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Peer Supervisor - ORCA Center

Seattle, WA (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=517+3rd+Ave+Seattle+WA+USA+98104) •ORCA Center

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Job Type

Full-time

Description

**Days Off:** Saturday, Sunday

**Schedule:** Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

**Insurance Benefits:** Dental, Life, Long-term Disability, Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage)

**Other Benefits:** Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), ORCA card subsidy, Paid Time Off (34 days per year), Retirement Plan

**Supervised by:** Senior Manager of Nursing

A cover letter is required as part of your application to be considered for this role.

About DESC:

DESC (Downtown Emergency Service Center) is a nonprofit organization working to help people with the complex needs of homelessness, substance use disorders, and serious mental illness achieve their highest potential for health and well-being through comprehensive services, treatment, and housing. Our vision is a community where no person is abandoned, ignored, or experiencing homelessness.

As the region's leading provider of services to multiply disabled adults who have experienced chronic homelessness, DESC serves almost 3,000 people each day. Our integrated service model is designed to help people secure and maintain appropriate, safe and affordable housing. DESC is recognized nationally and regionally as an innovator in developing solutions to homelessness.

About the Opioid Recovery & Care Access (ORCA) program

DESC’s ORCA program provides compassionate, low-barrier, and evidence-based care to individuals who are recovering from opioid overdose and those seeking treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). The ORCA Center, our brick-and-mortar location, provides post-overdose subacute stabilization services and provides walk-in access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The ORCA Patient Outreach Division (POD) delivers field-based MOUD care – meeting people where they literally are in the community.

ORCA Center

The ORCA Center is open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, including holidays. It is staffed by a multidisciplinary team, including providers, nurses, medical assistants, peers, and milieu specialists. The ORCA Center offers four overlapping types of services:

+ Care to individuals in stable condition who have experienced an opioid overdose, brought to the ORCA Center by first responders or transferred from local emergency departments.

+ Rapid initiation of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including buprenorphine (sublingual and long-acting injectable) and methadone (under the “72-hour rule”, or CFR Title 21 §1306.07 (b)), for people with OUD, regardless of whether an opioid overdose has recently occurred.

+ Harm reduction counseling and OUD-related physical and behavioral health services.

+ Follow-up care for individuals who have started MOUD to ensure support in MOUD continuation.

ORCA POD

ORCA POD is ORCA’s field-based care team, bringing MOUD induction, stabilization, and maintenance services as well as education and other supports directly to patients in the community. ORCA POD operates during business hours (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). ORCA POD is a multidisciplinary team, including providers, nurses, and peers, operating across several geographic areas throughout the greater Seattle region including:

+ Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) sites

+ Emergency shelters

+ Encampments or unsanctioned sites

+ High-need geographic zones identified in collaboration with DESC and community partners

+ Areas without easy access to low-barrier MOUD services

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Peer Supervisor will coordinate with a multi-disciplinary team responsible for providing outreach and office-based MOUD services at the ORCA Center. Clients often experience mental health issues, housing instability, opioid dependence, and significant barriers to accessing more conventional treatment services. Work will be done at DESC’s ORCA Center, various permanent supportive housing sites, shelters and other specified locations. The Peer Supervisor will be supervised by the Senior Nurse Manager of the ORCA Center and ORCA POD. The Peer Supervisor will supervise three peer roles at DESC that provide support for those initiating and continuing MOUD services.

The ORCA Peer Supervisor will have experience as a Peer Specialist and preferably prior supervisory or other leadership experience. The ORCA/ORCA POD Peer Supervisor preferably will have experience with opioid use treatment and is willing to share their personal experience, knowledge, and first-hand insight to benefit the team and its participants. They are well established in their own recovery and provide expertise that professional training cannot replicate. The ORCA Program Peer Supervisor is a person who uses their lived experience of recovery from substance use, plus skills learned in formal training, to deliver services in behavioral health settings to promote mind-body recovery and resilience.

ORCA Program Peer Supervisor will provide consultation to the team to promote a culture in which each client's point of view and preferences are recognized, understood, respected and integrated into treatment, recovery and community self-help activities. This position requires a high degree of coordination and collaboration with other DESC programs as well as outside agencies. A condition of employment is for this position is to have completed the Washington State Peer Counselor Training and be classified as a Certified Peer Specialist.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Supervisory:

+ Coordinate work of ORCA Program Peer Specialists conducting outreach to clients throughout the greater Seattle area

+ Coordinate and participate in clinical supervision meetings, program meetings, and in-service training for Peer Specialists; participate in clinical reviews and case conferences as necessary.

+ Assess staff members supervised for strengths and training needs. Provide regular supervision, clinical consultation, performance feedback, support and assurance of needed training for staff.

+ Facilitate team meetings in a manner, which promotes team members contributing in their areas of strength and learning as needed. Develop team cohesion, which effectively serves the clientele and provides the needed support for team members to effectively perform their job.

+ Coordinate and schedule all aspects of ORCA Peer services, including scheduling of individual team members and coverage of offices as needed; review and authorize staff time sheets; submit on time to payroll department.

