Bilingual Family Peer Support Specialist

Full-time (40 hours per week, 8 hours per day with half-hour unpaid lunch)
Working hours range from 8 am - 8 pm depending on program fluctuation/participant need. Note that this role is not expected to work more than 8 hours per day

About the Mental Health Association of San Francisco (MHASF):

MHASF is a mental health peer-run nonprofit located in downtown San Francisco serving people and agencies across the Bay Area since 1947. As mental health consumers ourselves, we center the lived expertise of people with mental health challenges in our advocacy, education, and support programs, and believe that dignity and recovery in mental health are something everyone can experience. Our staff is dedicated to creating spaces for learning and healing around stigmatized and under-resourced areas in mental health—hoarding and cluttering behavior, peer employment support, wellness & nutrition, community-based crisis response, service navigation, and more. MHASF strongly encourages people with lived experience of mental health challenges to apply and grow with us!
 

OVERVIEW OF POSITION:

When your family member is experiencing a mental health crisis, the presence of someone who understands what you're going through can make all the difference. In partnership with Marin County's Behavioral Health & Recovery Services (BHRS), MHASF aims to make that difference for Marin County residents. We place Peer & Family Support Specialists, based in Marin County, to offer compassionate, culturally sensitive support and help build a sense of trust, safety, and possibility for people at their most vulnerable.

These Specialists serve parents and other family members via individual work for those families with existing BHRS, Medi-Cal eligible clients who meet specialty mental health criteria. Staff facilitating groups will serve parents and family members seeking early intervention strategies, support to strengthen coping skills, parenting practices, and family stability when a child, youth, or adult family member experiences emerging or ongoing behavioral health challenges.

They offer a wide array of support to residents of Marin County including emotional support, short- term housing linkages, transportation, navigation with public benefits enrollment, health system access, service referrals, advocacy, and much more. Most importantly, they use their own lived experience of crisis and recovery to develop authentic connections and belief in the reality of hope.

The Peer Support Specialist will spend time both on-site at the BHRS office(s) and traveling throughout Marin County to provide personalized follow-up counseling and resource navigation support to families/caregivers. Position responsibilities will include the following:

If you're seeking to put your lived experience to work helping others, have your own vehicle to transport clients, proof of clean driving record, and valid California driver’s license, and enjoy work that offers variety and challenge, we would love to hear from you!

RESPONSIBLITIES:

• Use Spanish/English fluency in verbal and written communication to navigate translation of healthcare paperwork, using the preferred language of participants inside and out of the home to support the needs of the families.

• Use personal lived experience as a mental health consumer and/or family member to engage with clients; serve as a role model and self-disclose lived experience background to clients as appropriate, to establish trust and demonstrate possibility of recovery

• Provide Peer Counseling provided from a peer recovery perspective, create Wellness Recovery Action Planning (WRAP) for individualized symptom and illness management in a self-help context

• Provide linkages to community resources and support family and caregivers to navigate systems such as: holistic and culturally relevant supports, food pantries, CalFRESH, financial support (GA, SSI/SSDI, CalWORKs), and on-going mental health/substance use treatment

• Provide peer-led, early-intervention support groups for family members, in-person and online providing coping skills, parenting practices, and emotional support for family members whose child, youth, or adult family member is experiencing emerging or ongoing behavioral health challenges

• Help ensure that services are sensitive to the cultural context and personal history of each client and the client’s support system; provide services in community-based settings

• Ensure that consumers and family members are involved to the greatest extent possible in decisions affecting services and treatment

• Promote collaboration among support systems, mental health providers, healthcare providers, justice system personnel, school personnel, and other agencies

• Attend supervision, staff meetings, trainings, and other meetings in Marin

• Maintain detailed records of services provided by program staff and ensure client record confidentiality in SMARTcare electronic healthcare record system

• Ensure records contain all data necessary in reporting to the State Department of Mental Health

• Ensure records conform to Medi-Cal requirements and standards

• Provide feedback and support to Marin County BHRS and communicate with MHASF about site issues as needed

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Personal lived experience of mental health challenges, and/or experience supporting a family member through mental health challenges, and a willingness to disclose to participants and during counselor trainings is a requirement for this peer position

• Bilingual and able to read, write, and speak Spanish proficiently

• Ownership of vehicle, clean driving record, valid CA driver’s license, and the ability to drive throughout Marin County with project participants/clients

• All Peer and Family Support Specialist staff for this program will need to be Certified as California Peer Support Specialists or gain that certification within 12 months of hire

• 2 years’ professional experience supporting people with behavioral health challenges

• Behavioral health knowledge, including familiarity with psychiatric diagnoses, psychiatric symptoms and associated behavior, psychiatric medications, and substance use issues

• Self-direction, flexibility, and organization

• Ability to use independent judgment, work effectively under pressure, and function well in a team setting

• Proven ability to work effectively with people of a variety of ages, backgrounds, and paths to recovery

• Familiarity and experience with harm reduction and the mental health recovery model

• Commitment to upholding the mission and values of MHASF