Peer Specialist - Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.

Job Title: Peer Specialist

Grade: 13

Salary: $50,057 - $59,903

The Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene is seeking a qualified candidate to fill a full-time Peer Specialist position for the OnTrackNY program.

The OnTrackNY Program is an innovative treatment program at the South Beach Psychiatric Center Coney Island/Sheepshead Bay clinic. The program serves adolescents and young adults who are within two years of experiencing the onset of non-affective psychosis.

The Peer Specialist will work as part of the OnTrackNY team with program participants, family and community members, and all other team members. The Peer Specialist serves a unique role on the team, instilling hope in participants and families by drawing on their own lived experience of overcoming challenges with a psychiatric label. Walking alongside participants on their recovery journeys, the Peer Specialist uses a non-clinical approach to support, empower, and advocate for young people as they contend with the difficulties and uncertainties of early psychosis.

The Peer Specialist uses their lived experience and unique perspective to contribute to treatment planning for each participant, remaining youth-driven and facilitating the team's development and maintenance of a culture of respect and shared decision making. The Peer Specialist can provide an essential framework for highlighting the potential that each participant has for achieving a successful recovery trajectory.

In addition to attending team meetings, Peer Specialists work directly with other team members to provide support and assistance to program participants. Under the supervision of the OnTrackNY Team Leader, they provide direct peer support services to program participants in any setting that would be helpful - at the OnTrackNY program site, in the community, or in the hospital.

The Peer Specialist must demonstrate strong interpersonal communications skills and the ability to empathize with, relate to, and effectively work with participants of mental health services. Additionally, the Peer Specialist must display excellent judgment and the ability to understand boundaries when working with participants of mental health services.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Within the OnTrackNY team, the Peer Specialist's work is guided by 12 role responsibilities in their interactions with participants, families, community members and their team:

• Outreach & Engagement: Connecting with both the community and participants and families about OnTrackNY and offering hope and support around the possibility of recovery
• Relationship Building: Forming meaningful partnerships with program participants
• Embracing Creative Narratives: Expanding the understandings of the experience of "First Episode Psychosis"
• Co-Creating Tools for Success: Partnering with participants and families to support development and creation of self-care and self-awareness tools
• Supporting and Partnering with Families: Working closely with a participant's family of choice
• Making OnTrackNY Better: Supporting the growth and development of OnTrackNY through creation and support of a feedback loop between participants and the team.
• Bridge Building: Connecting participants and their families to needed community-based supports
• Group Facilitation: Creating spaces and opportunities for participants to learn together and support one another
• Community Mapping: Learning about and connecting to community-based supports and resources
• Influencing Team Culture: Utilizing lived experience and non-clinical approach to support the understanding of team members
• Team Communication & Collaboration: Working as an essential member of a multi-disciplinary team, documenting their interactions collaboratively and communicating back to the team.
• Ongoing Professional Development: Continuing to develop and hone skills to support this work

Minimum Qualifications:

• NYS certification as a Peer Specialist or an ability to obtain certification within one year of hire
• If not a young adult, then the Peer Specialist should have an understanding of youth culture and a respect for the self determination of young people.
• The Peer Specialist should be someone who has engaged in the meaning making process for themselves.
• Active participation in mental health self-help activities, peer support, peer advocacy programs, participant-run organizations, or similar experiences.
• Ability/ willingness to disclose about their experiences of mental health services for the purposes of empowerment.
• Willingness to work outside of office setting, in the community and homes of participants

Preferred Qualifications:

• It is preferable that the individual's lived experience of mental health challenges include experience with psychosis during his or her youth.
• Preferably, a member of the local community, and if not then having an awareness and understanding of the culture of the area

Work Location: 626 Sheepshead Bay Rd Brooklyn, NY 11224

To Apply: Submit an application through our website at https://rfmh.applicantpro.com/jobs/. Please note only applications submitted through our website will be considered.

The Mission of the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc. (RFMH) is to promote the mental health of all New Yorkers, with a focus on providing hope and supporting recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances. Applicants with lived mental health experience are encouraged to apply. RFMH is deeply committed to supporting underserved individuals, organizations, and communities. To this end, RFMH is focused on implementing activities and initiatives to reduce disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes for underserved populations. A critical component of these efforts is ensuring that RFMH is a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees' unique attributes and skills are valued and utilized to support the mission of the Agency. RFMH is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

The Research Foundation is a private not-for-profit corporation and is not an agency or instrumentality of the State of New York. Employees of the Research Foundation are not state employees, do not participate in any state retirement system, and do not receive state fringe benefits. Excellent Benefits Package. Employer/Minority/Women/Disabled/Veteran Employer. VEVRAA 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) compliant.