Behavioral Health Assistant (Per Diem)

## Description

The Behavioral Health Assistant (BHA) works as a member of the behavioral health team to extend the services of the behavioral health provider and assist in managing patient flow related to coordination of care and facilitating community resource linkages. They act as a liaison between our primary care providers, pediatrics and BH providers to help manage on-going care to help assist in improving patient outcomes. This may involve initiation of on-going contact under the direction of the behavioral health/primary care provider with identified patients until improvements are made. The BH Assistant will also help patients connect to external agencies that can help with identified social service needs. The BHA also helps in the management of behavioral health waitlists and patient intakes prior to seeing BH providers.

**What You’ll Do:**

• Is accessible and visibly present to members of Behavioral Health (BH) team during clinic hours.
• Is available to primary care patients and health professionals on a same-day basis
• Facilitates patient flow assistance to the Behavioral Health Provider (BHP)
• Helps in coordination of warm handoff between all outpatient and hospital-based clinics to bridge behavioral health patients to BH clinic.
• Manages behavioral health referrals and waitlists to connect patients to MH and other BH services in community.
• Helps administer standard screening and outcome measure instruments.
• Administered phone screening, intake information for all new patients, to help appropriately place them in BH clinics or refer to external resources.
• Facilitate medical provider (MP) and patient requests for same-day and future consultations with the BHP.
• Manages and coordinates referrals to specialty behavioral health services including Mental Health and Substance Abuse services.
• Facilitates connection to community resources to help patients in meeting basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, and benefits.
• Maintains up-to-date contact information about commonly used community resources.
• Supports patient in connecting to legal aid as requested by the BHP or MP.
• Completes selected sections of commonly used forms.

**Who You Are:**

• Excellent communicator verbal and in writing
• Strong organizational and time management skills, able to work with little supervision while handling numerous projects at once
• Compassionate and empathetic with a passion for chronic care management

**What You'll Need:**

• Past experience in healthcare and strong understanding of insurance requirements is preferred
• Computer literacy in Word and Excel
• State of California Certified Nurses Assistant (CNA), Medical Assistant, Emergency Medical Technician (California or National), or State of California Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) preferred.
• American Heart Association or American Red Cross Basic Life Savings Skills (BLS) preferred.

**Job Information:**

• Per diem, day shifts.
• Starting wage $23.78 to $28.83 based on qualifications.

The foregoing description is not intended and should not be construed to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills and efforts or work conditions associated with the job. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the general nature and level of the job. An equal opportunity employer.