Social Worker - Emergency Shelter, Homeless Services Bureau
Job Description
The mission of the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) is to protect, preserve, and promote the health and well-being of all Boston residents, particularly the most vulnerable. The BPHC envisions a thriving Boston where all residents live healthy, fulfilling lives free of racism, poverty, violence, and other systems of oppression. The BPHC sets an expectation that all staff and leadership commit, individually and as part of the BPHC team, to hold ourselves accountable to establishing a culture of antiracism and advance racial equity and justice through each of our bureaus, programs, and offices.
The Boston Public Health Commission's Homeless Services Bureau (HSB) provides emergency shelter, job training, behavioral health support, and housing services to unhoused individuals in Boston. The HSB serves close to 5,000 individuals every year and is one of the largest providers of emergency shelter in New England. HSB aims to make homelessness in Boston rare, brief, and one time. It does that by problem-solving with new guests at the front door to try to prevent anyone from entering homelessness to begin with. For individuals who do become homeless and use our shelters, HSB endeavors to help them quickly move out of homelessness and find a safe and stable place to live. After a client is housed outside the shelter, HSB staff provides in-home supports to help individuals avoid someone a return to homelessness. The HSB uses a Housing First and racial justice framework, which is built on the foundation that housing is a social determinant of health, a basic need that everyone deserves, and does not require sobriety. HSB believes that everyone, with the right support, can succeed in housing. HSB fosters evidence-based approaches such as trauma-informed care, harm reduction, and motivational interviewing in the delivery of services, and strives to deliver services that are accessible to all clients.
Reporting to the Clinical Services Administrator, the Social Worker is responsible for improving the health and wellbeing of shelter and former shelter guests, providing crisis intervention, safety planning, clinical consultation, referrals and support, connections to alternative placements, and support to mitigate barriers to housing and housing retention.
Duties
- Provides mental health assessment and referral services to shelter guests. Identifies high-risk behaviors in guests and provides crisis intervention and ongoing clinical support.
- Provides psychosocial assessment, psycho-educational, clinical intervention and care coordination services to shelter guests through all phases of treatment and follow-up.
- Assists guests with DMH eligibility applications.
- Participates in screening and evaluating guests for admission to Homeless Services program.
- Provides supervision to assigned staff including hiring, scheduling, monitoring, training and evaluating all areas of work performance.
- Participates in the development and monitoring of guests' individual service plans.
- Provides case management services to guests as assigned. Collaborates with external social services agencies and acts as liaison to hospitals, mental health facilities and inpatient/outpatient programs.
- Responsible for providing referrals to psychiatric care and providing follow-up on hospitalized guests to coordinate appropriate discharge plans.
- Assists in maintaining records and statistical reports.
- Attends assigned meetings, case-conferences and trainings.
- Provides psycho-educational groups to guests and staff.
- Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
- Master's degree required. LCSW, LICSW, or LMHC required.
- Strong clinical skills and understanding of mental health and dual-diagnosis issues.
- Experience working with diverse ethnic, racial, and economic populations required. Prior experience with homelessness and substance abuse is helpful.
- Familiarity w/ DMH eligibility determination and services.
- Supervisory experience preferred.
- Knowledge of Boston area social services and mental health agencies.
- Strong organizational and communication skills.
- Ability to work in interdisciplinary team environment.
- Bi-Lingual Spanish speaking preferred.
Additional Information
City of Boston Residency Required. A Criminal Offenders Records Information request must be completed for this position. However, a record is not an automatic bar to employment but is reviewed in relation to the job applied for., This position requires direct client/patient contact and as a result of such direct contact, certain immunizations will be recommended and/or required prior to commencement of employment duties., Any position that requires an advanced degree will be subject to education verification, This is a grant funded position, The Boston Public Health Commission is an EEO Employer and all applicants meeting the minimum requirements are eligible to apply.
Union Status
Non-Union
Job Grade
SAL
Pay Range
$54,000 - $59,000/Annually
Standard Hours
Shift
35 hours per week; 11AM to 7PM, Tuesday to Saturday (Sunday and Monday off)