FACT Substance Abuse Specialist (Masters)

Apalachee Center, Inc. is best known for helping individuals and families of North Florida succeed in recovering from emotional, psychiatric, and substance abuse crises. Apalachee Center, Inc. provides comprehensive behavioral health services across 8 counties (Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, and Wakulla Counties).

Apalachee Center, Inc. offers competitive benefits for our full-time positions to include health, dental, vision, basic life insurance, long term disability, paid time off, and more.

Overview

Florida Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) is a dynamic multidisciplinary treatment team dedicated to delivering intensive community-based support to the severely mentally ill adult population. The purpose of FACT Substance Abuse Specialist is to be a part of the multidisciplinary treatment team designed to be the primary provider to help individuals who have history and current issues with substance use and or other substance abuse diagnosis to help individuals maintain stable functioning in the community. The FACT Substance Abuse Specialist is responsible for providing cross training to other staff on the team to enhance the knowledge and skills of the team to develop individualized approaches with clients. The FACT Substance Abuse Specialist is also responsible for providing crisis intervention as appropriate to include after hours on-call crisis response as scheduled with other FACT staff and intervene using reasonable judgment to maintain client safety and prevent hospitalization.

Essential/Core Job-specific Duties And Responsibilities

Assessment: Conducts comprehensive mental health assessments and ongoing assessments of persons served mental illness, symptoms, status, and response to treatment. Communicates client’s mental health status and history to the FACT team and helps the team to determine level of care based on client’s individual needs. Completes initial assessment for assigned clients in collaboration with the team within 60 days and updates required assessments in accordance with established guidelines. Collect collateral information (i.e. family and other providers, with appropriate consent) to complete thorough assessments of client’s need. Finalizes all documents in Avatar and turns in all assessments within 48 hours.

Individualized Treatment Team (ITT): Schedules Individualized Treatment Team (ITT) meetings a month in advance of service plan expiring for assigned clients. Offers input and feedback (i.e. new issues, client response to treatment, client’s progress/lack of progress on service plan) to review clients’ progress and employment goals for the treatment plan with each client.

Substance Abuse Specialist Services Delivery: Be the primary provider to provide individual, group and family basis in the office and in community settings to help clients develop skills to manage symptoms to promote recovery and prevent relapse. Establish a trusting relationship with persons served so that they may more freely discuss substance abuse use and its effect on mental and physical health and daily functioning. Core services include:

• Engagement and substance abuse assessments.
• Complete thorough assessments and assisting in the development treatment plan aimed at reduction and abstinence. Addresses the barriers and complex needs client with co-occurring disorders with an emphasis on available community-based substance abuse treatment programs.
• Make appropriate referrals and consultations both within and outside the agency to include detox, residential, and self-help community treatment programs such as AA/NA.
• Coaching in stress management, coping strategies, and healthy relationships
• Relapse prevention and replacement behaviors
• Individual and group therapy

Case Management Services: Provide services using appropriate treatment modalities that promote independent living, including, but not limited to: benefits counseling; problem solving, side-by-side services, skill training, supervision (e.g., prompts, assignment, monitoring, encouragement), and environmental adaptations to assist persons served with activities of daily living; assist and support persons served to carry out personal hygiene and grooming tasks; provide nutrition education, meal planning, grocery shopping, and food preparation assistance; assist persons served to find and maintain a safe and affordable place to live; assist and support persons served to perform household activities, including house cleaning and laundry; ensure that persons served have adequate financial support; teach money management skills; help persons served to access reliable transportation; and assist and support persons served to have and effectively use a personal physician and dentist.

Client Service Plan: Develops individualized Client Service Plans (CSP) in partnership with the client and the client’s guardian (if applicable), especially with employment goals. Develops CSP’s that include measurable goals and objectives derived from the client’s assessment and identifies time frames for achievement on goals which are signed and dated by the client and client’s guardian, if applicable. Assists with the implementation of the service plan, and follows-up with the client’s services to determine the status and the effectiveness of CSP towards enhancing the client’s inclusion in the community and autonomy. Updates CSPs at least every 6 months. Makes appropriate changes in CSP to ensure immediate and appropriate interventions are provided in response to changes in mental status or behavior which put persons served at risk (e.g., suicidality, hospitalizations, relapse). CSP must incorporate items obtained using enhancement funds and explain how it promotes client’s recovery goals.

Progress Notes: Documents progress of persons served to maintain a permanent record of individual activity per established methods and procedures. Documentation must be finalized in Avatar within 48 hours from the time the services were rendered. Progress notes must be detailed and clearly reflect how the staff’s efforts are linked to the services and goals in the client’s service plan and the client’s progress or lack of progress relative to the service plan.