Social Services Specialist

Sea Mar Community Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) founded in 1978, is a community-based organization committed to providing quality, comprehensive health, human, housing, educational and cultural services to diverse communities, specializing in service to Latinos in Washington State. Sea Mar proudly serves all persons without regard to race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, or sexual orientation, and regardless of ability to pay for services. Sea Mar's network of services includes more than 90 medical, dental, and behavioral health clinics and a wide variety of nutritional, social, and educational services. We are recruiting for the following position:

Sea Mar is a mandatory COVID-19 and flu vaccine organization

Position Summary

The role of the Social Service Specialist is to conduct an initial screening and provide a comprehensive integrated clinical psychosocial assessment; develop intervention plans based on that assessment; provide brief treatment toward the care plan; provide transition services for long term counseling/treatment and Infant Case Management; and consult with the interdisciplinary Maternity Support Services team on the needs of clients served. The productivity expectation for this position is 20 or more client encounters per week for full-time work.

Duties and Responsibilities

As a mission-driven organization, the core values of, and the services offered at Sea Mar are based on the belief that everyone deserves to be respectfully treated in a way that preserves dignity and enhances self-worth. Sea Mar is an advocate for its clients and aims to achieve industry-leading, client-centered, culturally-aware services. 

Sea Mar employees serve as an extension of this mission and demonstrate their commitment to an excellent client experience by:

• Understanding and empathizing with client needs
• Surpassing client expectations
• Demonstrating a high level of integrity and work ethics
• Exhibiting compassion and commitment
• Advocating for social justice
• Taking pride in individual work as well as that of the team
• Continually learning to stay current with industry standards, best practices and technology
• Utilizing AIDET skills at all times

As a Sea Mar employee, the individual in this position commits to adherence to these values to their utmost ability and endeavors to strengthen and embody this mission daily.

The Social Service Specialist:

• Exemplifies excellent customer relations with clients, visitors, and other employees; shows courtesy, friendliness, and respect.
• Introduces clients to integrated MSS services (either in home or at clinic) and performs systematic social services screening to determine current status and needs in a variety of areas.
• Based on identified client needs, makes referrals to appropriate agencies/services or provides information and assists clients for self-referral.
• Provides advocacy as needed to encourage participation in implementing the care plan or to resolve problems which are interfering with active participation in the care plan (such as transportation or language barrier).
• Charts notes of the services provided as required by the state and agency in Sea Mar’s Electronic Health Records.
• Assists client in accomplishing tasks necessary to access services such as filling out appropriate forms, obtaining necessary documentation or authorization.
• Maintains regular face-to-face contact with client in order to monitor implementation of the care plan.
• Maintains professional standards and follows the treatment policies and procedures of the agency, as well as applicable federal, state and local regulations. 
• Completes daily documentation as directed by the MSS Manager and First Step program guidelines.
• Reports any unusual incidents to their manager or the Preventive Health Services Director. The Social Service Specialist is a state mandated reporter, as such; he/she will report to the state any suspected case of child/elder abuse or neglect as mandated by WAC.
• Complete a thorough, culturally sensitive, psychosocial assessment which includes but is not limited to:  Personal history (cultural background, health status, coping strategies, mental health status, substance use, abuse and violence); current family functioning; review of support systems (formal and informal); and basic physical needs.  This assessment is shared with the client and team members to assure that all relevant psychosocial issues are addressed in the care planning.
• Provide brief, culturally relevant, counseling to client/families which would include: crisis intervention; mental health concerns; pregnancy and birth options; grief; stress; parenting; coping skills; problem-solving; abuse/neglect; family violence. Educate the client to make informed decision regarding personal, child and family health/mental health care and treatment. Brief counseling is defined as counseling to assist the client in developing some skills to cope with issues presented and developing a plan to address ongoing longer term treatment with appropriate mental health providers. 
• Communicate clearly, oral and written, with clients, community professionals and interdisciplinary team members. This includes maintaining records that are clear and concise regarding psychosocial and/or needs assessment, service plans, treatment and follow-up care.  The documentation must reflect legal mandates for reporting abuse/neglect.
• Participate fully in all interdisciplinary team meetings to provide input on client’s assessed psychosocial needs and on interdisciplinary team plans for client. The goal is to build family strengths and resiliency.
• Develop working relationships within the service system network in particular services that have significant impact on pregnant and parenting clients such as:  Mental Health and Chemical Dependency systems; network within service providing community serving this population to develop strategies to improve services delivery.
• Demonstrate knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the client served.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the life span.
• Able to identify and categorize each patient’s age-specific grouping of needs, such as those for infant, adolescent, or geriatric patients.   
• Performance of additional duties as assigned. 

