Arrive Together Follow-Up Wellness Clinician

Job Description

Job Description

Expect Success at Bridgeway! 

We make a difference in people’s lives by supporting their life goals - our employees and the people we serve alike. 

We invest in our employees through competitive compensation and benefits, best practice training, and fostering a team-oriented culture that promotes career development. We nurture an environment that values diversity, where inclusivity, equity, and belonging thrive. 

At Bridgeway, Everyone Learns and Grows together. 

We give you our best, so you can unleash your full potential.

Make a Future at Bridgeway! 

Who we are: Bridgeway values and promotes quality clinical and administrative practices to foster the best outcomes for persons who come to us for behavioral healthcare. We offer a work environment that supports teamwork, creativity, innovation, professional growth and dedication to the work. At Bridgeway, we never stop growing and innovating our vision of behavioral healthcare for the future.

Why you should apply:  As a Wellness Clinician, you will   join an evidence-based program and a dynamic team for the opportunity to learn and refine your clinical and engagement skills and accomplish your dream of helping people to make progress on their unique recovery journeys. The work is sometimes challenging and always rewarding by engaging with persons we serve and co-workers as we all learn, grow, and thrive. 

Department: Arrive Together Follow-Up Services

Salary: $60,000-$75,000 (depending on degree, licensure and experience)                 

Location: Elizabeth, NJ

Schedule: Sunday-Wednesday 8:00am-6:00pm

Position Overview:  Provide community-based follow-up services for individuals referred following an ARRIVE Together and/or other eligible behavioral health-related law-enforcement encounter in. The position focuses on the period immediately following a crisis, when a person may need additional support to successfully connect with treatment, supports, and community resources. The clinician provides rapid outreach, short-term engagement, crisis-prevention support, care coordination, advocacy, and warm handoffs to ongoing services. The primary function of this position is follow-up and linkage. When immediate safety concerns are identified during follow-up, the clinician will activate and coordinate with the appropriate emergency or crisis-response resources. Services are person-centered, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and designed to reduce repeat crises, unnecessary emergency department use, repeated law-enforcement involvement, and gaps in care.

Essential Job Functions:

• Create and maintain a wellness- and recovery-oriented environment using person-first language, respectful documentation, shared decision-making, and person-centered planning. Services should support stability, community integration, and meaningful recovery goals identified by the person served.
• Maintain a culture of compliance with Bridgeway policies, applicable ARRIVE Together requirements, confidentiality standards, state and federal laws, and high ethical standards.

Responsibilities:

• Receive and review referrals from ARRIVE Together and other eligible behavioral health-related law-enforcement encounters and initiate follow-up outreach the same day whenever possible, and no later than 24 hours after referral.
• Use persistent, respectful engagement strategies through in-person outreach to connect with individuals who may have difficulty engaging with traditional service systems.
• Meet individuals in their homes, community settings, or Bridgeway locations based on need, preference, safety, and accessibility.
• Complete a brief, person-centered follow-up review of immediate behavioral health, substance use, medical, social-service, and practical needs in order to guide support and linkage.
• Recognize and respond to immediate safety concerns. When a person appears to be at imminent risk or requires a higher level of crisis intervention, contact and coordinate with the appropriate emergency, mobile crisis, psychiatric screening, 988, or 911 resource and facilitate a safe handoff.
• Provide short-term support, recovery-oriented counseling to help the person remain safely connected to community-based care whenever appropriate.
• Identify natural supports and community resources and involve family members or other supports when appropriate and authorized by the person served.
• Connect individuals to mental health and substance use treatment, including Bridgeway services and external community providers, based on the person’s needs, preferences, eligibility, and location.
• Assist with housing, benefits, medical care, transportation, employment, food access, and other social-service needs that may contribute to stability and reduce the likelihood of repeat crisis contacts.
• Provide active warm handoffs rather than referral information alone. This may include helping schedule appointments, coordinating with receiving providers, supporting required releases of information, accompanying the person to an appointment, and/or providing transportation when appropriate.
• Follow up after scheduled appointments and referrals when needed to confirm connection, address barriers, and support continued engagement.
• Maintain regular communication with ARRIVE Together and participating partners regarding referral processes, engagement barriers, service gaps, and program outcomes while protecting person-served privacy and confidentiality.
• Coordinate with referral and community partners to strengthen referral flow and timely access to services.
• Monitor the program’s electronic referral system or designated database daily to ensure referrals are acknowledged, outreach attempts are documented, and follow-up occurs within required time frames.
• Complete all required electronic documentation, clinical notes, referral tracking, and program forms accurately and within same day, 24 hours max.
• Track outreach, engagement, linkage, and follow-up outcomes as required for program monitoring and quality improvement.
• Use evidence-informed engagement approaches including motivational interviewing, trauma-informed care, cognitive behavioral strategies, stage-wise interventions, crisis intervention/de-escalation, and strengths-based practice as appropriate.
• Demonstrate professionalism, flexibility, collaborative problem solving, sound judgment, and responsible use of agency time and resources.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements Education/Certifications:

• Master’s Degree required in Social Work, Counseling, or related field.
• Licensed preferred. If licensed, must be a New Jersey Licensed Social Worker (LSW), Licensed Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (LAMFT), or Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC).
• Active CPR certification is required.

Experience:

• Minimum of one year of crisis, community behavioral health, outreach, or related experience preferred.
• Experience with community-based engagement, care coordination, crisis prevention, behavioral health/substance use linkages, and social-service resources is preferred. Bilingual skills such as Spanish, Arabic, or Creole are preferred but not required.
• Work schedule must be flexible and may include evenings, weekends, holidays, and rotating on-call coverage as assigned.
• Valid driver’s license required with no more than one moving violation within the past 12 months.
• Ability and eligibility to safely operate an agency vehicle for community-based services is required.

 Driver’s License, Vehicle:

• Valid driver’s license required with no more than one moving violation within the past 12 months.
• Ability and eligibility to safely operate an agency vehicle for community-based services is required.

  EXCELLENT BENEFITS:

• Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 403b, basic life and AD&D, flexible spending accounts, EAP
• Eligible for medical benefits after 30 days of employment 
• Flexible work schedules, clinical training series, leadership development program
• 10 paid holidays (an 11th after 2 years of employment), generous vacation and sick time

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