Job Description

Join Our Team!

A Career with Garfield Park Behavioral Health Hospital Offers....

A rewarding career improving the lives of youth
Highly competitive wages & shift differentials
Career advancement and mobility
An engaged leadership team with a commitment to patient and staff safety
Competitive benefits packages inclusive of medical/dental/vision, 401K company matching, tuition reimbursement benefits, UHS employee discount offerings, etc.
And much more!
About Us...

For information about the benefits we offer, please visit UHS Benefits Service Center .  

Garfield Park Behavioral Health Hospital meets the needs of our patients, their families and the community by delivering an all-encompassing psychiatric healthcare service that is both effective and efficient. Restoring the emotional well-being of our patients and giving them resources for their future is our primary commitment.

Job Summary: 

The Mental Health Specialist provides direct patient care under the supervision of a registered nurse. Primary responsibilities include the provision of a safe and therapeutic milieu, crisis intervention and activities of daily living.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

Education: High School diploma or GED required accompanied with 5+ years of related psychiatric experience. Associates Degree accepted along with comparable experience.

Experience: One-year experience working within the mental health field, or an equivalent amount of college accredited school work or internship experience.

QUALIFICATIONS DESIRED:

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology or related field strongly preferred.

Licensure/Certification: State of IL EMT & Paramedic Certificate

Experience: One-year of experience working within an inpatient psychiatric hospital with children, adolescents and adults. Prior experience with utilizing crisis intervention verbal and physical techniques. Experience conducting group therapy sessions, performing vital signs and documenting nursing progress notes.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

The Essential Job Functions are defined as the fundamental job-related duties that are necessary to the position. An employee is deemed qualified for this position if he or she can perform the following duties with or without accommodations:

-Perform all crisis intervention techniques (verbal and physical) and respond to code situations

-Monitor and ensure patient safety at all times via continous Q15 minute rounding

-Ability to therapeutically communicate with patients

-Ability to recognize and communicate the physical and psychological status of the patients under their care

-Assist patient with Activities of Daily Living when necessary

NONESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

-Maintain a clean work setting and milieu

-Assist in the transporting of patients to and from the hospital when needed

-Performing vital signs on patients

-Perform other duties as assigned.

SUCCESS FACTORS/JOB COMPETENCIES:

-Positive therapeutic relationships and interventions with patients

-Service Excellence with all customers

-Ability to use least restrictive measures

-Clear and concise documentation

-Adherence to Hospital Attendance policies

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions:

Environmental Conditions: Exposure to psychiatric patients who may exhibit violent/aggressive behavior. Potential for exposure to communicable diseases, blood/body fluids and other hazardous waste. General hospital environment.

Physical Demands: Ability to communicate verbally and in writing. Physical agility to manage patients during physical interventions. Push, pull and lift up to 40 pounds. Intermittent sitting; prolonged standing, walking, bending and stooping. Ability to perform visual and auditory observation of patients. Drug and alcohol free as evidenced by negative results of post-offer, pre-employment urine drug screen.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:

-90 Day performance evaluation

-Annual Performance Appraisal

-Ongoing support from supervisor

Supervision Exercised: None

Line of Promotion: Program Specialist

Job Classification: Non-Exempt; Hours vary based on staffing needs and include day, evening, night and weekend shifts.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to demonstrate competency in the criteria listed in this job description. The specifications listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and ability to meet the minimum requirements for this position. Staff must demonstrate flexibility for reassignment to units providing care to varied populations including children, adolescents, and adults. This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by this employee. The Mental Health Specialist will be required to follow any other instructions and to perform any other duties requested by the Charge Nurse, Nurse Manager or Program Specialist.

EEO Statement

All UHS subsidiaries are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates. UHS subsidiaries are equal opportunity employers and as such, openly support and fully commit to recruitment, selection, placement, promotion and compensation of individuals without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), genetic information, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

We believe that diversity and inclusion among our teammates is critical to our success.

Notice

At UHS and all our subsidiaries, our Human Resources departments and recruiters are here to help prospective candidates by matching skillset and experience with the best possible career path at UHS and our subsidiaries.  We take pride in creating a highly efficient and best in class candidate experience. During the recruitment process, no recruiter or employee will request financial or personal information (Social Security Number, credit card or bank information, etc.) from you via email. The recruiters will not email you from a public webmail client like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. If you are suspicious of a job posting or job-related email mentioning UHS or its subsidiaries, let us know by contacting us at: or 1-800-852-3449 .

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