Unit Supervisor

Oversee the therapeutic milieu, maintain a safe, consistent environment, and support clients' emotional, social, physical, educational, recreational, and spiritual growth. Supervise and lead milieu staff to engage residents in trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive activities and interactions designed to improve behavior, provide support, and promote healthy development so there can be a successful transition to a community-based setting. Provides milieu coordination, crisis management, and staff scheduling.

• Serve as part of the leadership team for the residential milieu. This includes attendance at supervisor meetings, strategizing with the management team to problem-solve, and working with the team to implement management decisions.
• Interview, hire, orient, discipline, and terminate Residential Counselors on the unit. Responsible for the implementation of the agency’s personnel policies, procedures and practices for staff within the unit. This includes hiring, performance appraisals, employee leave, approval of time cards, promotions, salary changes, terminations, and documentation on all personnel actions.
• Build a supervisory relationship with Residential Counselors on all shifts through regular supervision and job training. Assist staff in working towards goals for improving their skills and ensure they are using agency/program procedures, ethical guidelines, and treatment model principles in their decision-making and service delivery.
• Provide regular feedback and formal performance evaluations to milieu staff. Provide additional support to staff who are new, developing competencies, and experiencing challenging client circumstances.
• Oversee the routines of the unit, including daily, weekly, and special or seasonal routines. By observing the unit on all shifts see that all shifts are consistent in their interactions with the children, staff implement therapeutic/behavior management principles, and staff are following treatment/behavior plans. See that all milieu staff understand the standards for routines. 
• Provide assistance and coaching where needed. Sit in on daily briefings as frequently as possible.
• Schedule staff to ensure ratios are maintained. This includes arranging for coverage, managing on-call needs, ensuring staff adhere to established schedules. Staffing coverage must include at least one on-duty staff member who received training in first aid and age-appropriate CPR by a certified CPR trainer within the last two years.
• Schedule milieu staff to transport clients to appointments or tend to unit errands. Monitor overtime in a manner that provides needed coverage and is fiscally responsible. Assumes on-call responsibility for program decisions.
• Must be able to work flexible hours, which can include overnight, weekend, and/or holidays, in addition to time pastone’s shift to manage crisis matters.
• Effectively work as a member of the triad with the youth’s treatment team. The triad consists of the youth’s Unit Supervisor, Case Manager, and Therapist. Chair bi-weekly unit meetings with the triad present. In collaboration with other Lydia Home treatment team members, create and implement supervision, treatment, and behavior management plans for each child. 
• Maintain knowledge of clients' histories, prescribed goals, support system dynamics, supervision needs, and approved/unapproved intervention techniques. Attend staffings and client consultations. 
• Train milieu staff on required paperwork. Monitor timeliness and quality of paperwork. Provide consistent oversight that staff are completing required documentation, including but not limited to: Medicaid service documentation, incident reports, daily briefing logs, behavior tracking logs, bed logs, and medication logs. Regularly ensure that staff are meeting designated Medicaid service documentation benchmarks. Review and approve written reports.
• Facilitate communication between the unit and other staff both within the residential program and the agency.
• Monitor staff morale and be responsible for assisting milieu staff to know and understand each other while striving to work as a cohesive team. Assist supervisees in navigating work related stress.
• Manages unit finances and ensures spending is within limits. Approves routine expenditures.
• Personally develop and oversee the individual relationships made by Residential Counselors with each child. Relationships should be characterized by: Healthy boundaries, active engagement throughout the course of the shift, cultural sensitivity, respect of client rights, dignity, and self-determination, nurturing interactions (playing with and comforting the child), teaching opportunities (informal counseling, skill-building, and self-care instruction), having a strengths-based focus (tapping into a client’s positive qualities, interests, talents), and providing a firm, secure authoritative presence. Ensure milieu staff are interacting with youth in a corrective, therapeutic manner that leads to appropriate behavior change.
• Maintains a sound knowledge base in the concepts and implementation strategies for Lydia Home’s treatment and behavior management models. [e.g., Therapeutic Crisis Intervention [TCI], PCCARE, Attachment, Regulation, and Competency [ARC]. Ensures that staff are implementing therapeutic strategies appropriately and in an equitable manner.
• Oversee that the therapeutic milieu environment is safe, calm, and predictable. Role model and uphold standards for consistently using words/actions that promote positive relationships, engaging clients in regulating activities, maintaining order within the group, carrying out approved disciplinary methods in accordance with DCFS Rule 384, teaching daily/independent living skills and overseeing chore routine, remaining attentive to one’s own emotional state as it impacts therapeutic interactions, and exercising concepts/techniques taught in the treatment models.
• Responsible for managing crisis situations and overseeing the management of such incidents by staff. Must use de-escalation techniques and manage clients in a physical way, using therapeutic holds/restraints in accordance with TCI. Ensures that staff adhere to DCFS Rule 384, organizational policy, and governing standards related to behavior management techniques and discipline. Oversee the debriefing and reintegration into the programming process. Follow and oversee implementation of protocols [e.g., elopement; SASS]. Assist in navigating emergencies that require medical or police involvement. Appropriate steps must always be taken to identify and minimize risk to client’s safety and well-being.
