Director of Palliative Behavioral Health| Edison, New Jersey | Hybrid | Direct Hire

Job Description

Job Description

Director of Palliative Behavioral Health Integration | Edison, New Jersey | Hybrid | Direct Hire/FTE

Seeking a clinically strong and operationally driven leader to design, launch, and oversee a behavioral health program integrated within our palliative care services for older adults with serious illnesses.

This role will initially focus on building and operationalizing an SNF-based behavioral health model supporting medically complex and seriously ill patients across our palliative care platform, while also developing telehealth-based continuity services to support patients after discharge and in community settings when appropriate.

The ideal candidate is a builder who can combine clinical expertise, interdisciplinary leadership, workflow development, program implementation, quality oversight, and team management to create scalable, patient-centered behavioral health services integrated within palliative care.

Performance-based bonus included.

Key Responsibilities

Design and launch a behavioral health program integrated within palliative care for older adults with serious illnesses.

Build the clinical and operational framework for palliative-based behavioral health across SNFs and related care settings.

Define patient eligibility, referral pathways, screening protocols, triage processes, visit cadence, treatment pathways, discharge criteria, and escalation workflows.

Develop clinical protocols for common behavioral health needs in serious illness populations including depression, anxiety, grief, anticipatory grief, caregiver stress, demoralization, behavioral symptoms, adjustment to illness, and crisis identification.

Partner closely with palliative care physicians, APPs, social workers, and operational leadership to embed behavioral health into interdisciplinary care planning and workflows.

Create workflows supporting SNF-based care, post-discharge follow-up, and telehealth continuity for appropriate patients.

Hire, train, supervise, and mentor behavioral health clinicians and support staff.

Develop documentation standards, note templates, care coordination workflows, communication protocols, and quality assurance processes.

Establish measurable program metrics including access, referral conversion, clinician productivity, documentation quality, patient and family experience, and clinical outcomes.

Collaborate with clinical leadership, finance, compliance, billing, analytics, and facility partners to ensure program quality and operational success.

Maintain a limited clinical caseload during launch and support management of complex or escalated patient situations.

Serve as the operational and clinical leader for behavioral health program development, quality improvement, training, and implementation.

What Success Looks Like

Launches a behavioral health program that is meaningfully integrated within palliative care workflows.

Builds practical intake, triage, treatment, handoff, and escalation processes that teams consistently utilize.

Creates clear distinctions between behavioral health treatment, palliative social work support, care coordination, caregiver support, and referral pathways for higher-acuity psychiatric needs.

Develops workflows and systems actively used by palliative care clinicians and SNF partners.

Establishes visibility into program growth, staffing, quality metrics, operational performance, and financial outcomes.

Builds sustainable and repeatable systems that support long-term scalability and consistency.

Required Qualifications

Independent clinical licensure required, with strong preference for LCSW or licensed psychologist.

Significant clinical experience working with older adults, medically complex patients, serious illness populations, or related behavioral health populations.

Leadership experience in program development, clinical operations, service-line management, or interdisciplinary team oversight.

Demonstrated ability to build workflows, protocols, staffing models, and quality processes.

Experience working in palliative care, hospice, SNFs, post-acute care, geriatrics, or related settings.

Strong clinical judgment related to risk assessment, escalation management, family dynamics, caregiver distress, and the overlap between medical and behavioral symptoms in serious illness.

Ability to collaborate effectively with physicians, APPs, nurses, social workers, facility staff, and operational teams.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in palliative care, hospice, psycho-oncology, geriatrics, Gero psychology, or serious illness care.

Experience launching, scaling, or managing integrated behavioral health programs.

Familiarity with telehealth workflows supporting medically complex or older adult populations.

Experience supervising clinicians, building training programs, and leading interdisciplinary teams.

Comfortable building and scaling programs within fast-paced and evolving healthcare environments.

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