Behavioral Health Advocate

ABOUT THE ROLE

Reporting to Behavioral Health Leadership, the Behavioral Health Advocate is an important member of our collaborative care team. You’ll work directly with patients who have primary behavioral health disorders with comorbid medical diagnosis’ and work side-by-side with primary care providers and licensed social workers (LCSW/LMSW) to facilitate meaningful patient engagement and person-centered care. You’ll assist in maintaining care plans tailored to patients’ needs and behavioral health treatment goals.

Additionally, you’ll be a primary liaison with community based groups ensuring our patients are tapping into resources to address their social needs such as supportive housing organizations, legal aid, and behavioral health providers.

The Behavioral Health Advocate is an in-person role supporting patients Syracruse, NY and surrounding counties. 

Here's what you'll do:

• Travel to patient’s homes with other Galileans as well as independently to provide longitudinal care to our patients
• Conduct community-based outreach to locate and engage our highest acuity patients
• Meet with patients in their homes, shelters, other residential settings, at community agencies, hospital inpatient units and/or day hospital programs.
• Assist patients with the coordination of services from various settings as appropriate, including facilitating discharge from acute and alternative settings and providing Care Coordination throughout the continuum of care.
• Become the ultimate go-to for our patients, building and strengthening relationships with patients, families, and the broader community
• Preliminarily assess patients for acute behavioral and physical health needs, generating referrals to providers, community-based resources, and appropriate services and other resources to assist in goal achievement.
• Document in a comprehensive manner to ensure that all goals, interventions, and care coordination activities for each member are compliant with professional standards and regulatory guidelines.

ABOUT YOU

We look for passionate people who are invested in delivering quality care to individuals with complex behavioral health disorders. You're passionate about social advocacy and aware of how the stigma of having such a disorder can impact an individual on a systemic, social and familial level. You should be excited about fixing what’s broken to improve care quality and health outcomes for everyone.

We believe in a culture that fosters teamwork, excellence, and sound decision-making—one that is based on mutual respect and trust. We appreciate individuals who are open and honest about what they're looking for so we can ensure it’s a fit on both sides.

We would love to hear from you if you have the following or equivalent experience:

• Care deeply about each individual patient and energized by the idea of being part of a solution focused team that is is continuously improving the broader system which support people in a higher quality, lower cost way
• Have a background in community and behavioral health and an enthusiasm for applying those tenets in a new, creative way
• Love connecting and communicating with a diverse group of people
• Have been a part of a multidisciplinary care team and love collaborating with others
• Have deep knowledge and savviness in navigating social benefits programs and local resources
• Displays flexibility, ability to learn quickly, and adaptable to quickly changing environments
• A Bachelor’s degree in a related field with (2+) years of experience providing care coordination/case management to individuals with chronic SMI/SUDs or a Master’s degree in a related field and one year of experience providing care coordination/case management to individuals with chronic SMI/SUDs
• Demonstrated ability to hustle, multi-task, pay attention to details while keeping the overall goal of the program in mind

Compensation: $28-32/hour based upon prior experience, performance, and market dynamics.

Physical Requirements: Employee must be able to meet the following requirements with or without reasonable accommodation: the ability to stand, sit, and walk for extended periods of time and ability to lift and carry objects weighing up to 20 pounds. The job involves frequent bending, reaching, and kneeling to perform various tasks.

Travel Requirements: This is primarily for field-based patient care and support for patients with 60% of the time spent in the field seeing patients and the rest of the time working remotely. You will be required to commute to patient visits through personal transportation or with our team in our mobile unit.