Chemical Dependency Counselor

Responsibilities

• Clinical Excellence/Patient Care
• Provides evaluation, counseling and therapeutic services to Substance Use Disorder patients/families assessing patient’s social, psychological, emotional, financial, cultural problems and substance use history.
• Makes recommendations for treatment and acts as a liaison and patient/family advocate with the treatment network.
• Maintains open communication with referral sources, families, or others involved in the patient’s treatment regarding the patient’s progress, discharge plans and aftercare plans.
• Supports the patient and family throughout treatment by maintaining open communication with referral resources, patient and family. Assists the patient and family in working towards positive outcomes.
• Coordinates the patient’s care with the interdisciplinary treatment team.
• Develops individual treatment plans based upon information gathered.
• Assists patient with adjustment to illness, motivation for treatment and realistic planning for post treatment care. Coordinates the completion of the Aftercare Plan with patient and recommends post-treatment referrals for patients.
• Documents per department guidelines.
• Maintains current knowledge of behavioral managed care and the precertification and utilization review activities necessary to obtain treatment approval.
• Provides statistical data or special reports as required by Substance Use Disorder Services department. Development & Patient Education
• Continues professional development and involvement in professional activities that enhance clinical practice by sharing knowledge through networking and research.
• Participates in community education as assigned.
• Serves on professional organization committees or boards as appropriate.
• Assess and chooses teaching strategies and therapy modalities appropriate to the patient’s age specific needs, culture, gender, readiness to learn and level of comprehension.
• Consults appropriate resources within Behavioral Health Division to provide specialized education.
• Demonstrates knowledge that patient and workplace safety is a priority by preventing errors, accidents and infections and reporting potential or actual concerns immediately.
• Provides educational in-services as assigned.
• Participates in conjoint conferences with patients, concerned persons and referral sources as appropriate.
• Develops, promotes and maintains a good relationship with self-help programs such as AA, NA and CRUSH of Iowa.
• Participates in mandatory education and department staff meetings, per established guidelines.

Qualifications

Education: Completion of an approved counselor’s training course of at least one year, or two-year AA degree in the human service field.

Experience

• Two years of experience in a structured, supervised treatment setting may be substituted for the education requirement.
• License(s)/Certification(s): Valid driver’s license when driving any vehicle for work-related reasons. t-CADC or CADC certification, required Must be certified as a substance abuse, or alcoholism or chemical dependency counselor by IBC (or equivalent in another state that has reciprocity with Iowa) or be certification eligible If chemical dependent or co-dependent, must have two years sobriety from mood altering chemicals