Family Support Peer Specialist

Apalachee Center, Inc. is best known for helping individuals and families of North Florida succeed in recovering from emotional, psychiatric, and substance abuse crises. Apalachee Center, Inc. provides comprehensive behavioral health services across 8 counties (Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, and Wakulla Counties).

Apalachee Center, Inc. offers competitive benefits for our full-time positions to include health, dental, vision, basic life insurance, long term disability, paid time off, and more.

Overview:

The purpose of family care coordination services is to actively engage youth and their families who are not yet effectively connected with services to ensure service linkage, to reduce recidivism in crisis stabilization unit, to promote family engagement and to improve outcomes among priority populations. Priority populations include: Children with SMI, SUD, or co-occurring disorders who demonstrate high utilization of acute care services, including CSU, inpatient and detox services. High utilization is defined as Children with 3 or more acute care admissions within 180 days; or, Children with acute care admissions that last 16 days or longer. The Family Support Peer Specialist will have the responsibility of actively engaging with both the individual and their family, serving as a mentor, and providing guidance throughout the system of care.


ESSENTIAL/CORE JOB-SPECIFIC DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Utilize shared experience as a peer to assess individual's and families' needs and strength and to provide peer support and guidance. A peer specialist applies their personal experiences to act as a mentor, promote hope and empowerment, and provide support to individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorders.


2. Engage the individual and the family to participate in discharge planning and identifying community-based services and support needs. Identifying strategies to assist the individual in a successful transition back into the community following discharges from psychiatric hospitalizations (e.g., BEACH)

3. Collaborates with individual and family to build self-directed recovery tools, such as Wellness Recovery Action Plans (WRAP).


4. Provide frequent contact along with Family Crisis Care Coordinator for the first 30 days of services, ranging from daily to a minimum of three times per week to identify individual's safety needs, level of independence, and their wishes when establishing the optimal contact schedule.


5. Document the activities of persons served to maintain a permanent record of individual activity according to established methods and procedures. Maintain accurate and up to date client records for assigned clients.

6. Help other team members identify and understand culture-wide stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness and develop strategies to eliminate stigma within the team. Collaborate with the team to promote a team culture in which each person's point of view, experiences, and preferences are recognized, understood, and respected, and in which self-determination and decision-making in treatment planning are maximized and supported.

7. Engage with youth and families on an individual basis as identified in the treatment team. Identifies recovery goals, teaches, and mentors youth and families in problem-solving skills. Teaches youth and families how to identify and overcome fears, learn coping strategies, and encourages self-management and relapse prevention. Encourages socialization with family and friends as well as participation in community-based groups such as churches and volunteer work.

The ideal candidate will be someone who has personal experience caring for a child with a mental health diagnosis and has navigated the various systems to support their child's recovery. This lived experience would allow them to provide meaningful support and guidance to the parents of children in our Children's Program

Education/Experience:

• High school diploma or its equivalent.
• Lived experience in at least one of the following areas:
  • As an adult who has been in recovery for a minimum of 2 years from a substance use or mental health condition
  • As a family member or caregiver to another individual who has or is in recovery from a substance use or mental health condition
• Certified as a Peer Specialist or eligible to obtain Peer Specialist certification.
• Experience with mental illnesses and/or substance use disorder.