MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIAN

Job Description Job Description MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIAN Child & Youth Crisis Stabilization Unit (CYCSU) New Alternatives, Inc. | San Diego, CA NOW HIRING: EVENING, OVERNIGHT, AND WEEKEND SHIFTS | THREE 12-HOUR SHIFTS | FOUR DAYS OFF CYCSU is seeking BBS-registered licensed and licensed eligible clinicians who thrive in high-acuity child and adolescent behavioral health, work effectively within a multidisciplinary team, and want to strengthen advanced crisis-assessment and stabilization skills. CYCSU is a 24/7, 12-bed psychiatric crisis program serving youth with diverse and complex presentations, including suicidality, self-harm, psychosis, trauma responses, neurodivergence, behavioral dysregulation, mood and anxiety symptoms, substance-related concerns, and family or systems-related crises. Who We Are Looking For * Clinically comfortable assessing and engaging youth experiencing psychosis, severe dysregulation, suicidality, self-harm, trauma responses, and other acute psychiatric presentations. * Able to differentiate psychiatric symptoms from developmental, sensory, communication, behavioral, and neurodivergent presentations and adapt interventions accordingly. * Comfortable using structured assessments, standardized screening tools, suicide and safety risk assessments, and evidence-based clinical workflows. * Able to synthesize multiple and sometimes conflicting sources of information, tolerate ambiguity, and make timely, clinically defensible recommendations. * Able to remain calm, organized, flexible, and accurate in a fast-paced environment with rapidly changing priorities. * Committed to multidisciplinary teamwork, clear communication, shared decision-making, feedback, supervision, and continuous skill development. * Comfortable working with youth and families from diverse cultural, clinical, developmental, and psychosocial backgrounds. Primary Responsibilities * Conduct comprehensive crisis, suicide, self-harm, violence, elopement, and other clinically indicated assessments using structured tools and program protocols. Conduct 5150 assessments and evaluations within applicable training, scope, and program requirements. * Assess complex presentations and differentiate psychiatric symptoms from developmental, sensory, behavioral, environmental, and family-system factors. * Gather and synthesize information from youth, caregivers, schools, hospitals, outpatient providers, mobile crisis teams, law enforcement, and other collateral sources. * Develop clinical formulations, preliminary diagnoses, safety plans, and brief individual or family crisis interventions. * Participate actively in multidisciplinary treatment planning, shift briefs, huddles, case consultation, debriefs, and disposition planning. * Collaborate with psychiatry, nursing, mental health assistants, program leadership, families, and community partners. * Adapt interventions for neurodivergent youth and youth with sensory, communication, or developmental needs. * Support evidence-based program implementation, structured clinical interventions, and quality-improvement initiatives. * Complete timely, accurate, and clinically defensible documentation and recommendations regarding discharge,