Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician

The Primary Care Behavioral Health Clinician ( BHC) works as a member of the primary care team at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center (VGMHC) providing patient-centered, whole-person care to an underserved population in Washington and Yamhill counties.

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.

Location : This position is based out of Virginia Garcia's Cornelius, OR clinic.

Pay / Benefits : $31.76 starting hourly pay and Full benefits. $10, annual differential once licensure is obtained. Also eligible for National Health Service Corps (NHSC) loan forgiveness program once licensure is obtained.

Additional differential for bilingual Spanish proficiency.

Essential Responsibilities :

• Provides comprehensive assessment and DSM diagnosis (as applicable) 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.
• May assist Behavioral Health Leadership in the development and delivery of training on behavioral health topics for staff.

May include prevention and management of disruptive behavior.

• May be required to act as project lead on programs assisting with metrics specific to population-based health.
• Completes and maintains patient records within the Electronic Health Record (EHR) that meet applicable legal and ethical standards and the requirements of VGMHC.
• Works with MH staff and primary care team members to support their ability to provide patient care and BH services at the top of their licensure.
• Identifies patients who would benefit and are willing to receive specialty mental health care and makes referral to onsite- specialty options or off-site to community resources.
• May carry a caseload of mental health clients for on-going specialty mental health services. Will provide a varied mix of mental health services and health and behavior interventions, depending on credentials and site.
• Provide back-up for other staff when needed.
• Maintain awareness of community referral resources. Provides appropriate resources and support linkage, culturally appropriate advocacy and community collaboration and culturally appropriate client evaluation and treatment.
• May be required to work some evenings.
• Qualified licensed clinicians may be requested to provide licensure supervision as part of their regular position in compliance with the rules of their licensing board.

Qualifications :

Licensed or unlicensed Master's level clinician : CSWA, RA, PsyD, LCSW, LPC. If unlicensed, applicant must be willing to register with respective board and work towards licensure.

Lifeworks NW will provide licensure supervision.

• Fluency in Spanish and experience within the Latinx community is preferred, and required at some locations.
• 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.
• 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.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct a biopsychosocial assessment to determine appropriate services for patients.
• Demonstrated knowledge of treatment methods for individual, family and group therapy. This may include evidenced based practices such as motivational interviewing, CBT, DBT, FACT and solution focused therapy.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain case management.
• Knowledge of medications commonly used by patient population.
• Good computer skills including a functional knowledge of Microsoft Outlook. Ability to utilize electronic health record system (Epic / Ochin).
• Timely completion of required charting and documentation standards; capable of completing notes within 24 business hours of therapy intervention.
• Demonstrated understanding of cultural values and norms, acculturation and generational issues within a culture, sensitivity and understanding of specific barriers which may lead to lack of access and engagement.
• Demonstrates ability to manage difficult or confrontational situations in a calm, consistent and equitable manner.
• Familiarity with telehealth services and the ability to conduct consults via this modality.
• Holds or is willing to obtain current CPR certification.
• Ability to work evenings until 7 : 00pm at times.

Working Conditions

• Indoor
• High volume of walking required. Clinicians may walk between 2-3miles / day within clinic.
• May require some infrequent travel to other clinics.

LifeWorks NW is a private, non-profit organization providing prevention, mental health, substance use treatment, and related social services to youths, adults, and older adults in over fifteen locations throughout Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties.

LifeWorks NW promotes a healthy community by providing quality and culturally responsive mental health and addiction services across the lifespan.

They partner with Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center whose mission is to provide high quality, comprehensive, and culturally appropriate primary health care to the communities of Washington and Yamhill counties with a special emphasis on migrant and seasonal farmworkers and others with barriers to receiving health care.