Residential Lead Therapist

Description

Position Summary

The Lead Therapist is responsible for providing individual, group, and family therapy sessions for clients in The Smoky Mountain Lodge Treatment Program. The Lead Therapist will also be involved in overseeing the daily clinical operations, working directly with the Residential Clinical Director and Executive Director to facilitate and manage clinical programming, interventions, and training across designated programs. This position is responsible for assessing the therapeutic needs of the individuals and families, and for developing appropriate treatment plans. The Clinical Director acts as the primary point of contact for clients and families throughout the treatment process and serves as a client advocate with the treatment team. Position acts as a liaison with referral sources, clinical partners, and internal resources to coordinate care throughout the treatment process.

Relationships and Contacts

Within the organization:  Initiates and maintains strong professional relationships with peers, team members throughout the program, immediate supervisor, and leadership.

Outside the organization:  Initiates and maintains strong professional relationships with clients and families, clinical providers, referral partners and vendors, as needed.

Position Responsibilities

Essential Responsibilities

1. Assists with clinical program schedule creation in partnership with Clinical Director and Milieu Supervisor, ensuring robust and active clinical programming, tailored to individual client needs.
2. Provides clinical program oversite; collaborates with direct care team members, proactively shares clinical updates, provides training, education and mentorship as needed.
3. Conducts specialized groups based on education, training, and experience; supervises or co-leads groups with staff or interns when appropriate.
4. Conducts weekly individual and family therapy sessions for assigned caseload.
5. Monitors behavioral interventions for clients and provides skills coaching, as needed.

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2. Completes psychosocial evaluations, treatment plans, contact logs, discharge plans and other reports required for each client in compliance with State and accrediting bodies quality guidelines and payor source guidelines.
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5. Selects appropriate interventions to meet the clinical needs of individual clients.
6. Maintains therapeutic relationship with clients using praise and other reinforcers to encourage appropriate behaviors and attitudes; sets limits and hold boundaries in a kind and firm manner.
7. Utilizes effective verbal crisis intervention and de-escalation, involving other staff as needed.
8. Collaborates with an interdisciplinary team to coordinate client care from admission through discharge.
9. Attends weekly clinical, consultation and operations meetings as needed and requested; present cases to be discussed as pre-assigned.
10. Completes documentation in a timely and accurate manner reflecting ongoing assessment of client’s clinical presentation and behaviors.
11. Communicates client progress with the referral source, family, parent, or guardian informed of treatment goals and plans, as appropriate.
12. Documents in accordance with policies and procedures services provided, incident reports, shift reports, or department reports in a timely and accurate manner.
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14. Leverages defined referral process to build relationships with new referents and engages in collaboration with referents.
15. Addresses clients, visitors, physicians, and co-workers in a pleasant and respectful manner.
16. Responds to clients and families with empathy and positive professional skills.
17. Identifies and reports abuse/neglect in client population.
18. Provides support to team members; navigates complex and/or difficult communication situations in an honest, accurate, and respectful manner.
19. Leads treatment team meetings and collaborates with UR team to ensure documentation meets standards necessary to meet client’s level of care, as needed and requested.
20. Completes suicide risk assessments, identifies high risk clients, and develops safety plans as needed based on assessments.
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Additional Responsibilities

1. Can be relied upon to be at work as scheduled and is rarely absent from work, notifying the supervisor if absent.
2. Provides support to the facility in the event of crisis during nonworking hours, as needed. 
3. Demonstrates an ability to adapt to changes in the facility function, management styles, and facility routines.
4. Reads, understands, and adheres to all company policy statements on ethics, conduct, and conflict of interests.
5. Adheres to facility policies, procedures, rules, and regulations, implementing regularly.
6. Maintains positive attitude and acts as a team player with others on the team.
7. Attends all trainings within assigned time frames as required by the facility.
8. Adheres to standards for clinical programming related to licensure, accreditation, and payor contracts; participates in continuous PI.
9. Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements

Education and Experience

Position requires a master’s degree from an accredited college or university in social work, counseling, or closely related field. Must hold or be working toward state licensure, such as LCSW, LPC, LMFT, or LMHC. Must have a minimum of two (2) years’ experience working with the mental health population.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to travel by automobile (owned and rented), air, train, and/or bus.
• Ability to travel overnight on occasion.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be required to communicate with peers/public, clients and/or vendors
• Job performance will require the ability to move throughout the building as well as sit or remain stationary for extended periods of time
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be required to talk or hear, sit, stand, walk, reach, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, taste, or smell.
• Ability to move up to 25 pounds

            Other Requirements

• Position requires a valid driver’s license, vehicle insurance and acceptable driving record. 
• Clearance of TB test, fingerprinting and state clearance, and any other mandatory state/federal requirements.
• Current CPR and First Aid certification.

Skill Competencies

• Ethics and Values – adheres to and promotes the ethics and values outlined in the company and accrediting/licensing bodies Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance. Consistently upholds and models a high level of Integrity in clinical services and team member interactions.
• Clinical Knowledge – acquires and maintains a working knowledge of current theory and evidence-based practice. Proactively seeks supervision, consultation and continuing professional development to ensure knowledge and skills are maintained relative to position and clinical program delivery.
• Cultural Competence – continuously strives to provide client-centered, culturally competent care, recognizes, and affirms cultural and linguistic diversity through therapeutic alliances and ongoing professional development.
• Screening and Assessment – engages clients and members of the client support system, as appropriate, in screening and assessment to develop individualized, client-centered, evidence-informed care plans. Leverages established screening tools for psychosocial, pain, domestic violence, substance use, self-harm, suicide, and distress assessments, among others.
• Care Planning and Intervention – develops and implements evidence-informed care plans that promote clinical excellence throughout the client-centered continuum of care. Care plans outline necessary steps, identified collaboratively with the care team, to achieve objectives identified in the biopsychosocial assessment. Leverage evidence-informed, clinically excellent treatment interventions.
• Advocacy – advocates for the needs and interest of clients and families to promotes clinical excellence through improved outcomes, access to care, and service delivery. Participates in quality improvement initiatives aimed at enhancing client outcomes and strengthening clinical service delivery.
• Interdisciplinary and Interorganizational Collaboration – promotes cross functional collaboration among team members and referral partners to support and enhance clinical service delivery and support.

Pasadena Villa Smoky Mountain Lodge provides equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, disability, gender identity, genetic information, service in the military, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. Equal employment opportunity applies to all terms and conditions of employment. Pasadena Villa Smoky Mountain Lodge reserves the rights to modify, interpret, or apply this job description in any way the organization desires. This job description in no way implies that these are the only duties, including essential duties, to be performed by the employee occupying this position.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities. This job description is not an employment contract, implied or otherwise.  The employment relationship remains “At-Will.”