Social Worker Addiction Specialist

Position Summary: Social Worker Addiction Specialist

At Stony Brook Medicine Social Workers apply the principles and practices of their profession to provide integrated social casework, including direct counseling, therapy, advocacy, and other services to individuals, families and groups. Social Workers plan, implement, coordinate and document treatment, discharge planning, and transition to care for individuals diagnosed with: medical/behavioral health diagnosis, mental illness and serious emotional disturbance; intellectual and developmental disabilities; addiction; victims of abuse/neglect, and individuals in need of both crisis intervention and long-term care.

Qualified candidates will demonstrate excellent communication skills, interpersonal skills, knowledge and understanding of integrated patient care and effectively respond to changing patient needs by making decisions based on ethical principles and adhering to our high standard of excellence. Strong Motivational Interviewing skills are required, with a focus on Person Centered, Harm Reduction and Trauma Informed Care models. Candidate must have strong assessment skills, utilizing a Biopsychosocial approach to ensure Integrated Treatment for Co-Occurring Disorders.

Qualified candidates must have strong Social Work skills including psycho-social assessment: engage in policy practice, engage/assess/intervene, and evaluate; along with enhanced skills and experience in Opioid Use Disorder, and Alcohol Use Disorder.

Qualified candidates are experienced in both Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) techniques as well as treatment planning and ongoing substance use disorder counseling and interventions that will reduce recidivism of high utilizers and high-risk patients.

Duties to include:

• Psychosocial assessment of applicable cases.
• Coverage of Behavioral Health Patients in Non-Behavioral Health Units with focus on Substance Use Disorder.
• Screen for depression (PHQ-9) and suicide risk as well as engagement in Safety Planning.
• Screen for Anxiety and other evidence-based screening and assessment tools.
• Screen for substance use disorders utilizing SBIRT screening tools (DAST, AUDIT, CRAFFT).
• Offer Brief Intervention - Single session or multiple sessions of motivational discussions.
• Offer more intensive intervention for safe transition to community.
• For high-risk and high utilizers, engage in treatment planning and ongoing counseling with individual and family members with a focus on reducing recidivism.
• Effectuate discharge planning including: insurance verification, linkage to community providers, insurance authorizations and utilization reviews, scheduling transportation and follow up phone calls as needed.
• Follow cases in multiple settings in hospital including inpatient Medicine, Inpatient Psychiatry, Medical ED, and CPEP.
• Work with community agencies in regards to patient post discharge needs.
• Work with SB Outpatient division for improved continuum of care.
• Assist patients and families with advanced directives.
• Supervision of professional social work students.
• Active involvement in performance improvement activities including data collection and utilization of data for quality improvement
• Cross coverage on Behavioral Health units.
• Provide Consultation, Advice & Instruction - Offer guidance and feedback to faculty, staff and residents pertaining to SBIRT process, community resources and supports.
• Maintain Up-to-Date Knowledge - Participate in County meetings pertaining to addiction and actively report community resource information, new programs/services to key stakeholders.
• Ensure Quality - Monitor that addiction measures are completed and tracked, i.e. CORE measures and OMH regulatory requirements.
• Maintain data to support enhanced Social Work Addiction Specialist patient care.
• Knowledge of court procedures including Probation, Parole, Treatment over Objection, AOT, Mental Hygiene legal processes for voluntary/involuntary admissions.
• Knowledge of competency and guardianship.
• Knowledge and compliant use of PSYCKES.
• Coordinate with ED, Medical In-patient, Out-patient and CIN (clinical integrated network) Social Work.

Qualifications

Required : MSW from an accredited Social Work Education School. New York State LMSW or LCSW. One year of substance use disorder counseling.

Preferred: Credentialed as an Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) Three or more years Substance Use Disorder counseling. One to three years in a Medical or integrated health Hospital Setting. Experience with multigenerational patient care.

Please Note: Verification of degree (e.g., diploma or official transcript) is required for this role. Upload of documentation must be included with your application for consideration.

Special Notes: Resume/CV should be included with the online application.

Posting Overview: This position will remain posted until filled or for a maximum of 90 days. An initial review of all applicants will occur two weeks from the posting date. Candidates are advised on the application that for full consideration, applications must be received before the initial review date (which is within two weeks of the posting date).

If within the initial review no candidate was selected to fill the position posted, additional applications will be considered for the posted position; however, the posting will close once a finalist is identified, and at minimal, two weeks after the initial posting date. Please note, that if no candidate were identified and hired within 90 days from initial posting, the posting would close for review, and possibly reposted at a later date.