Overview

Children’s Aid provides comprehensive community services to children of all ages and their families residing in underserved communities throughout New York City. An array of services supports families from cradle to college to alleviate societal challenges that can interrupt a child, adolescent or young adults’ abilities to thrive and maximize their potential.

Children’s Aid offers a continuum of short-term, evidence based interventions of varying levels of intensity in four boroughs. The prevention services continuum consists of Family Support, Therapeutic Interventions and Family Assessment Program (FAP) services, as well as the Safe Way Forward Program for families impacted by Domestic Violence. Our prevention service interventions help families avert current, future or repeat involvement with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

MST-CAN (Child Abuse and Neglect) is a therapeutic program in our Prevention continuum of services. It is a home-based intensive therapeutic model for families in the five boroughs where abuse and/or neglect has put the family at risk of having their children placed outside the home. The model is parent focused and uses a multi systemic approach with clinical interventions designed to address abuse and neglect and reduce other risk factors. MST-CAN works with families with children ranging in age form 6-17. The model work with the family’s entire ecology to effect change and broaden support.

Position Summary:  Crisis Workers provide support to families and Therapists. They provide culturally competent, crisis intervention, assessment, case management and advocacy to families in the MST-CAN Programs in compliance with ACS policies and procedures. The Crisis Worker reports to the MST-CAN Supervisor.

 The MST-CAN Crisis Worker is part of a clinical team that is comprised of a Supervisor and 3 therapists/case planners. The Crisis Worker’s duties are performed in support of, as well as in coordination and collaboration with the therapists and supervisor. The primary duties of the case manager are to conduct home assessments, financial assessments as well as safety and risk assessments in the home. Based on these assessments, the case manager will provide families with direct case management and advocacy services to address families’ need for support in areas such as PA, housing, DOE, and referrals for community based services such as parenting classes, mental health services, job readiness programs, after school activities, summer camps, and other pro-social activities, etc. The Crisis Worker participate in group supervision, administers screening, is sometimes responsible for weekend crisis coverage and will assist with moving cases forward in the absence of the Therapist.

When required, the case planner role in some cases may be transferred from the therapist to the Crisis Worker. In these instances, the clinical/evidence based treatment ends and the Crisis Worker becomes the program staff primarily responsible for ensuring compliance with ACS and OCFS child welfare mandates on the assigned cases.  

 Responsibilities:  General responsibilities for the position of MST-CAN Crisis Worker will be to support the work of the Therapists by assisting families with concrete needs and services, educational advocacy and referrals to support services to alleviate barriers to their participation in treatment. Tasks of the Crisis Worker include, but are not limited to:

  • Assist with concrete case management tasks, e.g. rent arrears, utility shut off, furniture assistance
  • Perform system updates on PROMIS and CONNX
  • Assist with Intake tasks
  • Monitor school attendance and obtain school records
  • Request medical records for all minor children
  • Assist with maintenance of case records for unit
  • Conduct “Safe Sleep” assessments of infants as well as well as ongoing safety and risk assessments of younger children in the home as needed
  • Conduct home assessment as well as assessment of financial resources for families as needed
  • Research and Identify appropriate community based services to support families, e.g mental health programs, DV programs, pro-social activities for adolescents etc. 
  • Accompany clients to entitlement appointments such as HRA/Public Assistance
  • Make referrals/appointments to agencies/collaterals needed
  • Complete all required child welfare documentation such as progress notes, assessment forms, etc.
  • In instances when Crisis Workers are assigned a case planner role on cases, Crisis Workers perform child welfare tasks as described above on the assigned cases as well as complete FASPs and/or Plan Amendments when required.
  • Attend all trainings necessary to perform above tasks.
  • Engage primary caregiver and other key participants in active change-oriented treatment by identifying and overcoming barriers to engagement
  • Assist therapists in the implement a problem conceptualization, treatment planning, intervention implementation, outcome review and strategy revision procedure using the MST Analytic Process
  • Maintain clear and concise documentation of treatment efforts that promote peer and supervisory review and feedback, and that demonstrate compliance with the nine MST Principles and the MST Analytic Process
  • Perform safety checks at the direction of the supervisor or therapist, respond to emergencies, and implement crisis plans
  • Obtain drug screens and/or breathalyzers for parents or youth who are abusing substances
  • Participate in all MST-CAN training, supervision and consultation activities
  • Build a relationship with community stakeholders (i.e., child protection services, Guardians ad Litem, judges, schools, etc.) to ensure cooperation among service providers
  • Assist the clinical team and parents with children’s school adjustment
  • Assist in CAN-TAM-R collection by connecting families with the interviewer helping families complete a paper TAM’s
  • Assist the team in on-call rotation (if the crisis casework is qualified to do so)
  • Be available by phone 24/7 or as needed to respond to client crises. This includes ability to conduct sessions on weekends as needed, to accommodate client availability
  • Ability to work flexible hour, including working remotely in the field, community or various CA offices to meet the needs of families and improve efficiency and management of time and resources
  • Other tasks assigned, and as necessary to support the program’s needs.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW) or a BA in a related field required.
  • Minimum one years of related experience working with adolescent and/or families preferably in a child welfare, juvenile justice or mental health settings.
  • Bilingual in Spanish/English preferred.
  • Ability and willingness to work with families and teens in the home, school and other appropriate settings in the community.
  • Ability to work flexible hours including evenings and some weekends as needed.
  • Ability to work independently, as well as contribute to a team.
  • Very good interpersonal/communication skills, including ability to write well and complete documentation in a timely manner.
  • Computer literate.
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