Peer Parent Partner - FIRE

Job Location: Las Vegas - 5659 Duncan Drive - Las Vegas, NV

Position Type: Full Time

Education Level: High School

Salary Range: $15.00 - $17.00 Hourly

Job Shift: Any

Position Summary:

Peer Support Parent Partners are parents/caregivers who have first-hand experience with the various state systems as well as in recovery from substance use, mental health and co-occurring disorders who use their lived experience as a tool to assist others by sharing their personal journeys and knowledge gained. They exhibit exceptional qualities in their own efforts to understand how systems work and appreciate what it takes to be successful, along with personal qualities that lend themselves to collaboration on various levels. They serve as advocates to mentor parents currently involved with the system(s) and provide strength-based support for persons in or seeking recovery from behavioral health-related issues. In order to be considered, the Parent Partner's cases must be closed, and they must be maintaining family stability.

The service offers a type of partnership where the person in or seeking recovery self-directs their care while the Peer Support Parent Partner provides expertise in supporting successful change. The Parent Partner focuses on achieving any goals important to the individual and asks questions and offers suggestions to help the person begin to take the lead in addressing their own needs. The practice focuses on honoring values and making principle-based decisions, creating a clear plan of action, and using current strengths to reach future goals. The Peer Support Parent Partner serves as an accountability partner to help sustain recovery and assists in accessing systems needed to support the individual, such as disability benefits, health care, housing, etc.; and serves as a consultant to parents and caregivers.

Essential Job Functions:

• Serves as a consultant to parents and caregivers throughout the wraparound process, on an as-needed basis;
• Utilizes personal and professional life experience to provide peer support to parents/caregivers served by wraparound;
• Provides new parents and caregivers with information about the agency and the wraparound process and procedures, including the Family Partner role to assist them in successfully engaging;
• Possesses the ability to work with people, communicate effectively, maintain confidentiality, and engage in respectful interaction;
• Assists with and attends special events, as required;
• Attends various Wraparound Team Meetings as the supportive voice for the family;
• Acts as the parents' voice as participants on various committees and workgroups;
• Demonstrates an understanding of and an ability to successfully implement concepts presented in orientation;
• Exhibits qualities of dependability, empathy, genuineness, respect, and maintains a positive and supportive attitude;
• Encourages, inspires, and empowers individuals to reach treatment goals;
• Coordinates and facilitates psychoeducational peer groups related to removing environmental obstacles and improving healthy life skills and social connectedness, including teaching relaxation and mindfulness strategies;
• Assists individuals in developing strategies to communicate with and advocate for themselves to adopt a proactive role in their own behavioral and physical health;
• Instructs about services provided to help them (e.g., availability of peer services, benefits, advanced directives, living will opportunities, clients' rights process);
• Mentors individuals in the recovery process (e.g., reassures them of the reality of recovery, assists with increasing personal empowerment, helps set and achieve goals);
• Provides information and assists with applying for supplemental programs such as housing;
• Assists persons with completing forms; develops services and supports to identify service and support gaps for individuals with mental health or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders; participates on treatment teams with persons' consent;
• Collaborates to assist with intake/discharge planning (e.g., conducts intake and discharge surveys, facilitates exit interviews);
• Provides support and encouragement to family members;
• Completes all paperwork, including but not limited to, leave requests, mileage forms, and correspondence in an organized, accurate, and timely fashion;
• Regularly attends supervisions with the Project Coordinator;
• Follows through on all cases and assignments;
• Embraces and embodies the mission, vision, guiding principles, clinical vision, and goals of WestCare Foundation;
• Other responsibilities as assigned to support specific organizational needs.

Essential Qualifications:

Certifications/Licenses:

• Valid driver's license;
• Ability to pass first level and NABS background clearance;
• As mandated by Presidential Order, all employees of WestCare Foundation, Inc. and all affiliates will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 effective 11/1/2021. Employees that have requested a Medical or Religious Exemption, which has been approved by Human Resources, will be required to test for the virus weekly.

During your tenure with WestCare, there may be new requirements, including, but not limited to, vaccinations that are issued by local, State, Federal, and/or Funders that WestCare may have to comply with. Should this occur, Human Resources or appropriate personnel will inform you.

Education:

• High School Graduate; some college preferred.

Experience and Competencies:

• Life-trained paraprofessional who has successfully negotiated the child welfare, juvenile justice, and/or early learning systems;
• Must have behavioral health lived experience;
• Must be 18 years of age or older;
• Strong reading comprehension, written, and oral communication skills;
• Demonstrated experience with leadership advocacy or governance;
• Bilingual is an asset;
• A minimum of one year without receiving in-patient and/or intensive treatment services;
• A minimum of one year without involvement with law enforcement;
• A minimum of 6 months in stable and safe housing;
• A minimum of 6 months of stable employment or active enrollment in an educational setting;
• Continues to participate in support groups and/or behavioral health networks;
• Must provide 3 letters of references.

Working Conditions:

• Work is performed in multiple community-based settings, including the individual's place of residence;
• A minimum of 40 hours per week are expected, but significantly more hours may be required from time to time. Completion of job duties may require working before and after normal working hours. Regular attendance is required, and being able to work as many hours as necessary to complete job tasks is a required and essential duty of this position.

Essential Physical and Mental Demands of the Job:

The employee must be able to perform the following essential duties and activities with or without accommodation:

Physical Demands:

• Requires mobility and physical activity: Having an adequate range of body motion and mobility to work in an office, residential, or outdoor environment including standing and walking (even and uneven surfaces), sitting for extended periods, bending, twisting, reaching, balancing, occasional lifting and carrying of up to 30 pounds. Use of computer and telephone systems is required, which includes coordination of eye and hand, and fine manipulation by the hands (typing, writing, and working with files). Requires the ability to defend oneself and clients in physically abusive situations through the use of approved physical de-escalation techniques.
• Requires talking: Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word. Talking is required to impart oral information to employees, clients, patients, and the public, and in those activities in which the employee is required to convey detailed or important spoken instructions to others accurately, loudly, or quickly.
• Requires hearing: Hearing is required to receive and communicate detailed information through oral communication.
• Requires seeing: Clarity of vision at 20 inches or less and at a distance. This factor is required to complete paperwork for many of the employee's essential job functions and to observe client behavior and activities in and out of the facility.
• The normal work routine involves no exposure to human blood, body fluids, or tissues. However, exposure or potential exposure may be required as a condition of employment. Appropriate personal protective equipment will be readily available to every employee.

WestCare is a national nonprofit offering a broad spectrum of behavioral health and human services in 19 States, four U.S. territories, and three countries.