethical standards as established by licensing boards, relevant professional associations, and Jewish Board policies and procedures.
• Support timely access to care by accepting appropriate referrals, maintaining an active caseload, and meeting expected productivity and kept-visit standards.
• Other duties as assigned.

ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS MAY INCLUDE:

• Attending case conferences as needed
• Maintaining a steady and active caseload
• Meeting the minimum expectations for kept visits

EDUCATIONAL / TRAINING REQUIRED:

• Master’s degree in counseling, creative arts, or social work from an accredited program AND a New York State License or limited permit in Mental Health Counseling (LMHC); Creative Arts Therapy (LCAT), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) or social work (LMSW) required.  

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED / LANGUAGE PREFERENCE

• Experience providing outpatient mental health treatment in a clinic, community behavioral health, or comparable setting preferred.
• Experience working with Jewish clients, Jewish communal settings, or culturally specific mental health services preferred.
• Demonstrated cultural humility and understanding of Jewish communal life, including Orthodox, traditional, secular, immigrant, Russian-speaking, Hebrew-speaking, and other diverse Jewish communities.
• Ability to provide culturally responsive care without stereotyping or making assumptions about clients’ beliefs, practices, gender roles, family systems, or community expectations.
• Comfort discussing sensitive topics that may intersect with Jewish identity, including religious conflict, family/community pressure, antisemitism, grief, trauma, intimate partner violence, sexuality/gender-related concerns, and disclosure-related concerns.
• Ability to build trust with clients who may be hesitant to seek mental health treatment due to stigma, privacy concerns, communal visibility, or prior negative experiences.
• Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, Ukrainian, or other language capacity relevant to New York City’s Jewish communities preferred.

COMPUTER SKILLS REQUIRED:

• Experience with documenting in electronic health records and using Microsoft Office software
• Experience with tele mental health platforms a plus

VISUAL AND MANUAL DEXIERITY:

The candidate should be able to read paper and electronic documents and perform significant data entry into various computer programs

WORK ENVIRONMENT / PHYSICAL EFFORT

Hybrid work setting. Position entails a combination of in-person and remote work, with in-person services based primarily at the Seymour Askin Counseling Center in Brooklyn and remote/telehealth services as clinically and operationally appropriate. Allocation of time and locations will be developed in collaboration with program leadership and based on the needs of the program and clients served. Travel may be required between program locations, Jewish Board sites, and community partner settings as needed.