911 Call Center Clinician

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Cambridge Emergency Communications Department (ECD) The Emergency Communications Department operates the City's Combined Emergency Communications and 911 Center (ECC) and Public Safety Information Technology (PSIT), located at the Robert W. Healy Public Safety Facility. ECC receives over 50,000 911 and other emergency type calls and alarms throughout the year and manages the coordinated dispatch of police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS) as well as other resources. ECC staff handles over 180,000 non-emergency calls regarding quality-of-life issues related to noise, traffic, lost property and after-hour responses for City services and information. PSIT handles all IT maintenance, troubleshooting, and project management for Police, Fire and Emergency Communications.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The 911 Call Center Clinician is part of a team of behavioral health professionals working across City departments to directly support members of the community in crisis.

Specific duties / responsibilities include but are not limited to the following :

• Work in the 911 Call Center to support individuals with mental health, homelessness, and substance use disorder who reach out for help.
• Perform lethality, environmental risk, and safety assessments. Relay this information to responders.
• Implement protocols to safely de-escalate behavioral health crises over the phone.

Provide short-term counseling utilizing harm reduction and trauma-informed care principles.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS :

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities :

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS :

PHYSICAL DEMANDS : Tasks involve extensive keyboarding on multiple keyboards and attentive listening to telephone calls and radio transmissions (often at a low volume level and of poor audio quality on a department-supplied headset or handset). Candidates must have the ability to exert very moderate physical effort typically involving some combination of stooping, kneeling, and lifting, as well as carrying, pushing, and pulling objects and materials of moderate weight, twelve to twenty pounds. Candidates must be able to work any shift assignments, including nights, weekends, holidays, overtime (both forced and scheduled), and up to 16-hour shifts. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

WORK ENVIRONMENT : General call center-type environment with air conditioning and fluorescent lighting. Noise level can be high as the office is active with phone calls, radio transmissions, signal, and equipment sound.