Clinician (LCSW, LPC, LMFT) - PHP Child and Adolescent

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The Institute of Living, one of the first mental health centers in the U.S., remains one of America’s leading not-for-profit centers for patient care, research and education in the fields of behavioral, psychiatric and addiction disorder. Through our dedicated, experienced and skilled clinicians, we provide patients and their families with the highest quality of personalized care. Programs are offered for children, adolescents and adults struggling with mental illness as well as offering services specializing in Anxiety, Eating Disorders, and Geriatric Services.

Job Summary

The clinician is a core member of an interdisciplinary Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) serving adolescents ages 13–17, as well as 18-year-olds who remain enrolled in high school, who are experiencing early psychosis.

The clinician conducts group therapy, maintains a primary caseload of eight patients, and provides brief individual check-ins and family sessions. The clinician works closely with the program psychiatrist, caseworker, patients, families, schools, outpatient providers, and community supports to provide coordinated, developmentally appropriate, recovery-oriented care.

This position requires excellent communication, strong clinical judgment, and the ability to engage adolescents and families who may be uncertain about treatment, have limited insight, or experience difficulty participating consistently.

Job Responsibilities

• Conducts comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments that include psychiatric symptoms, functioning, developmental and educational history, family and social supports, substance use, trauma history, health-related social needs, barriers to care, and patient strengths.
• Maintains a primary caseload of eight patients and serves as the primary clinician for assigned patients throughout their participation in the program.
• Develops, monitors, and regularly updates individualized treatment plans based on each patient’s clinical needs, developmental stage, personal goals, family system, cultural context, educational needs, level of functioning, and response to treatment.
• Plans and conducts group therapy for adolescents with varying levels of engagement, insight, verbal participation, cognitive organization, and symptom severity.
• Provides brief individual check-ins and targeted clinical interventions using developmentally appropriate, evidence-informed approaches.
• Conducts family sessions focused on education, communication, treatment engagement, safety, recovery, and supporting the adolescent’s functioning at home, in school, and in the community.
• Provides education to patients and families regarding psychosis, recovery, treatment, substance use, sleep, stress vulnerability, early warning signs, relapse prevention, and available supports.
• Uses flexible and creative engagement strategies with adolescents who may be guarded, withdrawn, reluctant to participate, or uncertain about the need for treatment.
• Assesses suicide risk, violence risk, vulnerability, self-care capacity, substance-related risk, and psychiatric deterioration; develops and updates safety plans; provides crisis intervention; and collaborates with the psychiatrist to determine when emergency evaluation or a different level of care may be needed.
• Collaborates closely and maintains consistent, timely, and proactive communication with the program psychiatrist, caseworker, and other team members regarding assessment, treatment planning, clinical progress, treatment engagement, safety concerns, family needs, barriers to care, transitions, and follow-up needs.
• Assists with school collaboration as clinically indicated, including communication regarding attendance, educational functioning, school reentry, and appropriate supports or accommodations. Collaborates with the treatment team and other providers to promote continuity of care, with appropriate consent.
• Participates with the interdisciplinary team in determining appropriateness for admission, continued intensive outpatient treatment, transition, or referral to another level of care, and coordinates discharge planning and referrals to appropriate services.
• Maintains timely, accurate, and patient-centered documentation of assessments, treatment plans, group and individual interventions, family sessions, risk assessments, collateral contacts, care coordination, and discharge planning.
• Participates actively in interdisciplinary team meetings, case conferences, clinical supervision, quality-improvement activities, staff education, program development, and the continued development of programming responsive to the needs of adolescents experiencing early psychosis.
• Contributes to a therapeutic, respectful, collaborative, and safe program environment.
• May provide supervision to clinical trainees when professionally qualified and assigned to do so.

• Master's Degree in Social Work, or Counseling, or Marriage and Family Therapy or Related Human Service Field
• LCSW, LPC, LMFT

• Previous experience in a healthcare setting

   

• Ability to assess problems, determine solutions and make decisions within a timely manner
• Utilize supervision and team approaches in the context of patient assessment and clinical interventions
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to establish relationships within and outside their entity
• Demonstrates competencies, including knowledge and behaviors, to meet age specific patient needs.
• Focused on personal, patient/client and unit/staff safety 
• Assumes responsibility for self-improvement by identifying, communicating and seeking resources or instruction/validation to meet own learning needs, and is self-directed in maintaining currency of validations, certifications, licensure and training.
• Is cognizant of health-related social needs and cultural competence. Recognizes and addresses health disparities-inequalities and injustices directed toward clients, related to access to care and provision of health services.
• Develops and maintains cultural competence with an understanding of the history, traditions, values, and family systems of client groups as relates to health care and decision-making. Displays sensitivity to and awareness of the diversity in cultural groups and integrates this knowledge into their practice.
• Computer proficient
• Valid Driver's License

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with adolescents experiencing early psychosis, first-episode psychosis, or other serious psychiatric conditions is preferred but not required. The successful candidate must demonstrate an interest in this population and a willingness to learn and develop competency in the assessment and treatment of early psychosis.
• Experience in an intensive outpatient, partial-hospital, or other multidisciplinary treatment program.
• Experience providing group therapy and family-based interventions.
• Familiarity with evidence-based or evidence-informed approaches used in early-psychosis treatment.
   

We take great care of careers.

 As a Hartford HealthCare entity, The Hartford Hospital Institute of Living provides eligible employees with an extensive benefits package and all the benefits of working in a thriving centrally located urban community:

• Medical and dental benefits
• 401(k) plan with employer match
• Generous paid time off with accrual starting on the date of hire
• Additional voluntary benefits as well as employee discount programs
• Located on the Institute of Living’s historic park-like grounds designed by Frederick Law Ohlmsted

With locations around the state, Hartford HealthCare offers exciting opportunities for career development and growth.  Here, you are part of an organization on the cutting edge – helping to bring new technologies, breakthrough treatments and community education to countless men, women and children.  We know that a thriving organization starts with thriving employees-- we provide a competitive benefits program designed to ensure work/life balance.  Every moment matters.  And this is your moment.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action employer, the organization will not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, and veteran or disability status.