Job Detail

Organization: Akeela, Inc.

Location: Juneau

Position: Primary Counselor

Starting Salary: DOE

This job will expire on: 04/07/2010

Position Duties: Position Summary:
Provide case management services to clients in primary care living in a Department of Corrections Institution. Case management is defined as the administrative, clinical, and evaluative activities that bring the client, treatment services, and other resources to focus on issues and needs identified in the individual treatment plan. This involves collaboration with the client and significant others, coordination of treatment services, and ongoing evaluation of treatment progress and client needs.

Specific duties:
 Initiate collaboration with referral sources.
 Obtain and interpret all relevant screening, assessment, and initial treatment planning information.
 Confirm the client’s continued readiness for treatment change.
 Complete necessary administrative procedures for admission to treatment.
 Establish accurate treatment expectations for the client and involved significant others, including:
 Nature of services
 Program goals
 Rules regarding client conduct
 Schedule of treatment activities
 Factors affecting duration of care
 Client rights and responsibilities
 Coordinate all treatment activities provided to the client by other resources.
 Summarize the client’s background, treatment plan, recovery progress, and problems inhibiting progress for the purpose of assuring quality of care, gaining feedback, and planning changes in the course of treatment.
 Assess treatment/recovery progress and, in consultation with the client and significant others, make appropriate changes to the individual care plan to ensure progress toward treatment objectives.
 Assure the accurate documentation of case management activities throughout the course of treatment.
 Contribute as a member of a multi-disciplinary treatment team.
 Apply confidentiality-related legal restrictions appropriately.
 Demonstrate respect and nonjudgmental attitudes toward the client in all contact with other professionals or agencies.
 Monitor and report progress toward meeting goals and objective on a bi-weekly basis to the LSSAT Coordinator and/or designee.
 Perform other duties as assigned.

Continuing Assessment and Treatment Planning:
 Maintain ongoing contact with the client, and involved significant others, to ensure adherence to the treatment plan.
 Understand and fully recognize culturally appropriate stages of change and other signs of treatment progress.
 Assess treatment/recovery progress and, in consultation with the client and significant others, make appropriated changes to the treatment plan to ensure progress toward treatment objectives.
 Describe and document treatment process, progress, and outcome.

Counseling:
 Establish a helping relationship with the client characterized by warmth, respect, genuineness, concreteness and empathy.
 Facilitate the client’s engagement in the treatment/recovery process.
 Work with the client to establish realistic, achievable goals consistent with achieving and maintaining recovery.
 Encourage and reinforce all client actions that are determined to be beneficial in progressing toward treatment goals.
 Recognize how, when, and why to use the client’s significant others to enhance or support the treatment plan.
 Promote client knowledge, skills, and attitudes that contribute to a positive change in substance abuse behaviors.
 Promote client knowledge, skills, and attitudes consistent with the maintenance of good health (as defined by both the client’s culture and the treatment culture) and the prevention of HIV/AIDS, TB, STD’s, and other communicable diseases.
 Facilitate the development of basic life skills associated with recovery.
 Adapt counseling strategies to the individual characteristics of the client, including (but not limited to): disability, gender, sexual orientation, developmental level, acculturation, ethnicity, age, and health status.
 Make constructive therapeutic responses when the client behavior is inconsistent with stated recovery goals.
 Apply crisis management skills.
 Mentor the client’s identification, selection, and practice of strategies that help sustain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for maintaining treatment progress, relapse prevention, and continuing care.

Group Counseling
 Describe, select, and appropriately use strategies from accepted and culturally appropriate models for group counseling with addicted or substance abusing client.
 Perform the actions necessary to start a group, including group type, purpose, size, and leadership; recruiting and selecting members; establishing group goals and clarifying behavioral ground rules for participating; identifying outcomes; and determining criteria and methods for termination or graduation from the group.
 Facilitate the entry of new members and the transition of existing members.
 Facilitate group growth within the established ground rules, and precipitate movement toward group and individual goals by using methods consistent with group type.
 Understand the concepts of “process” and “content” , and shift the focus of the group when such an intervention will help the group move toward its goals.
 Describe and summarize client behavior within the group for the purpose of documenting the client’s progress and identifying needs/issues that may require modification of the treatment plan.

Counseling for Families, Couples, and Intimate Dyads:
 Understand the characteristics and dynamics of families, couples, and intimate dyads affected by addiction.
 Be familiar with and appropriately use models of diagnosis and intervention for families, couples, and intimate dyads, including extended, kinship, or tribal family structures.
 Facilitate the engagement of selected members of the family, couple, or intimate dyad in the treatment and recovery process.
 Help members of the family, couple, or intimate dyad understand the interaction between their system and addiction.
 Help families, couples, and intimate dyads adopt strategies and behaviors that sustain recovery and maintain healthy relationships.

Client, Family and Community Education:
 Design and provide culturally relevant formal and informal education programs that raise awareness and support substance abuse prevention and/or the recovery process.
 Describe factors that increase the likelihood that an individual, community, or group will be at-risk for alcohol and other drug problems.
 Sensitize others to issues of cultural identity, ethnic background, age, and gender role or identity in prevention, treatment, and recovery.
 Describe warning signs, symptoms, and the course of addictions.
 Describe continuum of care resources that are available to significant/concerned others.
 Describe principles and philosophies of prevention, treatment, relapse, and recovery.
 Understand the health and behavioral problems related to the treatment of addiction, including transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS, TB, STDs, and other communicable diseases.
 Teach basic life skills such as stress management, relaxation, communication, assertiveness, and refusal skills.

Minimum Qualifications: REQUIREMENTS:
 Meets at least one of the following requirements for degree/certification:
o Advanced degree (masters-level or doctoral-level) in psychology, social work, counseling, child guidance, nursing or similar field; or
o BA/BS in psychology, social work, counseling, child guidance, nursing or similar field and substance abuse treatment training and/or experience; or
o Certification as a Chemical Dependency Counselor (CDC) I or Behavioral Health Counselor (BHC) I or higher by Alaska Commission for Behavioral Health Certification (ACBHC), or certification by another certifying body, such as a state certifying affiliate of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) or other similar recognized organization; experience judged as meeting certification requirements may be accepted provided the applicant be certified within six months of hire. For Case Managers, will accept Behavioral Health Technician (BHT) or Counselor Technician (CT) or similar certification.
 Prefer three (3) years experience as a case manager in addictions social services, mental health or related field.

Notes:

Contact Information

Name: David Rhodes

Phone Number: 907-565-1222

Fax Number: 907-258-6052

E-mail: drhodes@akeela.org

Address: 4111 Minnesota Drive

Address 2:

City: Anchorage

State: Alaska

Zip Code: 99503

Website: http://www.akeela.org