Milieu Specialist

Job Summary

This position works under the direct supervision of the Unit Charge Nurse. The Milieu Specialist plays a critical role in maintaining a safe, supportive, and therapeutic environment for individuals experiencing mental health crises. This position requires high emotional intelligence, quick decision-making, and a calming presence to deescalate challenging situations. Working collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, the Milieu Specialist provides recovery-focused support and coaching to help individuals avoid hospitalization.

This is a 24/7 facility with shifts available across all hours. Compensation is based on experience.

Essential Functions

• Conduct daily safety and environmental rounds and communicate concerns to nursing and clinical leadership in real time to enable timely follow-up and resolution.
• Comply with regulatory and accreditation requirements, along with organizational policy.
• Check-in with charge nurse at the start of the shift to get directions on how to effectively assist on the assigned unit(s).
• Assess/reassess the units throughout each shift and work collaboratively with the interdisciplinary care team to implement safety best practices and interventions, as applicable, especially during situations when a patient is in crisis or exhibiting challenging or medium to high-risk behaviors.
• Serve as crisis response team member and assist in formal staff debriefings following codes.
• Participate and lead specific emergency codes occurring on the unit.
• Assist units with checking in patient belongings, visitation, admissions, discharges, and providing staffing coverage during coworkers' breaks or absences.
• Attend unit shift to shift report (daily).
• Assist nursing leadership in precepting Behavioral Health Technicians.
• Other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements and Qualifications

Education: High school diploma or GED required; Associate degree or higher preferred.

Training Requirements (licenses, programs, or certificates):

• BLS
• Recipient Right's
• WELLE
• Completion of agency-specific onboarding and crisis intervention training.
• Ongoing professional development in trauma-informed care and recovery coaching.

Experience Requirements:

• Minimum of two (2) years' experience in the healthcare industry within in a patient safety, patient relations, and/or risk management role accepted in lieu of college degree.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience in customer service
• Experience working with adults with severe mental illness, substance use disorder or intellectual/developmental disabilities
• Experience working with children with serious emotional disturbance
• Background in recovery-oriented or trauma-informed care environments
• Experience in crisis de-escalation
• Experience in working with Electronic Health Record systems

Job Specific Competencies/Skills:

• Interpersonal Skills
• Ability to remain calm and supportive in high-stress situations
• Flexibility to adapt to evolving needs and schedules.
• Strong Organizational Skills
• De-escalation and conflict resolution
• High emotional intelligence and empathy
• Clinical knowledge of mental health and suicide prevention
• Strong time management
• Strong critical thinking and decision-making abilities

Knowledge Requirements:

• HIPPA
• Microsoft 365
• Recipient Right's
• Mental Health Code
• Medicaid Manual
• Regulatory compliance

Oakland Community Health Network's Core Competencies:

• Interacting with others in a way that gives them confidence in one's intentions and those of the organization; demonstrating loyalty to the organization and its mission and values; maintaining social, ethical, and organizational norms; firmly adhering to codes of conduct and ethical principles. (Integrity/Building Trust)
• Making customers and their needs a primary focus of one's actions; developing and sustaining productive customer relationships, recognizing that the ultimate customer is the person served. (Customer Focus)
• Actively identifying new areas for learning; regularly creating and taking advantage of learning opportunities; using newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learning through their application. (Continuous Learning)
• Setting high standards of performance for self and others; assuming responsibility and accountability for successfully completing assignments or tasks; self-imposing standards of excellence in addition to consciously adopting organizational standards of excellence. (Work Standards)
• Clearly conveying information and ideas through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that engages the audience and helps them understand and retain the message. (Communication)

Additional Information

(Travel required, physical requirements, on-call schedules, etc.):

Must be available for meetings and events which may occur outside of standard office hours.

• Work performed primarily in a crisis center environment.
• The ideal candidate must be able to complete all physical requirements of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation.

OCHN is committed to building a diverse team and fostering an inclusive and equitable culture. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer that embraces and encourages our employees' differences. This includes (but is not limited to) ability, age, color, family type, gender expression and identity, individual expression, medical conditions, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, and all other diverse and wonderful characteristics.

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