SF CARE Court Peer Support Specialist

ABOUT THE MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF SAN FRANCISCO (MHASF)

MHASF is a mental health peer-run nonprofit located in downtown San Francisco serving people and agencies across the Bay Area since 1947. As mental health consumers ourselves, we center the lived expertise of people with mental health challenges in our advocacy, education, and support programs, and believe that dignity and recovery in mental health are something everyone can experience. Our staff is dedicated to creating spaces for learning and healing around stigmatized and under-resourced areas in mental health—hoarding and cluttering behavior, peer employment support, wellness & nutrition, community-based crisis response, service navigation, and more. MHASF strongly-encourages people with lived experience of mental health challenges to apply and grow with us!

OVERVIEW OF PROGRAM & POSITION:

Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court is a State-wide framework to deliver mental health and substance use disorder services to individuals with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or another qualifying psychotic spectrum diagnosis who are considered to be “unstable in the community.” Involvement in CARE Court can be initiated by an individual’s family, county and community-based social services, behavioral health providers, State hospitals, first responders, or the individual themself. CARE Court is a voluntary program that can serve as anything from a first-time intervention to a transition into a lower level of care--for example, as a step-down from LPS conservatorship. Once a petition is received, San Francisco Department of Public Health’s CARE Team and the respondent’s assigned counsel begin to outreach to respondents and attempt to engage them in the CARE Court process. Once they determine whether the participant qualifies and would like to participate in CARE Court, a CARE Agreement is developed with Citywide as the service provider. The CARE Agreement lasts for 1 year, with the option to renew it for another year if both parties determine that to be the best course of action. Respondents then graduate from CARE Court having completed their CARE Agreement.

As a peer-run organization, MHASF partners with the Collaborative Justice Programs of the Superior Court of California, San Francisco to ensure the peer recovery model and peer-based support is available to participants of CARE Court in San Francisco. The Peer Support Specialist (PSS) for this project will provide 1:1 peer counseling and support to participants of CARE Court. Through the development of trust and rapport, the PSS provides emotional support and advocacy; linkages to social, legal, and mental and physical health services; and engages in WRAP® planning with participants.

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the above list of responsibilities is intended to provide a general overview of duties to be assigned and in no way is a comprehensive list of position duties and responsibilities.

RESPONSIBILITES:

Top Three Responsibilities

1. Provide wellness-focused 1:1 peer-to-peer support, including the development of Wellness Recovery Action Plans (WRAP)®
2. Provide peer counseling and case management to individuals living with mental health challenges who are participants of CARE Court
3. Serve as an advocate for program participants and a model for mental health recovery

Peer Support & Case Management

• Use personal lived experience as an individual living in recovery to engage with participants
• Serve as a role model and self-disclose lived experience background to participants as appropriate, to establish trust and demonstrate the possibility of recovery
• Provide information and assist participants with access to community services and resources
• Communicate with physicians, psychiatrists, and therapists as well as other service providers as needed
• Assist with crisis intervention, targeted case management, advocacy, service navigation, and other supports
• Provide on-going follow-up contact to ensure participants are connected to appropriate supports and provide additional assistance when needed
• Help ensure that services are sensitive to the cultural context and personal history of each participant and their support system; provide services in community-based settings
• Ensure that participants are involved to the greatest extent possible in decisions affecting services and treatment
• Promote collaboration among support systems, mental health providers, healthcare providers, justice system personnel, school personnel, and other agencies
• Accompany and advocate for participants at their appointments providing emotional support
• Be familiar with WRAP ® planning and support participant with developing individualized WRAP plans; if not trained in WRAP ®, MHASF will ensure that the PSS receives this training.

Record-Keeping, Training, & Participation

• Attend one-on-one supervision with manager, staff meetings, and monthly all-staff trainings
• Maintain detailed records of services provided and ensure participant record confidentiality
• Ensure records contain all data necessary in reporting to the SF DPH and SF Courts
• Ensure records conform to Medi-Cal and HIPAA requirements and standards
  

The Peer Support Specialist also supports broader MHASF initiatives and is responsible for other duties as assigned. The above job responsibilities are meant to be representative, not a comprehensive job description, and are subject to change depending on the needs of the program and MHASF.