Behavioral Health Specialist Senior

The City of Charlotte is the largest municipality in North Carolina and the 17th largest city in the United States, with a total population of more than 872,498 citizens. A major commerce center, Charlotte hosts several of the nation’s largest banks and technology companies. Also known as the Queen City, Charlotte is home to the Carolina Panthers, the Charlotte Hornets and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We work hard to ensure that the community will be a winning city for everyone – a truly remarkable place to live, work, learn and play. Join us in helping to keep our City thriving, ensuring upward mobility and advancement in the workplace.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is a highly respected law enforcement agency, both in our community and nationally. Our progressive department provides exciting opportunities for law enforcement professionals to develop partnerships with our citizens in order to prevent the next crime, and to enhance the quality of life within our community always treating people with fairness and respect. The department employs nearly 2,000 sworn officers and over 500 civilians serving a jurisdiction with nearly 1 million people. Our employees are men and women from diverse backgrounds interested in meeting the needs of and serving an equally diverse community.

Serves as a full-time Senior Behavioral Health Specialist to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) by providing a variety of professional counseling or psychological services. The Senior Behavioral Health Specialist will provide therapy to traumatized/distressed employees of CMPD; training incident debriefing counselors; coordinating critical incident stress debriefings; group counseling sessions; teaching police academy courses; and maintaining confidential records. This position will report to the Deputy Chief of Police of the Administrative Services Group.

• Aids in critical incident group debriefings with all involved personnel (sworn and civilian), as appropriate.
• Participates or assist with the wellness program for employees considered high risk for secondary trauma due to the nature of their assignment in the department.
• Conducts research and maintains knowledge on applicable therapy techniques and relevant reference materials related to police psychology.
• Performs other duties of a similar nature and level as assigned.
• Provides crisis counseling in the field, and the office for individuals experiencing acute episodes; evaluates patients and arranges for voluntary or involuntary admission to facilities for observation and treatment.
• Provides psychological care and treatment for academy recruits, sworn staff, and civilian employees; provides therapy to traumatized or distressed officers; performs diagnostic assessments and applies appropriate therapeutic techniques and intervention; continuously monitors therapy progress; provides referrals to other health care facilities/professionals, as needed.
• Provides training and instruction to police employees; develops and presents Police Psychology curriculum providing training related to resilience and positive coping mechanisms.
• Provides supervision to counselors and employees.
• Maintains security and confidentiality of information created or encountered in the performance of assigned duties in strict adherence with all applicable laws and regulations.
• Coordinate and serves as clinical advisor to, the Department Peer Support Program including participation in the selection and training of new members.

Knowledge of:

• Principles and practices of program administration and management.
• Applicable federal, state and local laws, codes, regulations (based on assignment).
• Methods of diagnostic assessment of psychological health needs.
• Principles and methods of qualitative and quantitative research.
• Customer service principles.
• Principles and practices of group facilitation and building consensus.
• Specialized equipment relevant to area of assignment.
• Principles and applications of critical thinking and analysis.
• Modern office technology.
• Principles and practices of clinical and police psychology.
• Best practices, trends and emerging technologies.
• Psychological treatment methods of acute stress disorders, trauma and related illnesses.

Skill In:

• Exercising political acumen, tact and diplomacy.
• Utilizing a computer and relevant software applications.
• Providing psychological care and treatment related to traumatic stress and incidents.
• Utilizing communication and interpersonal skills as applied to interaction with coworkers, supervisors, the general public and others to sufficiently exchange or convey information and to receive work direction.
• Reading, analyzing, evaluating, interpreting and summarizing written materials and statistical data.
• Providing customer service.
• Providing appropriate therapeutic techniques and intervention or making resource referrals as required.
• Maintaining confidential assessment and treatment files and records.
• Providing consultation and serving as a department liaison and subject matter expert.
• Preparing and delivering training curriculum and related presentations.
• Interpreting and applying applicable laws, codes, regulations and standards (based on assignment).
• Performing clinical psychological assessments.
• Researching industry trends, solutions and best practices.

ADA and Other Requirements

Positions in this class typically require grasping, talking, hearing, seeing, and repetitive motions. Must be able to perform the essential job functions with or without accommodation. This position may be required to work evening shifts, weekends and/or response to critical incidents, crime scenes and or incidents involving violence and/or death.

Physical Requirements:

• Occasional movement throughout the workday daily to interact with staff and accomplish task.
• Remaining in a stationary position, often sitting or standing for prolonged periods.
• Work primarily in office environment.
• Ability to operate office equipment, such as computer, copier, fax machine, and phone.
• Light work that may include moving objects up to 10 pounds.
• Repeating motions of holding, grasping, turning, that may include the wrist, hands, and/or fingers.
• Communicating both verbally and written in order to exchange information.

Sensory Requirements:

• Comprehensive of written information in work related documents.
• Ability to operate in an environment with frequent interruptions from people and or noises, which in return could result in some level of stress, fatigue, or strain.
• Concentrated and attentive use of one or more senses (visual, audio, and other sensory modalities) for proof reading, data entry, tabulating data.
• Working Conditions:
• Work is routinely performed in an indoor, office environment. Maybe required to be on call and/or work outside of normal business hours.
• Ability to hear, understand, and distinguish speech.

• Three (3) year experience
• Master’s degree in psychology or related human service field with coursework in behavior analysis
• Licensed Professional Counselor

Requires one of the following licensures with the ability to practice in North Carolina:

o Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)

o Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC)

o Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Supervisor (LCMHCS)

or similar certifications and/or licensed issued by the State of North Carolina.

Annual Salary: $95,500

Apply online.

Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job.

Anyone seeking an accommodation to apply for a job may call (704) 336-2285 for assistance or you may email questions to [email protected].

• Employer contribution to the City's 401(k) plan
• Health, dental, vision & life insurance coverages
• 10 days annual paid vacation (full-time employee)
• Flexible spending account and health savings account programs
• 401(k) & 457 voluntary deferred compensation programs
• 12 days annual paid sick leave (full-time employee)
• Free and confidential Employee Assistance Program
• 11 holidays (special rules may apply to some jobs) and one floating personal day
• Coverage under the NC Retirement System or the Charlotte Firefighters' Retirement System (if a firefighter) pension plans
• Employer paid short-term disability program
• Military, jury duty, funeral & school support paid leave
• Educational reimbursement for approved college education

The City of Charlotte is an at-will employer. The city reserves the right to modify policies, programs and practices including the right to change employee contributions to health and benefit programs.

This information is a summary of benefits. Participation in any of the city’s benefits plans should not be viewed as a contract of employment. While the city of Charlotte intends to provide these benefits for an indefinite period of time, it reserves the right to terminate, suspend, withdraw, amend or modify the plan at any time. Any such change or termination of benefits will be based solely on the decision of the city and may apply to active employees, future retirees and current retirees as either separate groups or as one group.