Position Summary
Provide direct, hands-on support to individuals experiencing mental health crises, assisting with physical care and daily programming. This role combines security and behavioral management responsibilities, requiring a balanced focus on physical safety, crisis intervention, and patient oversight to maintain a secure and therapeutic environment.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Use verbal and active listening skills to calm agitated or aggressive individuals without unnecessary force.
- Observe and assist in managing patients’ behavior (e.g., homicidal, suicidal, combative, psychotic) to ensure safety during treatment or evaluations.
- Contact supervisor in the event of an elopement, injury, or threatening condition.
- Participate in drills and maintain readiness for natural disasters, trauma alerts, and mass notification systems.
- Respond to alarms, emergency codes, and crises; coordinate with emergency services (police, fire, EMS) and escort responders.
- Conduct regular patrols of buildings, grounds, and secured areas; check locks, doors, windows, and gates; document hazards such as unlocked doors, fire risks, or water leaks.
- Participates as a team member to provide a nurturing and consistent therapeutic treatment environment.
- Develop a rapport with individuals and cultivate a safe and supportive relationship.
- Maintain client confidentiality at all times.
- Remain awake and alert at all times to provide supervision of clients.
- Participate in program activities assigned by supervisor.
- Provide program orientation to clients as assigned in a timely manner.
- Document relevant events in a factual, accurate, complete, and timely manner. Follows correct case note format.
- Document client concerns in a clear and concise manner and presents to supervisor in a timely manner.
- Assist in monitoring the physical environment of the facility, always ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the environment.
- Attend and participate appropriately in clinical staffing when requested to do so by supervisor.
- Respond to clients’ needs in an appropriate, safe, supportive, and timely manner.
- Demonstrate appropriate interactions with coworkers that promote a pleasant therapeutic work environment.
- Obtain shift report from departing coworkers. Provide shift report to oncoming coworkers that is complete and alerts oncoming shift of relevant concerns.
- Complete additional job duties assigned by supervisor.
- Monitor clients’ belongings for items of safety concern and/or contraband. Remove any unsafe or inappropriate items and reports removal to the program supervisor.
- Identifie and report to supervisor, in a timely manner, any safety concern or any unusual incidents in the work environment.
- Screen visitors and telephone calls to ensure only approved persons are contacting residents as outlined on the client’s visitor log and in accordance with program policy.
- Complete housekeeping duties assigned by supervisor in a timely manner.
Education and Qualification Requirements
Required
- High School diploma or GED.
- Valid driver’s license and current auto liability insurance.
Preferred
- Associate or bachelor’s degree in psychology or related field.
- 1-3 years’ experience working in security.
- Previous experience working with adult residential population in a treatment setting.
- 1-3 years’ experience working in a crisis or mental health setting.
Required Skills, Knowledge and Abilities
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Compassionate about the care and well-being of others
- Satisfactory completion of CPR and CPI/MANDT within the first 30 days of employment.
- Ability to be covered under company insurance to drive a company vehicle for client transportation.
- Completion of annual training in compliance with DMH standards and additional training per supervisor.