As part of the Wellness and Holistic Addiction Medicine Clinic, the Behavioral Health Counselor (BHC) works in close collaboration with addiction medicine, primary care, and specialty providers to deliver compassionate, trauma-informed care to patients with complex behavioral health and substance use needs.  Using a harm-reduction framework, the counselor provides evidence-based interventions aimed at helping patients manage their relationships with substances and alcohol. This role involves assessing patients' readiness for change and addressing the emotional, psychological, and social challenges often associated with substance use disorders.

The counselor is an active member of the multidisciplinary team to support holistic care of all patients.  In a dynamic, community-focused clinic environment, the counselor plays an integral role to support patients therapeutically, as they navigate and define their unique recovery journeys, through exploration of all areas of their lives. Additionally, the role includes a strong focus on harm reduction, overdose prevention, and educating patients and the community about appropriate responses to substance-related crises.

• Provide assessments, screening, and intervention services as an essential member of the interdisciplinary care team, through collaboration with the primary care and/or specialty providers to identify, treat, and manage patient behavioral health that is primarily affected by patients’ substance and alcohol use.
• Consult and collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to provide integrated on-site care, by counselor assessment of patients’ goals, readiness for behavioral changes, progress and barriers, and appropriate level of care/ services for patients with MH/substance use disorders, with high proportion of caseloads on medications for treatment of alcohol and opioid use disorders (MAT/MOUD).
• Provide trauma-informed, person-centered care, with harm reduction approach, within collaborative addiction recovery team, and in conjunction with patients primary, specialty, acute, chronic, and preventative care.
• Provide psychoeducation around recovery models, overdose prevention, and harm reduction to patients and primary support system.
• Serve all patients who have been scheduled/referred to the AR/MAT Department and maintain low barriers to care; utilize warm handoffs with all other internal/external community social services and medical providers.

• Visits may be in-person, telehealth, co-visits, walk-in, scheduled, or as requested by another team within

  SEHWC.
• Utilize current knowledge of access to local and online recovery resources to provide clients with broad variety of pathways to recovery to support, define, and achieve personal goals.
• Collaborate with the care team to provide warm hand-offs, and referrals to appropriate level of addiction recovery and mental health care, and/or crisis services as appropriate; Provide crisis interventions as needed.
• Develop holistic patient-centered recovery plans, that support patient needs, to include basic, psychiatric, social, financial, environmental, and health needs to improve overall wellness and quality of life.
• Utilize appropriate evidence-based non-pharmacologic BH/SUD treatment modalities and interventions based on patient needs, with active knowledge of MI, CBT, CM, ME, Family Therapy, Models of Relapse Prevention, and other appropriate modalities.
• Attend patient care huddles, meetings, patient conferences, or planning sessions. These may be related to quality assurance, patient care and other related topics within the clinic.
• Ensure all tasks provided and associated with patient care, patient administrative processes and related duties comply with all regulatory and accreditation standards including The Joint Commission and CommUnityCare Standard Operating Procedures and CommUnityCare Policies and Procedures.
• Maintain all licensure and/or certification requirements for continuing education and best practices.

Master's Degree Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, or related field Required