Program Specialist

Position Announcement

Program Specialist

Salary Grade: 23

Salary: $80,721 - $ 83,493

The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. is seeking one (1) qualified candidate to fill the full-time position of Program Specialist in the Bureau of Mental Health within the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The Division of Mental Hygiene is responsible for developing, procuring, and monitoring contracts with community agencies and hospitals to ensure that New York City residents - particularly children, adolescents, and adults with behavioral health concerns - have access to a wide network of mental hygiene treatment programs and support services. The Division also conducts needs assessments and epidemiological analyses, creates annual plans for the state, develops and implements policy and programmatic initiatives, and evaluates the performance of the mental hygiene system.

The Bureau of Mental Health's (BMH) mission is to improve mental health and wellness for people in New York City, and to eliminate racial and other long-standing societal disparities by providing services, resources, and opportunities to New Yorkers that are grounded in accurate, data driven information that foster community participation, thus reducing the stigma around mental health. This includes procuring and monitoring more than 500 contracted programs that provide mental health treatment, psychiatric rehabilitation, supportive housing, care coordination and advocacy services: and operating court- mandated Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT), Single Point of Access (SPOA) for mobile treatment and care coordination, and the NYC Supportive Treatment and Recovery Team (NYCSTART) for people with first episode psychosis.

We aim to become an anti-racist government bureau and a more collaborative community partner to our contracted provider agencies by supporting neighborhood resilience, community decision making authority, and community ownership. We've started by acknowledging that systemic and structural racism exists in public health and mental health more specifically. Our goal is to address and redress the impact of historical and current discriminatory policies, implicit bias and unjust practices embedded in the mental health system and in our work, decisions, interactions, and priorities.

The Bureau of Mental Health seeks a Program Specialist who will work in the Office of Housing Services to provide oversight, consultation and technical assistance to public and voluntary agencies providing supportive housing services by contract or in agreement with NYC DOHMH.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

Under the direction of the Supervisor of the Office of Housing Services the Program Specialist will efficiently plan and develop mental hygiene services in supportive housing which ensures that quality services are aligned with the Department, Division and Bureau goals.

Specifically, the chosen candidate will:

• Manage oversight of programs in assigned portfolio and provide coverage as needed.
• Conduct ongoing site visits to assess and review the quality of program services and provide technical assistance. This includes observation and assessment in person, by telephone and in writing of a program's quality, effectiveness, and outcomes to inform both policy and programmatic decisions.
• Address and respond to questions, concerns and complaints from agencies, programs, consumers, and the public.
• Review and discuss programmatic audits and fiscal issues as necessary.
• Refer, provide and/or coordinate meetings and trainings to address program needs.
• Review and negotiate program budget for optimal program performance.
• Develop, evaluate, and revise scopes of service for programs to ensure alignment with Bureau expectations and goals including recovery-orientation, competency in serving individuals with co-occurring disorders, and alignment with relevant State and Federal standards and statutes.
• Assist in the negotiation of contracts or MOUs between the Department, public and voluntary agencies.
• Act as liaison to government and interagency committees and represent DOHMH professionally at meetings, conferences, and workgroups.
• Draft reports and correspondence on behalf of the Office and assist with the preparation of reports on agency functioning and service delivery as requested.
• Undertake and /or participate in special projects to evaluate and improve the quality of services, operations and needs of the public.
• Develop and implement surveys, questionnaires, or other surveillance methods, identify potential data sources, and analyze new and existing data sets to inform program planning and evaluation activities.
• Conduct proposal review and evaluation.

Minimum Requirements:

1. Graduation from an accredited graduate school of social work as evidenced by a master's degree or certificate.
2. Three years of full-time paid experience in public health, medical or psychiatric social work, at least two years of which must have been in a supervisory, administrative, or consultative capacity.

Preferred Skills:

The ideal candidate will:

• Have experience as a provider of services to homeless or formerly homeless person and persons with a serious mental illness and/or a substance use disorder.
• Have experience working with young adults who have had episodes of homelessness.

Work Location: 42-09 28th Street, Queens, New York 11101

Salary: Commensurate with experience

To Apply: Submit an application through our website at https://rfmh.applicantpro.com/jobs/. Please note only applications submitted through our website will be considered.

The Mission of the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. (RFMH) is to promote the mental health of all New Yorkers, with a focus on providing hope and supporting recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances. Applicants with lived mental health experience are encouraged to apply. RFMH is deeply committed to supporting underserved individuals, organizations, and communities. To this end, RFMH is focused on implementing activities and initiatives to reduce disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes for underserved populations. A critical component of these efforts is ensuring that RFMH is a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees' unique attributes and skills are valued and utilized to support the mission of the Agency. RFMH is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

The Research Foundation is a private not-for-profit corporation and is not an agency or instrumentality of the State of New York. Employees of the Research Foundation are not state employees, do not participate in any state retirement system, and do not receive state fringe benefits. Excellent Benefits Package. Employer/Minority/Women/Disabled/Veteran Employer. VEVRAA 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) compliant.