NYC Health + Hospitals Part-time Peer Counselor II Job Description |
Under the supervision of the Consumer Affairs Coordinator, the candidate for the position uses their lived experience as a behavioral health consumer to be a role model regarding the power of hope and resiliency, especially in relation to maintaining healthy habits that prevent relapse of mental illness, substance abuse and/or health issues. General Patient-Centered Focused Activities: - Assists the consumer with activities of daily living, e.g., setting up household, public transportation, budgeting, shopping, socializing, parenting, and other skills relevant to an individual’s rehabilitation goals. May make home visits.
- Distributes and uses the Guide to Keeping Healthy after the Hospital © booklet in groups with consumers on inpatient units and within ambulatory care services.
- Uses one's personal experience as a consumer of behavioral health services in role-modeling recovery and providing hope for other consumers.
- Shares with the consumers their own personal skills that they use to stay out of the hospital.
- Engages consumers and helps motivate them to set positive goals for their health and well-being. Also helps them to better understand the purpose and benefit of being in the hospital.
- Assists consumers in seeking clarification about the treatment and recovery process.
- Promotes wellness and recovery by assisting consumers, in an individual and/or group setting, to identify their strengths and goals and to promote the notion of empowerment.
- Assists consumers in identifying their own individual warning signs of relapse and identifying and developing individual coping strategies.
- Assists consumers in identifying the causes of what brought them into the hospital and how they can learn how to stay out of the hospital.
- Assists consumers in developing skills intended to improve: mental health, substance abuse, physical health, activities of daily living (ADL), and self-advocacy.
- Links consumers with peer support and social support networks in the community. Documents in accordance with program requirements, in a timely manner.
- Maintains a rapport with assigned Nurse Liaison upon entering and exiting the inpatient unit.
- Participates in a weekly team supervision to obtain information and resources for consumers and staff.
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Minimum Qualifications: |
- A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent; and
- Satisfactory and documented completion of a formalized peer counselor/specialist training program which meets the training requirements for a Peer Advocacy Organization as mandated by the State of New York Office of Mental Health in their Official Policy Manual. The training program must be at least six months in duration; and one year of full-time satisfactory experience working with consumers of mental health services as a peer counselor/specialist, peer advocate or in a related human services area.; or
- Two years of full-time satisfactory experience working with consumers of mental health services as a peer counselor/specialist, peer advocate or in a related human services area.
NYS Certification Preferred. |
Contact:
Gita Enders, MA, CPRP
Assistant Director / Consumer Affairs Coordinator
NYC Health + Hospitals
Division of Medical & Professional Affairs
Office of Behavioral Health
125 Worth Street, Room 424
New York, NY 10013
212.788.3524 | gita.enders@nychhc.org