Personnel and Performance Metrics:

The Social Service Specialist will:

• Adhere to his/her established schedule and must be prepared to provide services and/or engage in other work related duties by her/his established start time, each day
• Provide services using AIDET skills at all times, for both, external and internal customers

Qualifications

The Social Service Specialist must be able to perform each essential duty as outlined above satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• The Social Service Specialist demonstrates knowledge of the principles of growth and development throughout the life span, and is able to identify and categorize each patient’s age specific grouping of needs, such as those for infants, adolescents, or geriatric patients. Additionally, the Social Service Specialist must demonstrate knowledge and skill necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patient served.
• The person in this position must be of good character and able to maintain the understanding, physical health, emotional stability and personality suited to meet the physical, mental, emotional, and social needs of the population served.
• The person in this position shall have no history or evidence of alcohol or other drug misuse for a period of three (3) years prior to the date of employment at the facility, and no misuse of alcohol or other drugs while employed at this facility.
• This individual cannot be a person who has been convicted of a felony within the last seven years or ever been convicted of child abuse and / or any crime involving physical harm to another person nor be a perpetrator of substantiated child abuse.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

The Social Service Specialist has:

• Knowledge of the Patient Centered Health Home Model of care.
• The ability to work with an inter-disciplinary care team. Members of the team may include medical providers, nursing staff, care coordinators, behavioral health, preventive health and other support staff.
• Knowledge of evidence-based screening tools (PHQ 9, GAD 7, AUDIT, DAST, etc.) and the ability to use these tools as part of a framework to make appropriate level of care interventions and referrals for patients as needed.
• The ability to maintain effective relationships and professional rapport with patients and members of the multidisciplinary team.
• The skills and ability to actively engage patients in therapeutic alliances.
• Strong listening, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Knowledge of medical terminology.
• Good working knowledge and skills in using electronic health record platforms, external registries, as well as the Microsoft suite of programs in order to document patient services, develop and run reports, etc.  

LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred.  Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals.  Have the ability to write routine reports and correspondence.  Have the ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization.

COMPUTER SKILLS

• Must have typing proficiency of at least 35 wpm.  Basic knowledge of computers and programs such as Microsoft Office, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and electronic health care records. Possess the ability to learn new programs as they may pertain to use of electronic health records.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS

• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Have the ability to compute rate, ratio, and percent and to draw and interpret bar graphs.

REASONING ABILITY

• Have the ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

Education, Certificates, Licenses, Registrations, and Medical Screening

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university and current Certified Counselor through the State of Washington Department of Health or Chemical Dependency Counselor. Sea Mar does not provide clinical supervision for licensure purposes.
• Experience working with underserved populations such as, but not limited to, those who have limited English speaking skills, are homeless, and migrant and seasonal workers. If the patient requires services beyond brief intervention, the Social Service Specialist is responsible for coordinating the timely referral to behavioral health services.
• Experience working with patients who have substance use disorders, chronic mental illness, and those who require crisis intervention.
• Experience working with safety-net providers within the community and broad knowledge of community resources to facilitate whole person care.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• Washington State driver's license required. 
• This person must receive a background check from Washington State Patrol TB test annually.
• This position must obtain Basic Life Support (BLS) CPR within 90 days of hire date and is required to maintain current BLS CPR throughout employment.

Additional Requirements

• Pre-hire and annual employee health screening required
• Annual influenza vaccine required.  Only exception is for employees with a medical or religious exemption approved by Administration.  Employees with an approved medical or religious exemption must wear a mask at all time during the flu season.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Requirements

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 use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.  The employee frequently is required to stand, walk, and sit.  The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.  The employee may be required to lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

Hourly - Hourly Plan, 27.71 USD Hourly

What We Offer:

Sea Mar offers talented and motivated people the opportunity to work in a dynamic and growing community health organization. Working at Sea Mar Community Health Centers is more than just a job, it’s a fulfilling career with opportunity for advancement. The fringe benefits surpass most companies. For example, Full-time employees working 30 hours or more, receive an excellent benefit package of:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• Prescription coverage
• Life Insurance
• Long Term Disability
• EAP (Employee Assistance Program)
• Paid-time-off starting at 24 days per year + 10 paid Holidays.
• We also offer 401(k)/Retirement options and an exciting opportunity to work in a culturally diverse environment. 

Sea Mar is an equal opportunity employer.

Please visit our website to learn more about us at www.seamar.org. You may also apply thru our Career page at this link.