Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician (PCBHC)

POSITION TITLE: Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician (PCBHC)

REPORTS TO (TITLE): Mental Health Manager of Behavioral Health

SALARY RANGE: $90,438 - $110,031

Job Summary:

The Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician (BHC) works as a member of the primary care team providing patient-centered, whole-person care to an underserved population in Sonoma County, CA. The BHC strives to enhance the whole team's ability to provide excellent, comprehensive, culturally responsive health care that meets the needs of our diverse community by providing same-day access to behavioral health services including consultations, assessments, brief interventions, and education. The BHC utilizes a biopsychosocial approach to understand and address the emotional, cognitive, behavioral, situational, and contextual barriers to the patient's health and wellbeing and, in conjunction with the patient, the primary care provider, and other team members develops targeted treatment plans tailored to the patient's needs, goals, and readiness for change.

Specific Tasks/Duties Include:

• Provides comprehensive assessment and diagnosis of primary care patients in brief (15-30 minutes) integrated healthcare setting consultations.
• Provides effective treatment planning to assist patients in successfully achieving their goals.
• Assists the primary care team in developing care management processes such as the use of guidelines, disease management techniques, case management, and patient education and motivational interviewing skills to improve self-management of chronic disease.
• Provides behavioral health consultation to primary care providers, family medicine and nurse practitioner residents, psychiatrists, SUD case managers, care coordinators, nurses, community health workers and medical support staff.
• Works with medical staff to manage crisis situations.
• Assists Behavioral Health Manager in the development and delivery of training on behavioral health topics for medical and support staff.
• Participates in weekly Behavioral Health meetings for peer collaboration, consultation, case review, skill-building, and program development.
• Completes and maintains patient records within the Electronic Health Record (EHR) that meet applicable legal and ethical standards and the requirements of SRCH.
• Maintains high ethical standards as required by SRCH, the profession, state of California, and federal regulations and a sophisticated ability to manage sensitive patient information in a collaborative team setting.
• Works with MH support staff and primary care team members to support their ability to provide patient care and BH services at the top of their licensure.
• Participates in applicable SRCH quality assurance procedures.
• Attends mental health team meetings, relevant agency meetings, and supervision as directed.
• Seeks clinical and administrative supervision as needed.
• Participates in ongoing training.
• Other duties as assigned.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications:

Education:

• LCSW, PsyD. Or PhD. with a valid, unrestricted California license.
  
  

Experience:

• One year of experience providing similar services preferred.
• Experience working in a primary care medical facility preferred.
• Experience working with people from various cultures preferred.
  
  

Knowledge and Skills:

• Bilingual Spanish and English fluency strongly preferred (may be required in certain settings).
• Demonstrates ability to work as a member of a team, communicate patient information to other team members, collaborate with other departments, and support team decisions.
• Exemplifies SRCH values to welcome everyone with compassion and respect for their culture, language, identity, and values. Demonstrates knowledge of and sensitivity to persons of various social, cultural, economic, and educational backgrounds
• Uses strong interpersonal skills. Possesses the ability to work with people with a variety of backgrounds and educational levels.
• Ability to adapt to the fast pace of primary care, providing a high volume of brief and effective patient and provider consultations, gracefully accepting interruptions, and sensitively tailoring interventions to the patient's unique context.
• Willingness to think outside the box to find ways to use your knowledge of behavior change and trauma-informed care to improve the mental and physical health of all our patients, most of whom might never engage in traditional psychotherapy.
• Knowledge of some evidence-based, problem-focused modalities including motivational interviewing, CBT, DBT, FACT, solution-focused therapy, etc.
• Knowledge of effects and side effects of psychotropic medication is helpful. Knowledge of psychological symptoms of medical illness and somatic symptoms of psychiatric illness is also helpful.
• Willingness to engage in continuing education to fill in knowledge gaps required.
• Strong organizational skills with ability to manage time, prioritize projects, manage multiple tasks, and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrates knowledge of compliance issues within the community clinic environment.
• Demonstrates a willingness to report any incident that is unusual or incompatible with accepted clinic procedures.
• Maintains confidentiality of patient information in accordance with HIPAA and state and federal guidelines and licensure practices.
• Exhibits strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrates ability to manage difficult or confrontational situations in a calm, consistent and equitable manner.
• Timely completion of required charting and documentation standards; capable of completing notes within 48 hours of therapy intervention.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.
• Familiarity with telehealth services and the ability to conduct consults via this modality.
• Holds or is willing to obtain current CPR certification.
  
  

SRCH is an equal opportunity employer to all, regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability (mental and physical), exercising the right to family care and medical leave, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, political affiliation, race, religious creed, sex (includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), and sexual orientation.

Physical Requirements:

While performing the duties of this job, this position is frequently required to do the following:

• Use standard office equipment and access, input, and retrieve information from a computer. Use computer keyboard with manual and finger dexterity and wrist-finger speed sufficient to perform repetitive actions efficiently for extended periods of time.
• Communicate effectively in person or via telephone in a manner which can be understood by those with whom the person is speaking, including a diverse population.
• Give and follow verbal and written instructions with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Perform complex mental functions; collect, interpret, and/or analyze complex data and information.
• Vision: see details of objects at close range.
• Coordinate multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Reach forward, up, down, and to the side can add: to access files.
• Sit or stand for minimum periods of one hour at a time and come and go from the work area repeatedly throughout the day.
• Lift up to 20 pounds.
• Tolerate working outside in fluctuating weather conditions, including hot and cold temperatures and occasional wet weather.
• Travel to other offices and community locations.
  
  

SRCH provides reasonable accommodation for individuals with a physical or mental disability to apply for jobs and to perform the essential functions of their jobs unless it would cause an undue hardship.