Family Peer Advocate

Position: Family Peer Advocate The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Family Peer Advocate uses their personal lived experience in this role to promote clients’ recovery, offers supports, advocacy, and skill development opportunities. The Family Peer Advocate participates as a member of the CCBHC interdisciplinary team to provide face to face peer services to individuals and their families in understanding services and linking them to needed community resources.

Travel within NYC is required for this position. Essential Duties: Participate in the care coordination process. Provide psych rehab services. Collaborate with client and care management team to identify the services clients should receive based on stage of change, immediate needs, and recommended treatment objectives. Provide education and resources to clients and their families to address housing, income support, education and vocational training, social supports, employment, and primary care needs.

Assist clients and their families with linkages to and systems navigation within the behavioral health, human services, and criminal justice systems as appropriate. Act as an advocate and liaison for clients and their families in accessing resources to support treatment plan goals. Use motivational interviewing, recovery and trauma informed approaches when delivering peer services. Involve family and significant others in the client’s treatment with the team.

Provide individual peer support, wellness counseling, harm reduction counseling based on motivational interviewing. Provide at a minimum of 70% of contacts in the community, including accompanying clients to appointments and events. Conduct outreach to clients who unexpectedly disengage from clinic services. Member of the 24/7/365 crisis team assisting with crisis intervention, crisis stabilization and mobile emergency response on a rotating schedule.

Minimum Requirements: High School Diploma/GED and 2 years work or volunteer experience in a recovery-oriented setting. Certification as a Recovery Peer Advocate (substance use) or Peer Specialist (mental health) or eligible to obtain certification. Lived experience using mental health and/or substance use treatment services. Experience providing peer support to individuals/families with serious mental illness and criminal justice involvement a plus.

Preferred Qualifications: Ability to work with diverse social, cultural, and economic groups. Ability to engage and connect with individuals who have a behavioral health disorder and/or their families. Ability to develop recovery plans.