Psychiatric Social Worker I - Trainee

Psychiatric Social Worker I – Trainee

The Monterey County Health Department, Behavioral Health Bureau is seeking enthusiastic candidates to work as part of a multidisciplinary care team serving children, youth, adults, and older adults.

The Behavioral Health Bureau is a progressive agency that serves children, youth, adults, older adults and their families with System of Care values of being community based, culturally relevant, client and family centered, using evidence-based practices to support clients in their wellness and recovery journey for mental illness and substance use disorder conditions.

Children's System of Care provides an array of clinical services from of birth to 25 years of age and their families. Clinical teams include Early Childhood Services, Transition Age Youth, Post Hospitalization Support, as well clinical teams that partner with Child Welfare, Education and Juvenile Probation.

Adult System of Care provides a wide range of comprehensive integrated care to adults/older adults (18+ years of age) with serious mental illness, co-occurring substance use, and other complex issues. The multidisciplinary teams work together to provide an array of services including but not limited to psychosocial rehabilitation, individual and group therapy, strength-based case management, crisis intervention, family support and community integration. Clinical teams are based out of the outpatient regional clinics in Marina, Salinas, Soledad, and King City.

Access to Treatment clinics are entry points into services and provide an array of clinical services for individuals of all ages who are seeking to get connected to services for mental health and substance use issues that are impacting their ability to function in work, home, school, social and community settings. Services include screening, assessment, crisis intervention, individual and group therapy, linkage and referral to community resources as well as the Children and Adult Systems of Care.

Community Crisis Services (Mobile Crisis) Team responds to calls for crisis support and provides brief crisis intervention, de-escalation, triage, risk / safety assessment, safety planning, referral and linkage to individuals and families experiencing behavioral health crisis in the community. This team seeks to provide support to stabilize the situation in the community to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and divert from emergency resources (hospital/jail) when appropriate while providing linkage to ongoing care as needed.

Adult Justice Involved Services Team works with current and former justice involved adults (18+ years of age) some of whom are reentering society after a period of incarceration (jail/prison) and transitioning to community-based services to meet their mental health and substance use disorder treatment needs. Clients may be participating in one of the Collaborative Court or Diversion programs, CARE Act (Care Court) or referred to services through Post Release Community Supervision or the Cal AIM Justice Involved Behavioral Health Linkages Initiative.

As a member of a psychiatric team, this position will assist and participate in interviewing clients and families, compile social case histories, participate in diagnostic and evaluative staff conferences, prepare reports, interpret and explain factors pertaining to mental illness, provide case management services and work collaboratively with a variety of community, county and state agencies.

Candidates appointed to the Psychiatric Social Worker I – Trainee level may be promoted to the Psychiatric Social Worker I level upon meeting the employment standards for the higher job class which includes receiving their Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) number, Associate Clinical Social Worker (ASW) number, or Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC) number issued by the California State Board of Behavioral Science Examiners, within six months of hire.

The Health Department offers up to a $10,000 signing bonus to candidates hired into regular positions for this classification from this recruitment. For more information regarding the Signing Bonus, please refer to Admin Procedures A.49.1 Employment Bonus.