+ Guide and participate in appropriate delivery of screening/assessment activities to assure resources are used for the target population.

+ Review team clinical documentation to assure that team members maintain current and complete clinical records, and that records comply with the agency, ORCA, and funding requirements.

+ Provide individual supervision/consultation for assigned team members.

+ In cooperation with agency management ORCA Peer staff, establish and maintain cooperative relationships with a broad spectrum of internal and external human service organizations and programs that provide resources needed by client population.

+ Screen/assess referrals to ORCA Peer Program for eligibility and provide coordination of other ORCA staff involved in screening and initial engagement effort.

+ Become and stay aware of related contractual and working agreements; assure supervised staff maintain awareness of same.

+ Assure the gathering of accurate service and other program data; assist with report writing in compliance with ORCA contracts.

+ Comply with all agency policies and procedures, relevant Washington Administrative Code, and King County Mental Health Division policies and procedures.

+ Participate in program evaluation activities.

Direct Service:

+ Provide clinical outreach & ORCA Peer Specialist services to a partial caseload.

+ Identify individuals in need, screen for appropriateness to services, develop rapport and trust while offering support, and assist with immediate and basic needs to individuals who are suspected of having opioid use disorder.

+ Provide recovery support to people who have been referred to ORCA and ORCA POD.

+ Link the individuals to needed MOUD services and/or opioid use disorder treatment and assist in navigating systems and addressing barriers to independence and recovery. Track number of people who obtain connection to above mentioned services.

+ Integrate personal experience with mental illness and substance use disorders into work with program participants.

+ Help participants identify, understand, and combat stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and substance use disorders and develop strategies to reduce self-stigma. Help other team members identify and understand culture-wide stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness and substance use disorders and develop strategies to eliminate stigma within the team.

+ Provide opioid use consultation and training to Clinical Program and Housing Program staff.

+ Advocate for clients' access to community resources and services, ensuring that clients' needs are met, and rights maintained; consult and collaborate with community providers to ensure continuity of care, facilitate linkages to collaborative resources when appropriate.

+ Assist consumers with voicing their interests and goals through a variety of channels including Goal Plans, Crisis Plans, WRAP and other methods of expressing individual preferences for their recovery goals.

+ Participate in verbal de-escalation and physical interventions in emergent situations and be willing and able to assist other staff as needed to maintain a safe and secure environment.

+ Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

+ Current Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS) through the Washington State Department of Health or ability to gain certification within 60 days of hire.

+ Ability to gain certification as an approved peer support specialist supervisor through the Washington State Department of Health:

+ Obtain 1,000 hours of experience as a peer support specialist,

+ Obtain 500 hours of joint peer supervision experience with an approved supervisor,

+ Complete the Washington State Health Care Authority Peer Supervisor Training

+ One or more years' experience in community based behavioral health services or like industry serving a diverse client/participant population.

+ Two or more years’ experience leveraging personal peer story as a peer specialist.

+ Experience working with adults experiencing homelessness, mental illness and/or substance use disorders.

+ Lived experience as a consumer of behavioral health services (mental health and/or substance use disorder treatment) or be the parent or legal guardian of a child who has received behavioral health services.

+ Must be or have been a recipient of opioid use treatment and should have self-knowledge to manage their opioid use history and be well along in their recovery.

+ Be willing to seek to understand each client's unique circumstances and personal preferences and goals and incorporate them into the crisis response to help the client regain a sense of control.

+ Ability to communicate and work effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

+ Interest or experience in working with clients who are difficult to engage and maintain in traditional mental health / substance use disorder programs.

+ Strong knowledge of relevant community resources and methods for accessing them.

+ Possess strong communication and writing skills.

+ Experience working with adults who are experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, have a mental illness and/or co-occurring substance use disorders.

+ Ability to work effectively with clients displaying a wide range of unpleasant and/or bizarre behavior.

+ Subscribe to the philosophy of cooperation and continuity across programs and of consideration and respect for consumers.

+ Have a strong understanding of recovery and resilience, the value of client partnerships and client choice, and the balance between protection from harm and personal dignity.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

+ At least one year’s experience providing supervision to peers prior to July 1, 2025, and completion of peer specialist supervisor training provided by the Health Care Authority

+ Prior supervisory experience or other leadership experience

+ Knowledge of de-escalation skills, crisis intervention & stabilization, and harm reduction strategies

+ Bi-lingual in Spanish/English

+ Personal experience with medications for opioid use disorder

+ Ability to drive an agency or personal vehicle to conduct agency related business, which requires a current Washington State driver's license and insurable driving record

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those required to perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made for individuals with disabilities. Duties include extended periods of sitting, regular communication by talking and hearing, lifting up to 25 pounds, and regular use of computer systems. Vision requirements include close and distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and focus adjustment.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER:

DESC is committed to diversity in the workplace and promotes equal employment opportunities for all staff members and applicants. The Agency will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, caste, marital status, or the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability in any employment practice, unless based on a bona fide occupational qualification. Minorities and veterans are encouraged to apply.

Salary Description

$92,270.16 - $104,395.20 annually