Behavioral Health Therapist

Description: BEHAVIORAL HEALTH THERAPIST JOB SUMMARY: The Behavioral Health Therapist is responsible for providing early childhood mental health support to Head Start staff and families.
The Behavioral Health Therapist provides direct therapy to enrolled children, as well as, a broad range of services, including mental health observations in classrooms, training and coaching staff, screening, assessment, and referral services, and providing parent training.
The Behavioral Health Therapist is responsible for the collection of data, maintaining records, and supporting compliance in all facets of Head Start Performance Standards, Medicaid, and applicable Federal and State regulations.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Work collaboratively with Health Services staff and other components, including Education, Family Services, and Accounting.
Create and facilitate occasional workshops on Behavioral/Mental Health for staff and families.
Communicate with teaching teams, and community providers working with clients to ensure continuity of care.
Consult regularly with agency-acquired play therapist in the community.
Maintain electronic records for each child in two separate systems.
Ensure Medicaid billing information is submitted monthly to agency contracted billing service.
Work with parents/caregivers of clients to meet therapeutic goals.
Perform global classroom observations at the beginning, and in the middle of, each program year, to include documentation and recommendations.
Perform individual observations when requested by teaching teams, to include documentation and recommendations.
Ensures that children receive necessary services offered both by the program and outside organization.
Manage acquisitions for therapy supplies.
All other duties as assigned by the Health Services Coordinator RESPONSIBILITIES/EXPECTATIONS: Identify children who would benefit from individual therapy.
Screen and assess children for mental health and therapeutic needs.
Create a system for determining which children qualify for therapy and who is chosen for agency therapy caseload.
Update and maintain treatment plans for each client on caseload.
Provide direct therapeutic services to a caseload of 18-22 enrolled children.
Maintain regular therapy case notes for each client.
Provide referrals and/or connections to therapy and applicable services outside of the agency.
Work closely and collaborate with the Behavioral Health Specialist to identify students in need of therapy, brainstorm solutions to support students in the classroom, and provide consultation and support for the Behavioral Health Specialist’s roles and responsibilities.
Create and facilitate workshops for staff and families.
Attend and/or facilitate child specific staff meetings when requested.
Advocate for mental health best practices and ethical standards within the agency.
Create and customize therapy manual, informed consent, and other forms as necessary.
Identify and attend relative training to satisfy annual licensure requirements.
Maintain record of client contact hours for fulfilling licensure hours as necessary.
Seek out and complete opportunities for continuing education in the field of play therapy, early childhood development, trauma, and mental health techniques for young children.
Meet with clinical supervisor as needed to discuss cases and concerns.
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE: A current license with the State of Montana in social work (LCSW) or clinical professional counseling (LCPC), or attainment of licensure within six months of employment.
Experience with assessment of young children’s social and emotional functioning and two years of experience in early childhood environments are required.
A minimum of 20 hours of training specific to Trauma-Informed Care and familiarity with SimplePractice, or related platform for documenting and billing, are preferred.
Memberships with Montana Early Childhood Project and Association for Play Therapy are desired.
USING ACTIVE SUPERVISON TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE: Head Start, Inc.
uses the strategy of Active Supervision to ensure that no child is left unattended while in the care of Head Start, Inc.
Incidents of children left unsupervised must be immediately reported to the Executive Director.
All Head Start, Inc.
employees are responsible for the safety of children in our program.
Active Supervision requires focused attention and intentional observation of children at all times.
All employees who care for children position themselves in classrooms, on playgrounds, in hallways, on buses, on field trips and in any space where children are present so that they can observe all of the children: watching, counting, and listening at all times.
They also use their knowledge of each child's development and abilities to anticipate what he/she will do, then get involved and redirect them when necessary.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk, listen, stand, walk, and sit.
The employee is also often required to use hands to manipulate objects, tools, or controls, reach with hands and arms, balance, bend, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, and move quickly to respond to children’s health and safety needs.
The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 35 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.
WORKING CONDITIONS: The working environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.
While performing the duties of this position, the employee works in busy classrooms or a shared office environment, travels by vehicle, may be exposed to changing weather conditions, and works in varied environments.
The noise level is usually moderate.
COMMENTS: This description is intended to describe the essential job functions and requirements for its performance.
It is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and requirements of this position.
Other functions and duties may be assigned as determined to be necessary for overall job accomplishment.
Requirements: Working for Head Start, Inc.
The purpose of the Head Start program is to increase the capacity of eligible children to succeed in school by promoting an inclusive community that enhances their overall development, equalizes opportunities, strengthens parent-child relationships, and supports and empowers parents to achieve their identified goals.
Head Start, Inc.
’s culture is rooted in our values, ensuring that we put the interest of our children first, along with respect, positivity, empathy, and competence.
We are looking for passionate employees that are committed to creating a positive learning environment where students and adults alike are encouraged to be innovative, creative, and inquisitive.
Head Start, Inc.
recognizes the value of work-life balance and is proud to offer our employees a generous comprehensive benefit package and is committed to your well-being.
Benefits include: 401(K), medical coverage, dental and vision care, as well as short- and long-term disability insurance, flexible spending accounts, professional development opportunities, and gifted Paid Time Off.
Head Start, Inc.
is proud to provide our team with 17 paid holidays, including Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring Breaks - not to mention summers off!