• Coordinate daily routines and oversee milieu/recreational activities ensuring that they are trauma-informed, developmentally-appropriate, culturally-sensitive, promote regulatory activity, and are in accordance with the treatment model, unit rules, and governing policies/procedures. Ensure the program schedule is consistently followed, and all youth attend programming activities both onsite/community-based. Unit Supervisors/Managers or Assistant Supervisors/Managers must provide approval for a client to not attend an activity.
• Oversee and maintain records of clients’ behaviors, incident reports, and earned/lost privileges. Communicate with staff about changes in or strategies for addressing clients’ behavior/emotional functioning and supervision needs.
• Oversee provision of food, clothing, bedding, school materials, and items needed for comfortable group living/care, as well as for clients’ individual needs.
• Complete documentation requirements in designated time frame [e.g., incident reports]. Write Medicaid-compliant case notes in accordance with DCFS Rule 132 and meet given benchmarks, documenting mental health services provided.
• Model and oversee Residential Counselor’s ability to work cooperatively and respectfully with the youth’s support system/caregiver(s). Support youth in communicating with approved supports and engaging with their family.
• Follow and implement instructions regarding medical care given by the nursing staff. Provide first aid and medications under medical supervision.
• Participate in personal and professional growth through attendance at trainings, staff development activities, and unit meetings. Follow and implement unit and program rules, policies/procedures, and treatment models. Ensure Residential Counselors regularly attend scheduled trainings.
• Serve as Onsite Supervisor on a rotating basis with others for all units, to handle [1] crises that involve behavior problems and where assistance to milieu staff on any unit is needed, [2] emergencies that require medical or police involvement, [3] last-minute coverage needs, [4] after-hours questions and drop-in visitors. Ensure the building is locked up and secure. During the on-site shift, assume on-call responsibilities and execute the use of appropriate protocol when navigating crisis situations.
• To promote the health and safety of personnel and residents, ensure housekeeping duties are assigned/performed to keep the unit clean, orderly, and pleasant. Upon using a Lydia vehicle, the space must be left clean. Staff are financially responsible for traffic tickets acquired while driving Lydia vehicles. If a maintenance need or emergency occurs, contact a member of the maintenance team.
• Ensure staff and client’s follow procedures during emergency situations [e.g., fire alarms, fire sirens, etc].
• Participate in supervision on an informal and formal basis (i.e., scheduled). Supervision is provided in individual and group format.
• Participate in quality assurance/quality improvement activities. To promote stability, in collaboration with the residential treatment team, track behavioral patterns in addition to the effectiveness of prevention/intervention efforts. Strategize approaches to minimizing behaviors that generate incident reports/significant events and affect Treatment Opportunity Days. Maintain working knowledge of Family First expectations for service delivery.
• Schedules, changes to work schedule, and time off requests are approved by the Milieu Director.
• Cell phones are permitted; however, should not distract from active therapeutic engagement with the clients. Photographing and recording of clients is prohibited, and confidentiality of clients must always be maintained. If cell phone use is impacting work performance, disciplinary action can be taken, and per unit supervisor discretion, the privilege of permitting cell phones to be kept on the person can be removed.
• Be familiar with and follow agency and residential policies and procedures, ethical guidelines for designated discipline, and the governing agencies' policies and procedures (DCFS; COA; Family First) in addition to applicable laws and regulations. Implement agency, state, accreditation, and funding standards, regulations, policies, and procedures. Comply with mandated reporting guidelines. Maintain client confidentiality and HIPAA standards. Confidential information handled includes all client information viewed and discussed [including but not limited to client files, Medicaid documentation, and the delivery of services to clients] in addition to program operations and the advancement of Lydia Home’s mission and programs. No client information [e.g., photographs, etc.] should ever be posted on the internet or social media platforms.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Must have two years of full-time experience in a residential child care program
• Demonstrates skill in working with and managing the type of youth served in the program
• Must be in good physical and mental health [DCFS Rule 404]
• To provide billable Medicaid services, per DCFS Rule 132, must have a Bachelor’s degree in the human services field, OR a Bachelor’s degree in a non-human services field plus two years of supervised clinical experience in a mental health setting
• Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills
• Demonstrates leadership and organization skills to effectively guide the milieu staff team
• Able to demonstrate sound professional judgment and problem-solving ability
• Has the following characteristics: Able to nurture, set healthy limits, teach/model skills, open to learning and supervision, reliable, builds respectful rapport, collaborative while providing appropriate care to clients/their families, and works effectively with interdisciplinary treatment team members internal/external to the organization
• Must have a valid driver’s license and auto insurance in order to transport clients
• Demonstrates sensitivity and respect for diverse individuals and communities served by, working in partnership with, or employed by Lydia Home
• Must be able and willing to support the mission of Lydia Home Association (LHA)