Licensed Psychologist

Licensed Psychologist

The Licensed Psychologist will serve in the Division of Statewide Services' Bureau of Clinical Project Management and will have a direct impact on the quality of behavioral health care provided to the people receiving services from the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). High quality behavioral health care is essential to ensure that OPWDD can accomplish its Core Mission of helping people with developmental disabilities lead richer lives. This Licensed Psychologist position is pivotal to maintaining clinical competence and regulatory compliance and is responsible for the support and assessment of health and safety conditions and practices related to psychological, forensic, direct care, and other clinical services at both OPWDD and its voluntary agencies.

The biggest challenge our providers face, whether it is a large campus-based program or a small residential setting, is the challenging behavior of the people served and staff's difficulty in successfully managing their behavior. With people moving from residential schools, residential treatment centers/foster care settings and other intensive treatment settings into the community, it is critical that psychologists have the knowledge, ability to support, and training to help these people transition into the community successfully to prevent recidivism into a more restrictive setting. The licensed psychologist will augment and conduct clinical reviews of adult service plans for foster care youth and others in residential school/institutional settings that are transitioning to adult services to allow for and support focused consultation on complex clinical cases to ensure appropriate discharge planning activities occur. This position requires the development of effective behavior support plans and effective staff training strategies for implementing the behavior support plans.

As part of the Bureau of Clinical Project Management, the Licensed Psychologist will support improvements in service delivery through developing and delivering trainings and guidance, assisting with identifying areas for development and contributing to improvement efforts, and supporting projects across the agency and with interagency partners.

This position requires experience working with people with developmental disabilities who present with complex support needs, and in reviewing and monitoring delivery of plans of care, strong knowledge of the supports and services provided by OPWDD and the regulations guiding their implementation. Must have strong skills related to time management and project management, be able to effectively integrate information from multiple sources, be flexible with changing direction and new information, and develop competencies as needed to effectively support a wide range of projects. Must have strong communication, writing, and presentation skills with the ability to adapt approach to meet the needs of different audiences.

We are seeking a candidate with background and understanding of programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The focus of this Licensed Psychologist will be to augment and conduct clinical reviews of adult service plans for people transitioning to adult services from foster care and residential school programs. This position will have the following duties and responsibilities:

• Provide focused consultation on complex clinical cases to ensure appropriate discharge planning activities occur.
• Support other clinical functions, training development and project management functions that are growing within the bureau.
• Assist and guide transition planning, to include review of current assessment and clinical information to support the goal of ensuring the unique needs of the person are understood and supported.
• May include conducting assessments and/or consultation on assessment(s) as clinically indicated.
• Collaborate with providers to help identify and build, as needed, the system capacity and services to create a successful transition plan.
• Develop clinical tools to support foster care providers and other providers to ensure they have the capacity, knowledge, and skills to serve people with I/DD successfully.
• Provide training as well as ongoing technical assistance to address more unique or complex support needs of a given person within a foster care or other institutional setting.
• Liaison with both voluntary providers and other state agencies to reach shared goals and collaborative working relationships to address this unique population.
• Assist in the development of practices and procedures for agencies to address the complex needs of people as they transition into new environments of care.
• Travel as needed to support people and providers.
• Other duties as assigned support the division and goals of the agency.

*Travel percentage is an estimated average; actual travel time may vary to support the needs of the Bureau.

Candidates must be licensed and currently registered by New York State as a Licensed Psychologist.