Peer Support Specialist

Formerly the Mental Health Association of New York City (MHA-NYC), Vibrant Emotional Health's groundbreaking solutions have delivered high quality services and support, when, where and how people need it for over 50 years. Through our state-of-the-art technology-enabled services, community wellness programs, and advocacy and education work, we are building a society in which emotional wellness can be a reality for everyone.

Vibrant Emotional Health's Contact Center (Here2Help Connect) is at the cutting edge harnessing new technologies to expand methods in which consumers can receive clinically sound behavioral health services. H2H Connect operates various hotlines, including New York City's NYC 988, New York State's HOPEline, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the national Disaster Distress Helpline, and the NFL Life Line. H2H Connect continues to grow as new managed care arrangements and new technologies make it possible to reach more people in distress through more channels. The contact center currently provides crisis intervention and information and referrals to over 40,000 people every month and we expect this number to continue to grow.

Position Overview: The Peer Support Specialists have experienced either mental health or substance abuse concerns themselves and/or have supported family members through their experiences, and have familiarity in navigating the mental health and/or substance abuse services system(s).The Peer Support Specialists use their lived experiences to support and empower others in their recovery and help persons improve their overall well-being. The Peer Support Specialists provide peer support services to individuals who contact the Peer Support Warmline program via telephone, SMS text messaging, and/or web chat modalities.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Provides evidence-informed support to callers and/or chat/text visitors.
• Works with a diverse population of callers and chat/text visitors in a mutually respectful manner, using a strengths-based approach.
• Adheres to policies and procedures for each service offered by the program.
• Accurately and efficiently documents client interactions.
• Meets or exceeds established key performance indicator goals.
• Utilizes telephone, SMS texting, and/or web chat to interact with callers.
• Provides a warm hand off to Counselors for individuals in crisis or in need of behavioral health referrals.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Ability to motivate callers in a courteous, empathic, and professional manner.
• Comfortable serving as a role model of personal recovery.
• Active listening skills to establish working alliance with callers and/or chat/text visitors.
• Superior communication skills to convey information clearly and concisely.
• Ability to maintain a professional demeanor when handling difficult contacts.
• Efficiency with balancing pace and flow of conversation and call time.
• Strong work ethic, particularly in team setting.
• Must be able to attend a 5-week training program without interruptions.

Decision Making:

• Manages interactions to ensure the appropriate level of support is provided in an efficient manner.
• Analyzes and interprets issues, realigns responsibilities, commits resources and proposes alternative solutions.

Scope of Responsibility/Accountability:

• Ability to share personal lived experience as a person in recovery from mental health challenges or substance use or a parent or caretaker of a child with serious emotional or behavioral challenges who has successfully navigated the child serving system.
• Monitors and evaluates interim results and develops contingency plans if objectives are off track.

Required Qualifications:

• Must be certified or eligible for certification as a Peer Support Specialist, Family Advocate, Certified Addiction Recovery Coach, or Certified Recovery Peer Advocate through NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH) and/or NYS Office of Alcohol & Substance Abuse (OASAS).
• If not certified, demonstrated progress toward Peer Support Certification must be completed within 12 months of hire.
• Fluent in English, both verbal and written.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience working in healthcare contact center and or mental health capacity preferred.
• Supportive counseling and/or mental health information and referral services experience a plus.
• Applicants should be comfortable working independently and as part of a team in a collegial group environment.

Physical Requirements:

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for at least 50% of the time.
• Will frequently communicate over video calls with internal and external stakeholders as well as team members.
• Will constantly operate a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.

Excellent comprehensive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, supplemental income insurance, pre-tax transit/parking, pre-tax FSA for medical and dependent care, and 401K available. 4 weeks' vacation, plum benefits, etc.

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they are able to perform every task in the job description. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who come from a less traditional background. Vibrant will consider any equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education and experience to meet minimum qualifications. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to think broadly about your background and skill set for the role.

Vibrant Emotional Health is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants are considered for positions without regard to veteran status, uniformed service member status, race, creed, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, citizenship status, national origin, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, caregiver status or any other category protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

"Please be aware that fictitious job openings, consulting engagements, solicitations, or employment offers may be circulated on the Internet in an attempt to obtain privileged information, or to induce you to pay a fee for services related to recruitment or training. Vibrant does not charge any application, processing, or training fee at any stage of the recruitment or hiring process. All genuine job openings will be posted on our careers page and all communications from the Vibrant recruiting team and/or hiring managers will be from an @vibrant.org email address."