Bilingual Lead Home Visitor-Family Navigator

Job Description

Job Description

Home Visiting Service Provider (Parent Educator)

Location: Otero County, New Mexico (Position is housed in our Santa Teresa office, must be able to travel all over Otero County lines)
Company: MECA Therapies, LLC

Join Our Team

MECA Therapies LLC is hiring for a Lead Home Visitor-Family Navigator to manage all incoming referrals, ensure a smooth intake process, and support families in accessing home visiting services and assign them to the appropriate home visitor. This position serves as the primary contact for newly and returning referred families, guiding them through enrollment, securing necessary home visiting consents and documentation, and connecting them with the home visitors. This role includes outreach, maintaining a caseload of eight active families, and temporary caseload management for overflow and staff transitions to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.

Position Summary

The Lead Home Visitor – Family Navigator plays an essential role in the MECA Therapies' Home Visiting Programs, ensuring seamless operations and the delivery of effective services to families in alignment with the New Mexico Home Visiting Program Standards and Parents as Teachers Quality Standards. Collaborating closely with the Home Visiting Director and the Home Visiting Managers. The Lead Home Visitor – Family Navigator is responsible for referral retrieval and successfully navigating families through the MECA Home Visiting Program to become an ongoing client.  The Home Visiting Lead Home Visitor – Family Navigator will collect data provide analysis to be used for reporting, and community engagement. Additionally, the HV Manager provides administrative supervision and reflective support to home visitors.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree preferred in Social Work, Counseling, Early Childhood Development, Infant Studies, or in a related field approved by the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) Program Manager or four to ten years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience. Requirement to obtain a Level I or higher Infant Mental Health Endorsement within two years of hire.

Essential Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Lead Home Visitor- Family Navigator is to align with essential functions and requirements mandated by Local, State, and Federal Regulations, including the ECECD New Mexico Home Visiting Program Standards, PAT Essential Requirements, PAT Quality Standards, as well as adherence to all MECA Therapies policies and procedures to ensure fidelity. Essential duties include but are not limited to the following:

Recruitment & Retention Efforts

• Manage incoming referrals, ensuring referral entry in all required platforms, prompt processing and assignment to home visitors.
• Developing and maintaining an ongoing recruitment plan that ensures early identification of pregnant women and families who may benefit from home visiting services.
• Identify pregnant women and families with young children prior to kindergarten entry who may benefit from home visiting services.
• Determine the child and family’s eligibility utilizing standardized selection and admission criteria.

Facilitating Intakes

• Facilitate family intakes by securing required forms, consents, and some initial screenings.
• Create and complete a family chart following the file order tool, timelines and Home Visiting policies and procedures.
• Collaborate with the Assigned Home Visitor for smooth transition.
• Ensure timely communication with Home Visitors in regard to referrals or assignments.

Home Visits

• Maintain a caseload of eight active families. 
• Conduct scheduled visits with family based on the needs identified in the family plan adhering to PAT model requirements.
• Deliver prenatal, post-partum and ongoing home visits to young children and their caregivers utilizing PAT curriculum or other program approved curriculum to provide parenting education, guidance on appropriate developmental activities and interaction to support school readiness.
• Use the PAT curriculum to plan and deliver prenatal, and parent-child activities that promote safe nurturing relationships to foster healthy child development.
• Customize interactions based on each family's needs, strengths, and challenges to improve prevention of adverse childhood experiences and promote wellbeing.
• Support the development of positive outcomes and goals based on screenings, assessments and selected curricula that are focused on strengthening the parent/caregiver-child relationship.

Family Engagement and Support

• Establish and maintain a trusting relationship with families.
• Provide parents with information, support, and encouragement around their child’s development.
• Develop a transition plan with each family.
• Assist families in setting and achieving individualized family goals based on screenings, assessments and selected curricula that promote strengthening the parent/caregiver-child relationship.
• Facilitate access to community resources and support services.
• Participating in Transdisciplinary Team Approach (TTA) meetings for those children receiving Early Intervention services
• Attending Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) meetings for those children in Early Intervention services.

Developmental Screening and Assessment

• Conduct developmental screenings and assessments using approved tools.
• Interpret results with parents, develop appropriate action plans and provide appropriate resources.
• Monitor child and family progress, adjust plans, and follow up on provided resources, as necessary.

Group Connections

• Assist in planning group connections to provide opportunities for parents to connect with one another and strengthen their parenting skills.
• Attend and facilitate discussions and activities during group connections, ensuring alignment with PAT guidelines.
• Provide training and support to Home Visitors/Parent Educators on programmatic policies and procedures.

