Position Summary:

As a Counselor II (Full-Time), you will counsel both adolescent & adult individuals and groups to promote optimum sobriety. The Counselor will help adolescents & adults address personal denial, gain an understanding of alcoholism/addiction and evaluate personal motivation and need for change. Throughout this process, the counselor will assess the patient’s emotional, physical, and psychological health to determine need for higher or lower levels of clinical care. The counselor will guide the patient to understand life areas affected by substance use, develop healthy coping skills to manage emotions and improve behavior, and ultimately develop a solid recovery plan to prevent relapse.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Counsel patients in individual and group therapy sessions to gain understanding of chemical dependency, adjust to being sober/clean and foster willingness to make lifestyle changes that support recover
• Conduct a comprehensive Psychosocial Assessment, ongoing assessment of high-risk patients, complete suicide risk assessment and mental status screening
• Evaluate and integrate assessment findings from all disciplines and databases into a clinical summary and comprehensive treatment plan
• Develop an individualized treatment plan with identified measurable goals and objectives
• Manage and coordinate the patient’s work on treatment objectives while keeping the patient, clinical team, payers, and referral sources involved and/or informed of the patient’s progress or lack of progress as appropriate
• Involve family members in the treatment process and address barriers to family involvement
• Develop with the patient appropriate discharge plans and necessary referrals to support recovery
• Formulate and document a discharge summary for patients
• Maintain timely, confidential record-keeping pf patient progress.
• Guide patients in the development of skills and strategies to deal with their problems. Encourage patients to express their feelings, discuss what is happening in their lives and help them develop insight into themselves, their relationships and associated problems that resulted in treatment.
• Collect information about clients through interviews, observations, screens, and assessments. Prepares and maintains treatment records and reports.
• Evaluate clients’ physical or mental condition and works with an interdisciplinary team to develop individualized treatment interventions.
• Develop and implement the 12-step philosophy in treatment plans based on clinical experience and knowledge.
• Act as a client advocate to assess high risk patients, coordinate required services or to resolve emergency problems in crisis situations.
• Must be able to work in a cooperative manner with co-workers, managers, clients and prospective clients
• Maintain clinical practice in compliance with Bradford Policy and Procedure, JCAHO Standards of Care and Alabama State Department of Mental Health guidelines
• Participate in performance improvement initiatives.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• 2 years working experience in addiction treatment preferred
• Must have experience working with adolescents & adults
• Must have had previous training and/or experience to demonstrate competency with a special population (e.g., Adult or Adolescent population, if applicable)
• Provide case management in accordance with established treatment procedures and professional code of ethics
• Assure documentation reflects the care delivered
• Must be available for work as scheduled
• Exceptional communication skills

Education:

• Master’s degree in Social or Behavioral Science required
• Professional licensure is required. If not, must be qualified to make application for ALC, LPC, LMSW, LICSW, or LMFT licensure within 90 days of hire

Physical Requirements:

• Walk within the facility approximately ½ mile per 8-hour shift
• Must be able to continuously sit from ½ hours up to 4 hours per 8-hour shift
• Must be able to see (corrected) and hear (hearing aid acceptable)
• Must be able to work in a constant state of alertness as to perform the job in a safe manner
• If recovering, 3 years of continuous verifiable sobriety