Child and Youth Counsellor

**Child and Youth Counsellor**:
Competition #

6518

Job Title

Child and Youth Counsellor

Department

Child & Adolescent Mental Health

Status

Permanent

Work Type

Part-time

Affiliation

ONA Paramedical

Shift Assignment

Days and evenings

Bilingualism Required

No

Police Check Requirement

Vulnerable Sector Check

Site

RLHC-ONA Paramedical

Salary Information

$37.03-$45.32

Application Closing Date

October 9, 2024

**KEY FUNCTION**:
Assess patient needs and develop individualized treatment plans in collaboration with interdisciplinary team members and utilize specialized skills and knowledge to work with children and adolescents experiencing mental health, emotional and behavioural issues. Educate patients and their families, provide crisis intervention using least restraint philosophy and promote a therapeutic and healing environment using both individualized and group format.

**REPORTING**:
Under the general direction of the Clinical Manager, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program.

**DUTIES**:

- Assist in the development of required programming and participate in interdisciplinary rounds, case conferences, planning sessions, and assist in the education of staff and students to best meet the knowledge/care needs of the youth.
- Develop the skills of patients through individual and group sessions.
- Teach parenting skills to parents through individual counselling.
- Assist in teaching and facilitating improved communication between parents/guardian and child.
- Respond to patients who intend to harm themselves or who have harmed themselves.
- Conduct personal body and room searches for dangerous items.
- Deal with suicidal patients over the phone (e.g. patients on passes).
- Monitor patients who may be suffering from medication side effects and relay observations to the Registered Practical Nurse (RPN)/Registered Nurse (RN) and the Medical Doctor (MD).
- Deal with patients who are attempting to or have gone Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL) from the HSN.
- Respond to all “Code White” situations and take the lead as required.
- Conduct routine safety checks on patients.
- Provide a safe and structured environment to encourage patients to express their feelings and emotions.
- Provide support to patients to develop new skills in the areas of self-esteem, anger management, healthy lifestyles, community resources, and coping and discharge planning.
- Extract clinical information from patient/family interactions and pass on to the rest of the team.
- Participate in shift change reporting and communication, feedback sessions, and case conferences.
- Teach skills to new staff, including Child and Youth Workers, RPNs, RNs, Social Workers, college and university students, medical students, psychiatric residents, and paediatric residents.
- Provide supervision and feedback to students.
- Determine and align improvement projects with HSN’s Strategic Plan; monitor and adjust to achieve goal outcomes.
- Evaluate patient care and satisfaction on an ongoing basis and formulate solutions for improvement.
- Educate and promote health, safety and wellness in the work place.
- Participate in education and training specific to current, relevant federal and provincial health and safety legislation, standards and guidelines.
- Represent the department or program on various committees and in meetings as required.
- Perform other duties as required.

**QUALIFICATIONS**

**EDUCATION AND TRAINING**:

- Minimum of a three (3) year Diploma in Child and Youth Counselling, from an accredited college.
- Current Certificate of Registration with the Ontario Association of Child and Youth Counsellors (OACYC) or Le Regroupment francophone des techniciennes et techniciene en éducation specialisée de l’Ontario (RFTESO) is required.
- Certification in Non-Violent Crisis Intervention (NVCI) is required.
- Ministry of Labour “Worker Health and Safety Awareness in 4 Steps” training certificate is required.

**EXPERIENCE**:

- Minimum of one (1) year experience working in a Child and Youth department within a health care environment.

**KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS/ABILITIES**:

- Demonstrated ability to counsel with empathy and respect for clients and members of the community.
- Demonstrated training, experience or utilization of lean methodology for process improvement.
- Demonstrated ability to independently identify issues, plan improvements, measure success and continue improvement.
- Demonstrated excellent computer skills with proficiency in Microsoft Office software, (e.g. Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook) and patient information systems.
- Demonstrated superior interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Demonstrated ability to manage routine correspondence, multiple tasks/projects, diversified workload and rapidly changing priorities and challenging deadlines.
- Demonstrated discretion and maturity when handling confidential information.
- Demonstrated commitment to the safety of co-workers