Data Collection and Reporting

• Collect and enter data accurately into required data systems.
• Maintaining family files with required and accurate records adhering to ECECD and PAT model file record requirements. Including maintaining family files onsite according to HIPAA requirements.
• Prepare and submit timely reports as required by program guidelines.
• Conduct family satisfaction surveys annually and at exit to inform practice and improve service delivery.
• Assist in compliance monitoring by supporting managers in quarterly audits and documentation reviews.

Required attendance

• Attendance of the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) HV Monthly Data Review and Consultation Meetings.
• Attendance in leadership meeting to address referral status, referral numbers and referral sources.
• Attend relevant meetings and promote the program within the community.
• Attend MECA HV regional monthly meeting.
• Attend reflective Supervision twice a month with MECA’s reflective supervisor.
• Attend Reflective Call once a month with ECECD reflective personal.
• Follow virtual meeting rules.

CASELOAD ASSIGNMENTS

The Lead Home Visitor – Family Navigator will maintain accurate caseloads assignments and monitor and manage referrals.

• Monitoring referrals by county vs. capacity (i.e.,1 or more stressors, 2 or more stressors.)
• Assigning caseloads to Home Visitors after the intake process.
• Ensuring all Home Visitor/Parent Educators have caseload numbers as indicated per Home Visiting Policies and procedures.
• Providing Home Visiting services to a minimum of eight families
• Provide support and temporary caseload coverage during staff transitions.
• Closely collaborate with Early Intervention team and regional director regarding referrals, FIT exits, MMT and IFSP meetings.
  

PRODUCTIVITY

The Lead Home Visitor- Family navigator is expected to achieve 100% productivity performance goal set by MECA Therapies management.

• Productivity must not fall below 90%.
• Families experiencing one or fewer stressors will receive a minimum of 12 personal visits annually, while families with two or more stressors will receive at least 24 personal visits per year to meet Parents as Teachers essential requirements.
• Families enrolled under the funding source "Medicaid Home Visiting" (MHV) are required to receive two visits per month.
• All visits, regardless of the funding source, must cumulatively total no less than 90 minutes per month.
  These standards ensure efficient service delivery while meeting the needs of families and adhering to program requirements.

DOCUMENTATION

Accurate and reliable data collection and maintenance of client records are essential responsibilities of the Lead Home Visitor. The Lead Home Visitor will accurately collect data on children and families served and will ensure that the information is accurate and reliable as it relates to the operation and governance of the company by:

• Completing database training.
• Ensuring all required HV data is properly input into the “Am I Eligible”, UNM Database and MAPS/ZOHO platforms.
• Overseeing the creation of client files and integrating all required forms and timelines before assigning them to the home visitor.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

All Home Visiting staff is entrusted with providing crucial support, training, and guidance to the families under their care. Additionally, they must adhere to mandatory meetings and training specified by the Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD), as well as those mandated by their supervisor(s) and/or the organization. This includes:

• Conducting and facilitating in-house training sessions for fellow staff members.
• Mandatory attendance at all staff meetings and training.
• Obtaining Infant Mental Health (IMH) Certification within 2 years of hire.
• Home Visiting Staff are required to engage in ongoing professional development.
• Completion of a professional development self-assessment to pinpoint strengths and areas necessitating further training and support.
• Development of a Professional Development Plan within 2 weeks of hire.
• Successful completion of all required Parents as Teachers (PAT) and New Mexico Home Visiting training sessions.
• Active participation in ongoing professional development workshops and continuous learning opportunities, with a minimum requirement of twelve (24) hours of Professional Development per calendar year for all staff.
• Maintaining up-to-date knowledge of research findings and best practices in early childhood development and home visiting.

These measures ensure that Home Visitor/Parent Educators are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to provide effective support while staying informed about advancements in the field.

SUPERVISION

All Home Visitors/Parent Educators, including subcontractors, are required to participate in reflective supervision at least three times a month. This involves:

• Scheduling supervision sessions with MECA Therapies Clinical Reflective Supervisor a minimum of two times per month.
• Attending a minimum of one Reflective Case Review consultation per month with the ECECD Reflective Supervisor.

These practices ensure ongoing support and professional development for Home Visitors/Parent Educators, fostering effective service delivery and continuous improvement.

Why Join MECA Therapies?

At MECA, we believe families are the foundation of successful outcomes for children. Our Early Intervention team partners with families to provide meaningful support during the most critical years of development.

We offer:

• Competitive compensation
• Supportive leadership and clinical collaboration
• Professional development opportunities
• A mission-driven workplace
• The opportunity to positively impact children and families throughout New Mexico

MECA Therapies, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and providing reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process and employment.