Job Lead- Temporary Peer Specialist

Position: Temporary Peer Specialist
Company: Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)
Location: Seattle, WA and surrounding area
Pay Range: $2,651 - $3,381 per month DOQ
Position Closes: September 7, 2010

Position Description: This is a temporary position not eligible for benefits or SEIU membership. Applications must be received by September 7, 2010 in order to be considered. A person who is or has been a recipient of mental health services for severe and persistent mental illness holds this position. Because of their life experience with mental illness and mental health services, the peer specialist provides expertise that professional training cannot replicate. Peer specialists are fully integrated team members who provide highly individualized services in the community and promote client self-determination and decision-making. Peer specialists also provide essential expertise and consultation to the entire team to promote a culture in which each client’s point of view and preferences are recognized, understood, respected and integrated into treatment, rehabilitation, and community self-help activities. Staff hired must be certified by the Washington State Peer Support Counselor Training Program within 1 year of employment with PACT team. For more information, please see the complete job description at www.desc.org/jobs.html

Company Information: The Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) is a client-centered recovery-oriented mental health service delivery model that has received substantial empirical support for facilitating community living, psychosocial rehabilitation, and recovery for persons who have the most severe and persistent mental illnesses, have severe symptoms and impairments, and have not benefited from traditional outpatient programs.

PACT serves clients with severe and persistent mental illness that are complex, have devastating effects on functioning, and, because of the limitations of traditional mental health services, may have gone without appropriate services. Consequently, the client group is often over represented among the homeless and in jails and prisons, and has been unfairly thought to resist or avoid involvement in treatment. PACT services are delivered by a group of multidisciplinary mental health staff who work as a team and provide the majority of the treatment, rehabilitation, and support services clients need to achieve their goals. The team is directed by a project manager, team leader and a psychiatric prescriber and includes a sufficient number of staff from the core mental health disciplines, at least one peer specialist, and a program or administrative support staff who work in shifts to cover 24 hours per day, seven days a week and to provide intensive services (multiple contacts may be as frequent as two to three times per day, seven days per week, which are based on client need and a mutually agreed upon plan between the client and PACT staff). Many, if not all, staff share responsibility for addressing the needs of all clients requiring frequent contact. PACT services are individually tailored with each client and address the preferences and identified goals of each client. The approach with each client emphasizes relationship building and active involvement in assisting individuals with severe and persistent mental illness to make improvements in functioning, to better manage symptoms, to achieve individual goals, and to maintain optimism. There should be no more than 8-10 clients to one staff member. The PACT team is mobile and delivers services in community locations to enable each client to find and live in their own residence and find and maintain work in community jobs rather than expecting the client to come to the program. Seventy-five percent or more of the services are provided outside of the program offices in locations that are comfortable and convenient for clients. PACT services are delivered in an ongoing rather than time-limited framework to aid the process of recovery and ensure continuity of caregiver. Severe and persistent mental illnesses are episodic disorders and many clients benefit from the availability of a longer-term treatment approach and continuity of care.

To Apply: Submit a cover letter and resume to: DESC-PACT, ATTN: Human Resources,
515 3rd Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, fax to (206) 515-1501, or email to hr@desc.org.
Please note that cover letters and resumes attached to an email as separate documents will not be accepted unless they are in format readable by MS Word or Adobe Reader. The following document formats are unacceptable and will not be reviewed: .wps, .jpeg.