Clinician - Community Group Care

About the Role
We are currently seeking a Full-Time Clinician to join our Community Group Care Programs. These out-of-home care programs provide safe, supportive, and structured living environments for children who require developmentally responsive treatment within a structured 24/7 milieu. These programs focus on meeting day-to-day needs, promoting stability, supporting healthy relationships, helping children and young people build skills that contribute to their overall well-being.

This position will primarily support children under the age of 12 within community-based out-of-home care settings, with some opportunity to support a small number of clients over 12 based on program needs. The role focuses on providing developmentally responsive clinical support, promoting stability and connection, collaborating with caregivers and service partners, and helping to create consistent, caring environments that support each child or young person’s well-being and plan for care.

• Children may present with significant difficulty in daily functioning, emotional regulation, school engagement, peer relationships, family connection, adaptive functioning, and safe participation in routine activities.
• Clinical work often includes developmentally aligned singe session therapy, clinical conceptualization and formulation, therapeutic intervention, caregiver engagement, transition planning, and consultation to staff who are supporting children through high acuity moments in the milieu.
• Each program’s approach is grounded in trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, family-centred, culturally responsive, and connection-focused care, with attention to the Foundations of Caregiver Support themes of trauma-informed care, child development, and grief and loss.

The Clinician plays a key role in helping the team understand what each child’s behaviour may be communicating, how developmental history and trauma shape current functioning, and what supports are needed to help the child move toward greater safety, regulation, connection, and identify client’s placement needs. This includes supporting staff to apply clinical approaches consistently in the daily milieu, and working closely with caregivers, Child Intervention Practitioners, school partners, nursing, psychiatry, Indigenous supports, and other community professionals.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide direct clinical treatment to children and families through single session or brief solution focused individual, family, group, and milieu-based intervention, with a focus on regulation, attachment, grief and loss, trauma recovery, caregiver capacity, and safe relational repair.
• Provide clinical conceptualizations that translate assessment findings, historic behaviour and current behaviour into practical treatment goals and recommendations.
• Provide ongoing clinical consultation to frontline staff and leadership to support consistent, developmentally appropriate responses to dysregulation, aggression, impulsivity, attachment-seeking behaviours, grief responses, and other complex presentations.
• Work collaboratively with caregivers, kinship supports, foster caregivers, Child Intervention Practitioners, school partners, nursing, psychiatry, Indigenous supports, and community providers to strengthen continuity of care and treatment alignment.
• Support school functioning and transition planning by integrating academic, psychoeducational, behavioural, and clinical information into treatment and discharge planning.
• Work closely with Children and Family Services Placement Team to provide clinically and developmentally appropriate insight into client functioning and identify clients strengths to inform future placement. Attend and present clients to Children and Family Services Therapeutic Campus Based care panel and information sharing meetings with potential placement teams.
• Assess level of risk for clients referred to the program, work collaboratively with Children and Family Services and program leadership to complete pre-admission risk assessments to assess for level of risk to self and others in a verity of categories including but not limited to self-harm, suicidal ideation, substance use and physical aggression towards others.
• Complete High Risk Behavioural Management Plans for clients upon admission and update plans as needed to accurately reflect the client’s risk to self and others and clearly identify the programs response plan.
• Maintain accurate, timely clinical records in accordance with case management expectations, professional standards, and program reporting requirements.
• Deliver or support staff learning related to clinical formulation, trauma-informed care, child development, attachment, grief and loss, safety planning, restorative practice, and reflective supervision.
• Participate in continuous quality improvement, outcome review, case consultation, and other specialized projects that strengthen clinical practice within the Under 12 Programs and broader group care continuum.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

What You Bring

• Master’s degree in Social Work, Psychology, Occupational Therapy, or a related clinical discipline.
• Licensed in accordance with the Health Professions Act and able to provide services in accordance with professional standards, guidelines, and ethics.
• Current proof of professional registration will be required
• Clinical experience with children under 12 who present with complex trauma, attachment disruption, emotional and behavioral dysregulation, grief and loss, developmental delays, neurodiversity, mental health concerns, or placement instability.
• Strong understanding of child development, developmental trauma, family systems, caregiver capacity, and the clinical needs of children living in out-of-home treatment settings.
• A valid Alberta Class 5 or Class 5 GDL driver’s license, your own vehicle, automobile insurance with $2 million liability coverage, and a driver’s abstract with no more than six demerits
• Ability to work in community-based and non-traditional settings, including environments that may involve emotional intensity, conflict, crisis, or rapidly changing circumstances.
• Comfort supporting clients with significant barriers to engagement while maintaining professional boundaries, emotional resilience, and self-awareness.
• Personal suitability for the role is an important consideration, including the ability to remain reflective, steady, relational, and collaborative in complex clinical and operational contexts.

Who Will Thrive Here

You are a grounded, creative, and relational clinician who can bring structure and sound judgment while remaining flexible, curious, and responsive. You are comfortable working outside a traditional office setting and alongside clients whose needs may be complex, layered, and difficult to engage. You can help teams make sense of behaviour through a clinical lens and translate that understanding into practical, compassionate, and consistent support. Most importantly, you want your work to help young people experience greater safety, connection, stability, and participation in family, school, and community life.