Community Crisis Counsellor

**AVI Health & Community Services (AVI)** is a multi-disciplinary community based organisation providing HIV, hepatitis C and harm reduction services out of 5 locations across Vancouver Island. AVI provides services to people living with HIV and hepatitis C and harm reduction clients. We take evidence-based action to prevent infection, provide support, and reduce stigma. We work within a social justice and health promotion framework to ensure equity and access to services for all.

Join our supportive, dedicated and client-centred team in promoting the health, dignity and well-being of all people affected by HIV, HCV and substance use by delivering sex-positive and harm reduction-based education, prevention and/or support services.

**AVI PEER ASSISTED CARE TEAM**:
The AVI Peer Assisted Care Team will provide immediate low-barrier, harm reduction, trauma
- informed support services to community members experiencing mental health, substance use and related crises.

Our PACT team provides services on the territories of the Ləkʷəŋən peoples (Esquimalt and Songhees nations).

**JOB SUMMARY**:
This position would be scheduled for **Thursday - Monday 1:00pm-9:00pm.** With options for job sharing or split line.

The PACT team will provide acute crisis support and de-escalation services for persons 13 years of age and older experiencing mental health and/or substance use crises. The Community Crisis Counsellor will be responsible for rapid point of service mental health crisis management and de-escalation, including crisis and wellness assessment, suicide intervention and safety planning.

**KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES**:

- Provide situational assessment and crisis de-escalation
- ‘Hold-space’ for persons/groups experiencing psychological/emotional distress
- Assess for wellness and safety plan, including triage to emergency services
- Provide outreach care and emergency mental health response and support to persons in a variety of settings, including: parks, encampments, shelters, drop-in centers, people’s homes and community centers and to people living outside.
- Center clients’ agency and choice; co-creating safety/wellness plans and engaging chosen support systems
- First aid and overdose response including rescue breathing, oxygen and naloxone when necessary
- Engage in point of service crisis counseling, clinical case management and supervision.
- Foster safety by following protocols related to violence prevention and critical incidents such as overdose and other medical emergencies.
- Work outdoors in all types of weather and in all seasons
- Engage in planning, evaluation, reporting, and program development as directed.
- Perform other duties as assigned.

**QUALIFICATIONS**:

- Minimum 3 years’ relevant experience. Experience with crisis de-escalation, case management and harm reduction preferred
- Degree in mental health, Counselling or Social Work.
- Adept with situational and mental health assessment, including safety and wellness assessment, de-escalation and crisis intervention skills
- Extensive experience providing supportive counselling in the field
- Suicide Intervention and Assessment Training
- CBT and DBT Training
- Mental Health First Aid Training
- Experience and capacity for incident debriefing, including with service users and teammates.
- Skills and capacity to assess and triage to emergency services, where appropriate
- Extensive experience with Clinical Case Management, including experience maintaining confidential client records
- Effective working relationships with community care providers, including local non-profit and Health Authority services
- Direct Service delivery and advocacy experience with community-based and provincial support services and systems (financial aid, housing/shelter, healthcare, justice system, etc.)
- Demonstrated capacity to effectively communicate with Emergency Service Personnel
- Demonstrated skills, experience, and commitment to harm reduction principles and practices.
- Demonstrated ability to establish respectful rapport, provide support and advocate for a diverse range of individuals who are actively using substances and living with significant barriers to their health and well-being.
- Demonstrated empathic observer invested in respectful relationship-building.
- Demonstrated practice of social justice, cultural humility, trauma-informed and public health approaches and models of social support and health care.
- Experience managing hostile interactions, utilizing non-violent communication and diffusing techniques.
- Demonstrated ability to take initiative, find innovative solutions and work independently.  To use resourceful and creative problem solving to find effective solutions and to meet people where they are at both physically in community and in their experience.
- First aid and CPR level C
- Valid Class 5 BC Driver’s License with “Normal” Drivers Status
- Driver’s Abstract (AVI will review the past year’s