Director Department

Youth Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Director/Team Leader

Youth Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) services are focused on improving or ameliorating the significant functional impairments and severe symptomatology experienced by youth due to mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. Clinical and rehabilitative interventions are also focused on enhancing family functioning to foster health/wellbeing, stability and re-integration for youth who are returning home after residential treatment or in-patient hospitalization. The Youth ACT Team is a multi-disciplinary team and works together to provide family-driven, youth-guided and developmentally appropriate services to comprehensively address the needs of youth within the family, school, medical, behavioral, psychosocial and community domains.

Jewish Board Youth ACT is an evidence-based practice that will provide an integrated set of evidence-based treatment, rehabilitation, case management, and support services delivered by a mobile, multi-disciplinary mental health treatment team.

The Youth ACT Director/Team Leader works as part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide treatment and support services to families and children, ages 10 to 21, who have significant behavioral health needs and who are at risk of entering or returning home from high end services, such as inpatient settings or residential services. Youth ACT Director/Team Leader dedicates 50% of his/her time to direct services to child/youth and families in the community and dedicates the remaining 50% of them to administrative and supervisory duties. S/he is responsible for ensuring clinical services are provided using evidence-based approaches and best practice, budgeting/financial oversight of the program and managing program operations to ensure the program runs smoothly and with minimal disruptions to client services. The Youth ACT Director/Team Leader provides on-going training, supervision, and guidance to the clinical staff and office staff. The Youth ACT Director/Team Leader is knowledgeable of all regulatory requirements and Agency/Divisional clinical standards and practices and program compliance with regulations and standards of care. S/he reports to the Senior Director. The role will require some evening availability and rotating on-call coverage.

Key Essential Functions:

• ACT Director/Team Leader responsible for direct services to the child/youth and family as a member of the professional staff.
• ACT Director/Team Leader is responsible for the clinical and administrative operations of the Youth ACT team
• Ensures adequate coverage to meet the clinical needs of the child/youth and family and to be following the Youth ACT guidance
• Responsible for leading Youth ACT team organizational and service planning meetings
• Provides clinical directions to staff regarding individual cases
• ACT Director/Team Leader is responsible for the clinical supervision for staff, and the administration and leadership of the Youth ACT team, on an ongoing basis.
• Provides regularly scheduled administrative and clinical supervision to the staff on a weekly basis.
• ACT Director/Team Leader actively participates in and functions as part of a multi-disciplinary team providing services to child/youth and families
• Participate in and screen for risk indicators with the child/youth or within family and determine if/when assessment of risk is needed
• Participates in and meets at least once per month, or more often as needed, with the medical team (psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse practitioner and nurse) to discuss cases and overall functioning of the team needs.
• Responsible for ensuring the interdisciplinary team meets at least 4 times per week
• Responsible for leading interdisciplinary team meetings and review of minutes for each meeting
• Active participation in the intake process for new referrals, discharges, and reviews child/youth and family service plans
• Responsible for ensuring all reporting requirements are being adhered to in a timely manner. This includes staff documentation, reporting on various systems that interact with Youth ACT as well as conducting internal reviews of documentation.
• Responsible for the quality of services and uses outcomes data and client feedback to inform services.
• Responsible for ensuring appropriate supervision of all program interns, either through direct supervision or by overseeing the clinical supervision provided by other appropriately licensed and trained team members.
• Responsible for overall program budget, including oversight and management of revenue and expense.
• Hires and orients new staff; conducts performance evaluations, provides training through regular supervision and team meetings; addresses problematic behaviors and performance issues.
• Reviews, completes and signs all necessary progress notes, assessments, person-centered care plans, and other paperwork as required.
• Coordinate facility management, including maintenance, fire safety, security and renovation, as needed.
• Providing cross program Youth ACT Coverage as needed
• Participating in meeting with stakeholders
• Perform chart reviews and ensure completion of appropriate and timely documentation
• Leads continuous quality improvement activities related to clinical care and team performance.
• Monitors staffing patterns and coverage to maintain required ratios and service availability
• Provide after-hours emergency coverage via cell phone on a rotating basis

Core competencies for the position include:

• Professional Staff Development
• Clinical and administrative supervision
• Financial Management – adheres to program budget and maintains programs' fiscal viability
• Ability to assess program needs, increase efficiencies, and build teams
• Ability to develop and execute strategic plans with staff members to enhance programming
• Knowledge of mental illness, serious emotional disturbance and substance use disorders.
• Delivers services that are trauma-informed and attend to cultural considerations and incorporate an anti-oppressive lens
• Promotes child/youth-centered, family-centered, developmentally appropriate, strength-based care
• Commitment to building and strengthening therapeutic and family relationships across all interactions
• Identifies and builds on individual, family and community strengths; empowers youth and families
• Ability to develop, evaluate, implement and modify a clinical treatment plan/intervention to meet the needs of individual youth and families with a focus on achievable outcomes
• Team player who functions well in a multi-disciplinary team environment Ability to document assessments, plans and interventions
• Screening and assessment, clinical approaches/family therapy/family system approaches, and clinical documentation.
• Technology management

Educational/Training Required:

• Licensure (LMSW, LCSW, LMFT, LCAT) in a Behavioral Health or related field

Experience Required/Language Preference:

• Bilingual/Bicultural Spanish.
• Minimum of three years of related experience, including a minimum of one year of direct clinical supervision, required.
• Experience in providing direct services related to the treatment with families and children with serious emotional disturbance, severe mental, emotional, and behavioral impairment
• Working with families with complex, multi-system needs

Computer Skills Required:

• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, ability to learn electronic health records and other software as required

Visual and Manual Dexterity:

• The candidate can read paper and electronic documents and perform significant data entry into various computer programs. Manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination to travel independently using public transportation.

Work Environment / Physical Effort:

• • Frequent travel throughout the assigned borough (Staten Island, Bronx, or Queens); infrequent travel throughout NYC
  • 50% of the work is done in the community, 50% on site

We are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.