Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Livingston Community Health - Modesto, CA

Full-time - Mid Level

Modesto, CA

Ambulatory Health Care Services

About the position

A successful Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) must be passionate about healthcare and want to make a difference in the lives of others while acting as a mission-driven catalyst to help Livingston Community Health deliver the best quality of care and excellent service to our patients and their families. The LCSW will provide comprehensive diagnostic mental health assessments, interventions, education, referrals, and consultations for patients in the primary care setting. The LCSW will work within our clinic as a member of the primary care provider team and will offer consultation services to primary care providers and behavioral health interventions to patients to help improve health and mental health outcomes. Our Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH) model's interventions are brief, practical, and effective. The LCSW will also support in the administrative duties and responsibilities to uphold the Policies and Procedures that support the mission of the Integrated Behavioral Health model.

Responsibilities

• Conducts patient intake, focusing on diagnostic and functional evaluations.
• Screen for appropriate level of care within the mild-to-moderate primary care setting and discuss with patients and medical team about linkage to outside community resources as needed for higher level of care, i.e., County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services (BHRS) for severe mental illness (SMI) within scheduled appointment and Warm Hand-Offs from the medical staff.
• Screen patients 12 years of age and older for substance misuse concerns and initiate the appropriate referrals to internal programs or outside community resources as needed.
• Provides brief, focused behavioral health interventions (i.e., 6-8 sessions, or 6 months), and appropriate re-evaluation/monitoring of diagnosis and functioning to assess treatment efficacy.
• Support the patient in identifying behavioral/physical health needs to improve chronic health conditions that may be impacting them daily, assist the patient in initiating healthier activities and find resources that promote overall well-being.
• Initiates follow-up to determine if any changes in treatment plan are indicated, usually lasting approximately 30 minutes.
• Empowers patients with self-management skills and educational information so they may be full participants in their own treatment and recovery.
• Makes recommendations to the primary care team concerning the patients' treatment plan objectives and provides feedback about the patient's care, treatment recommendations and progress via documentation in the patient's electronic health record.
• Collaborates and consults with the medical team and supports medical providers' treatment plan, including adhering to the medical recommendations and other recommended behavioral health activities.
• Assist the medical care team in referrals to psychiatric medication support services for patients either within the services at LCH or within the patient's managed care plan.
• Maintains clear documentation within the patient chart to track the diagnosis, patients' response, treatment plan and progress within the LCH policy to complete charting within 72-hours.
• Other duties and projects as assigned.

Requirements

• Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), state of CA.

Nice-to-haves

• Bilingual strongly preferred, languages Spanish, Punjabi, and Portuguese.
• Current practices and techniques in psychotherapeutic treatment, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
• Excellent working knowledge of evidence-based treatments for behavioral health conditions.
• Ability to work through brief patient contacts and conduct accurate clinical assessments of mental and behavioral health conditions during scheduled appointments and Warm Hand-Offs.
• Is comfortable with the pace of primary care, working with an interdisciplinary team, and has effective communication skills, written and verbal.
• Has good knowledge of psychopharmacology.
• Designs and implements individualized therapies, clinical pathways, and protocols for treatment of mental health and selected chronic health conditions.
• Flexible and competent with frequent interruptions, constant changes in scheduling and able to manage multiple demands from both staff and patients.