Associate Director, Alameda County Mobile Response Services

WestCoast Children’s Clinic seeks an experienced, licensed mental health professional to direct our mobile response services for foster youth and families within Alameda County. The Associate Director of Mobile Response Services for the Alameda County FURS service is the point person for managing the delivery of services under California’s Family Urgent Response System (Cal-FURS) designed to assist foster youth and those caring for them when urgent issues arise. 

The Associate Director works with WestCoast and Alameda County Social Services staff along with the State Hotline to ensure that we respond to calls relayed from the State Hotline and to respond to youth and families within Alameda County to provide support, conflict resolution, de-escalation, and follow-up. The role includes guiding and directing service providers who are staff from across WestCoast Children’s Clinic; providing clinical supervision to trainees and staff; providing technical assistance and back-up support as needed. 

What is Cal-FURS? 

The California Family Urgent Response System, or “Cal-FURS,” is a statewide urgent response hotline to provide 24/7 support service for foster youth and resource families living throughout California. Cal-FURS connects current or former foster youth up to age 21 and their caregivers to trained hotline staff who provide guidance, support, and connection to critical resources within the youth and caregiver’s local area. Many of the clients have been served by WCC, especially in our STAT Program located at the Alameda County Assessment Center.

What is the role?  

Direct Service Duties

• • Works with youth and families to resolve crisis situations and regain stability
  • Assesses behavior and providing support/coaching to participants and caregivers using strength-based behavioral health interventions 
  • When necessary may initiate a hold for psychiatric evaluation of an individual
  • Maintain appropriate/ethical boundaries with all staff, youth and families served
  • Maintain timely and thorough administrative and service documentation and records related to supervision, client care, and program-related monitoring
  • Serves all participants including people who differ in race, ethnicity, gender, and economic background, country of origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation with dignity and respect
  • Ability to work evenings, nights, weekends, holidays, and on-call during emergencies as needed

Associate Director Duties 

• • Direct point of contact for warm handoff of statewide FURS hotline
  • Ensures the FURS team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.
  • Provides staff with resources to guide youth and/or caregivers use of effective tools for coping with challenging situations
  • Will substitute for staff in the event of illness, vacation, or staff turnover
  • Coordinates the team in responding where the person is (home, community)
  • Manages and monitors performance such as call volume, number served, response time, and time to problem resolution/warm handoff
  • Provide direct, individual and group clinical supervision for providers (including trainees, prelicensed, non-licensed, and licensed staff) adhering to requirements for supervisors as stipulated by WestCoast policies and procedures, Board of Psychology, Board of Behavioral Sciences, and the California Medical Board rules and regulations
  • Ensure that supervisee complies with all legal and ethical practices
  • Provide ongoing, regular feedback and evaluation to supervisees on their direct service and professional development.
  • Solicit feedback from supervisees regarding supervision and whether needs are being met
  • Performs other duties as assigned

Competencies:

• Proficient in supervising mental health services provided to child, youth, and families in a team-based context
• Knowledgeable in mental health treatments for children, youth, and families, particularly for addressing complex psychological trauma 
• Competent in working with the psychological issues related to race, ethnicity and class
• Practice self-reflective cultural humility as part of a diverse team; be conscientious and sensitive to power and other interpersonal dynamics with those served and fellow staff
• Able to work effectively in an organizational setting; understands how to utilize the chain of command to resolve problems and bring program development ideas forward; is able to proactively collaborate with other supervisors and program directors to ensure the best possible training for supervisees and service delivery for clients
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and writing skills required
• Knowledge of or willingness and ability to learn MediCal reimbursement, billing, and documentation policies and procedures desired
• Knowledgeable and flexible in working with trainees or early career practitioners who are learning to work as therapists both in a clinical setting and in the community.

Qualifications:

• CA Licensed Mental Health Practitioner with a minimum of two years post-licensure experience
• Meets all CA Board of Behavioral Sciences and Board of Psychology Supervisor Requirements 
• Experienced in supervising individual psychotherapy, parent support, and family therapy to children, adolescents and their families, particularly those in foster care, group home or residential treatment settings
• Experience working with multi-disciplinary teams such as alternate response programs, community-based mobile services, public safety first response systems, and/or community health responses
• Experience with MediCal / Medicaid or behavioral health documentation and billing standards
• Bilingual applicants and applicants of color are strongly encouraged to apply

This is a full time, exempt position. Base salary starting at $95,000 per year and and includes performance based compensation, comprehensive benefits package and 403(b) plan, as well as a 10% Spanish language differential if applicable. 

Why work here?

-Be part of a compassionate, driven team that is social justice-focused: We have Staff Affinity Groups such as Staff of Color, LGBTQ+, Equity and Inclusion, Health and Wellness, and more!

-Make a difference for the Bay Area’s most vulnerable populations: We serve hundreds of vulnerable kids and their families each year to create positive changes in their lives!

-Access a growth-oriented learning community: As a Joint Commission Accredited agency, we are dedicated to providing the highest standard of care, and offer extensive clinical trainings and seminars led by field experts. 

• Competitive pay commensurate with experience
• Annual incentive compensation and retirement plan contribution
• 100% Employer paid medical (base plan, Kaiser HMO), dental, vision, life insurance, and long-term disability coverage for full-time employees
• Variety of medical plan options including a variety of carriers and types of plans
• 403b retirement plan with ROTH and 403b contribution options
• Flex-spending options - Medical, Dependent Care and Commuter Plans
• 20 days paid time off per year for full time employees (pro-rated for less than full time), 14 Paid Holidays, plus Self-Care Leave (additional PTO accrual with increased years of service)