Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Interviews clients to obtain information about their needs and situations and obtains resources. Connects patients with critical resources for housing, replacing ID and vital documents, and supportive services.
• Interviews patients and family members to obtain information about home environment, family relationships, and health history.  Performs accurate social work assessment. 
• Conducts client services on HCV and/or HIV in street medicine and low-barrier primary care settings.
• Uses motivational interviewing and brief solution-focused therapy with patients.
• Collaborates closely with CHASS’s community partners to address the needs of the patients.
• Evaluates data and establishes a plan that provides maximum benefit to the patient.
• Involves the patient in identifying and understanding problems.
• Explores available resources and services.  Consults with caregivers.
• Educates and supports the patient regarding options and services available.
• Provides a multi-disciplinary approach to a plan and coordinates the plan with other staff.
• Coordinates care of patients through referral to health providers or agencies.
• Assesses patient progress and modifies the intervention plan accordingly.
• Maintains documentation on all case files, including patient information, intervention plan, progress, and outcomes.
• Attends and participates in conferences to discuss patient care and participates in work committees as requested by the project provider lead.
• Participates in professional development activities and maintains professional affiliations.
• Advocates for client services.
• Conducts case findings.
• Assists clients with interpreting when needed.
• Maintains patient confidentiality and HIPAA regulations.
• Responsible for contributing to the patient team care approach as it relates to social worker duties.

Performance requirements:

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

Knowledge of the principles and practices of social work and counseling techniques.  Knowledge of community resources and referral agencies.  Knowledge of group dynamics.  Skill in counseling.  Skill in interviewing and communicating elicits information and cooperation from patients, staff, and the public. Knowledge of medical records systems.

Abilities:

Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem. Written Comprehension — The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. Inductive Reasoning — The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. Fluency of Ideas — The ability to come up with several ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity). Written Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand. Ability to speak Spanish preferred.

Education:  Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and/or related field.

Experience: One year of social work experience required. Work experience in helping unhouse individuals and/or Street Medicine environment preferred.

Special requirements, qualifications, licenses, or certifications:

• Licensed through the State of Michigan as a Licensed Bachelor’s Social Worker (LBSW) preferred.

Typical physical demands: Requires sitting for long periods. Occasional bending, stretching, or lifting.  May require contact with individuals with communicable diseases.  Requires the ability to work under high-stress conditions for long periods.  Ability to hear the normal range of voice.  Ability to prepare written reports and use telephone equipment.  Normal office environment. 

Typical working conditions/environment: Normal office environment. Involves frequent contact with patients.  Work may be stressful at times.  Interaction with others is constant and interruptive.  Frequent exposure to communicable diseases, toxic substances, medical preparations, and other conditions common to a clinic environment. Goes out in the community with the Street Medicine team.

Accommodation: CHASShas the right to modify the duties and functions of the job description based on the needs of the organization.

Job description review: This job description will be reviewed and updated, if necessary, during the employee’s review.