Master's Level Early Childhood Clinician | Per Diem

Applicants are strongly encouraged to provide a cover letter outlining their interest in working with young children and their families. Use the opportunity to highlight specific experiences and skills that may not shine through the resume, making you a strong candidate.

When you join The Center for Early Childhood @ Home for Little Wanderers, you join a team of professionals dedicated to partnering with families and professionals to promote optimal emotional health for young children and the adults who care for them.

Through a variety of early childhood mental health (ECMH) direct care services and consultation partnerships, The Center works with children (0-7), parents/caregivers, and professionals to build and support strong social-emotional foundations for happy, healthy childhoods.  The Center provides age-appropriate, culturally responsive interventions for children and families in a variety of settings including our child-friendly clinic, homes, early education sites, shelters, and community spaces.

The Per Diem ECMH Clinician role is autonomous and highly clinically competent.  The ideal candidate needs little oversight, is proactive and independent, ready to jump-in to tough cases, and able to “thinking outside the box” in clinical care.  The work environment is collaborative and supportive; however, the Per Diem ECMH Clinician works a schedule that reduces opportunities to engage with peers and leadership. The ideal candidate can (with limited support) work cases from referral to close, using early childhood mental health expertise.  

The Per Diem ECMH Clinician is welcome but not required to fully engage as a member of our fun and supportive team of clinicians and mental health consultants led by fun and supportive program leaders.  Regardless of their time commitment, the ideal candidate brings their whole self to work, nurtures relationships with coworkers, and enthusiastically seeks out the level of team engagement that best meets their career goals.

How You Will Be Making a Difference

As a Per Diem ECMH Clinician at The Center for Early Childhood, you will fill a critical gap in community-based behavioral health services in Massachusetts, providing specialized services and supports.  You will carry a caseload and adhere to health insurance standards.  You will work with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, early elementary school children, and adults (parents and professionals).

More specifically, the Per Diem ECMH Clinician will:

Direct care to children and adults:

• The Per Diem ECMH Clinician is paid an hourly rate for time spent on insurance-reimbursable activities.
• Provide insurance reimbursable promotion, prevention, and intervention early childhood mental health services, including individual, dyadic, family, and group therapy along with collateral consultations and care coordination, that are holistic, family-centered, trauma responsive, and evidence informed.
• Engage families, assess the child’s needs, and provide age-appropriate diagnosis incorporating relationships, family values, cultural norms, and developmental/educational needs using standardized tools and best practices.
• Support caregivers with meeting their own goals and mental health needs through facilitated referrals and family therapy.
• As needed, attend to families in crisis by facilitating access to crisis and emergency services for children and adults.
• Build and maintain a caseload sufficient to meet per diem productivity goals.

Consultation and collaboration:

• Time spent on case management and administrative tasks is compensated as part of the rate paid for billable services.  The Per Diem ECMH Clinician is expected to manage their time accordingly.
• Facilitate referrals for services, supports, and resources from internal and external community-based providers.
• Support families experiencing systemic barriers (including racism, poverty, immigration status, and multi-system involvement) to child and family mental health and wellness. 
• Attend meetings, make phone calls, complete forms, research, follow-up, develop partnerships, and advocate with internal and external providers to promote coordinated, high quality, and equitable service experiences (individual client and macro work).
• Independently differentiate between insurance billable and non-reimbursable activities.

Paperwork and outreach efforts:

• Time spent on documentation and administrative tasks is compensated as part of the rate paid for billable services.  The Per Diem ECMH Clinician is expected to manage their time accordingly.
• Develop and document treatment plans utilizing modalities consistent with program goals and client needs including therapeutic play, expressive arts, trauma-informed care, and evidence-based practices.
• Ensure that documentation meets utilization review and quality assurance standards (timely submission, completeness, quality, etc.).
• Independently document work with strong attention to insurance requirements for billable activities.

Ongoing professional development and wellness:

• The Per Diem ECMH Clinician receives limited paid training and supervision.
• Actively participate in training and learning opportunities for personal and professional growth, as assigned by supervisor and program director.
• Actively participate in supervision and meetings including individual, group, and team constellations, as assigned by supervisor and program director.
• As needed, consult with supervisor and peers about successes, challenges, threats and opportunities.
• Center family voice and choice in all phases of service delivery.
• Demonstrate commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and The Home’s becoming an anti-racist institution.

How You Will Be Compensated

• You will receive $60 per hour for time spent on insurance-reimbursed activities. This rate covers time spent outside of reimbursable activities, which is not paid separately.
• You will receive $20 per hour for time spent on required training and meetings, as assigned by a supervisor or program director.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in social work, mental health or related discipline
• Prior experience engaging children 0-7 (could include volunteer, intern, lived-experience, etc.)
• Excellent cultural curiosity, sensitivity, and responsivity
• Strong capacity for self-reflection
• Computer literate, including Microsoft Office, with the ability to learn new software applications
• Ability to travel (via personal transportation or public transit) to meet programmatic and client needs regularly and intermittently
• Highly preferred:
  • Ability to provide services in a second language; Identified need for Spanish and/or Haitian Creole fluency.
  • Massachusetts licensure (LICSW, LCSW, LMHC, or LMFT)

Valuing Diversity

We are committed to excellence in diversity, equity, and inclusion, while simultaneously creating a culture that supports those values. We believe the differences we bring enhance our ability to provide exceptional service and care to diverse children, families, and communities. Moreover, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging align with our values and our mission to help vulnerable children and their families build permanent, positive change.