Peer Support Technician - PACT (Helena, MT)

Are you the healthcare champion we’ve been looking for?

AWARE is looking for the right person tojoin the PACT team as the Peer Support Technician.

If you embrace new ideas with a heart full of energy, we invite you to join a caring, compassionate, and fully engaged team that isn’t afraid to get vulnerable with one another. We have gritty, but respectful conversations that drive the needle forward on what it means to provide the highest quality of care for our clients. At AWARE, our strength lies in our culture of care. AWARE’s Unconditional Care Principles inspire the services we provide to each person who comes to us for care and these principles lead how we treat ourselves and our clients; with hope, compassion and focus on the next right step. When you join the AWARE team, you will become part of an organization that has a rich history (over 45 years!) helping Montanans with mental health and/or developmental disabilities. AWARE strives to provide the highest quality of care, every single day. When you join the AWARE team, you will be joining a team that believes that building on strengths is the key to success, that prides itself in taking on and sticking with the hardest challenges, believes we are agents of change, that everything is normal until proven otherwise, and that families are our most important resource.Working for our organization means that regardless of your role, we’ll support you so you can support others. AWARE seeks to provide opportunities for employees to grow professionally through its tuition advancement program, professional development opportunities and in-house trainings.

Principal Duties & Responsibilities:

• Utilize personal recovery experience as a tool to both support individuals receiving services from the team in all aspects of their recovery.
• Support the PACT team in working with program participants from strengths-based perspective.
• Provide peer counseling and support, drawing on common experiences as a peer, to validate clients’ experiences and provide guidance and encouragement to take responsibility and actively participate in their own recovery on an individual and group basis.
• Provide practical help and supports, mentoring, advocacy, coordination, side-by-side individualized support, problem solving, direct assistance, and supervision to help clients obtain the necessities of daily living including medical and dental health care, legal and advocacy services, financial supports such as entitlements, housing subsidies, money-management services, and transportation.

AWARE empowers its employees to operate under the auspices of AWARE’s Unconditional Care Principles .

Required Skills, Abilities & Education:

• A High School Diploma or HSE is required, along with past employment experience.
• It is preferable that the individual’s lived experience of mental health challenges includes experience with psychosis during his or her youth. However, personal experience with psychosis is not required.
• Ideally the Peer Specialist is a young adult; however, a Peer Specialist of any age may be considered for the position, if he or she relates well to young people.
• As much as possible, the Peer Specialist should understand the community in which the team is based with an awareness of available community resources.
• The Peer Specialist should also be someone who possesses the fundamental skills to meet the job requirements.
• The Peer Specialist should demonstrate good interpersonal communications skills and the ability to empathize with, relate to and effectively work with participants of mental health services.
• The individual should have two years of active participation in mental health self-help activities, peer support or peer advocacy programs, or participant run organizations or similar experiences or programs.
• They must possess the ability/ willingness to disclose their recovery story (where appropriate) for the purposes of empowerment.

The Peer Support Technician must obtain required certification (Peer Support Specialist Case Manager, complete within 6 months of hire date) as follows:

• Complete 40 total hours of training.
• An assessment completed no longer than 90 days prior to sending in the application.
• PST will be assessed by AWARE's LCSW, LCPC, LMFT, LAC, physician, psychologist, or an advanced practice registered nurse until they reach mastery level in certain areas;
• Once the 40 hours online training and the assessment (which takes place after the 40 hours) is complete, then the PST submits the noted PST Case Manager Application;
• Once application is approved, PST will complete and pass required test;
• PST Case Manager must maintain credential.

UPON SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THE PEER SUPPORT SPECIALIST CASE MANAGER TRAINING, WAGE PER HOUR WILL BE $20.00 - $22.08 DOE/DEQ

To learn more please visit www.aware-inc.org .

Benefits:

AWARE proudly offers an excellent benefits package, uniquely designed to support you and your family in staying well, professional growth, and achieving financial security. AWARE’s benefits include:

• Annual raises
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Health Insurance
• Dental/Vision Insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Life Insurance
• Wellness programs
• Generous paid time off
• DailyPay

AWARE is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.