Peer Recovery Specialist Ryan White Project

The Addiction Research & Treatment Services (ARTS) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is seeking a full-time Peer Recovery Specialist. The ARTS Adult Outpatient Program within the School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry has clinic locations in Denver, Aurora, and Arvada. These clinics provide drug and alcohol assessment and psychosocial and pharmacological treatment for adults.

The Peer Recovery Specialist provides peer support and recovery services to people living with HIV who have problems with substance abuse at the ARTS Parkside Clinic and Specialized Outpatient Services (SOS) Clinic; both located in Denver. This position provides activities to engage, educate, and offer support to HIV-positive patients, their family, and caregivers, as well as connect patients to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up sessions.

The Peer Recovery Specialist is also responsible for conducting outreach activities with organizations, patients, staff, community partners, subcontracted agencies, and/or other entities as appropriate. This position will also travel to various sites and perform other duties as assigned or required.

Standard working hours for this position are Monday through Friday, 6:00am to 2:30pm, or 8:30am to 5:00pm. This position may be required to work some Saturdays and/or Sundays (for events/clinic coverage) depending on the needs of the clinic.

This position is a full-time position partially supported by Ryan White Care Act grant funds, whose funding levels will be reviewed on a periodic basis. Accordingly, the position's status may be affected over time by any applicable variations in the grant and/or funding amounts.

Key Responsibilities:

• Under general supervision, provide services as a Peer educator and support specialist to implement interventions to improve outcomes for HIV-positive patients participating in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and traditional outpatient treatment.
• Conduct structured, individual and group interventions that focus on health education, care coordination, as well as identifying and reducing barriers to care for patients.
• Conduct outreach activities in the community to engage HIV-positive patients in substance use treatment.
• Plan, coordinate, and conduct community outreach events such as Denver Pridefest and the Colorado AIDS Walk.
• Conduct case management for patients, and provide referrals of necessary, appropriate resources to patients as needed.
• Implement standardized intervention, track patients for engagement, and connect patients to HIV treatment and care.
• Collaborate with supervisor and staff and coordinate efforts to ensure successful delivery of services.
• Attend and participate in trainings, team/staff meetings, supervision, and other events as needed.
• Identify any problems, challenges, or obstacles in coordination of services, identify potential solutions, and resolve such problems, challenges, or obstacles in a timely manner, and ensure all duties and responsibilities are performed for effective and appropriate benefit of patients.

This position at the University of Colorado/Addiction Research and Treatment Services (ARTS) provides a unique opportunity for individuals with lived experience and recovery from SUDs to use, in turn, their specialized knowledge and experience to provide care, assistance and support of individuals currently living with SUD. The individual in this position, through their words and actions, will have a direct influence on helping others with SUD to set themselves on a path to recovery and make health lifestyle choices. In addition, by joining ARTS, employees will be actively engaged in a supportive, professional, and nurturing environment where individuals with various backgrounds and experiences converge and collaborate to provide an evidence-based, multi-faceted approach to provide the best treatment and care to every patient who comes into care at ARTS clinics.

We have amazing benefits and offer exceptional amounts of holiday, vacation, and sick leave! The University of Colorado offers an excellent benefits package including:

• Medical: Multiple plan options
• Dental: Multiple plan options
• Additional Insurance: Disability, Life, Vision
• Retirement 401(a) Plan: Employer contributes 10% of your gross pay
• Paid Time Off: Accruals over the year
• Vacation Days: 22/year (maximum accrual 352 hours)
• Sick Days: 15/year (unlimited maximum accrual)
• Holiday Days: 10/year
• Tuition Benefit: Employees have access to this benefit on all CU campuses
• ECO Pass: Reduced rate RTD Bus and light rail service

There are many additional perks & programs with the CU Advantage.

Minimum Qualifications:

• High school diploma or General Education Diploma (GED).
• One (1) year of experience in working closely with patients and connecting them to resources.
• Additional appropriate education will substitute for the required experience on a year-for-year basis.

Applicants must meet minimum qualifications at the time of hire.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Associate's degree or higher in psychology, social work, counseling, human services, or another related field from an accredited institution.
• Certification as a Peer Specialist (for example, Colorado Peer and Family Specialist/CPFS).
• Current, valid registration with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) as Certified Addiction Technician (CAT) license or higher.
• Experience with motivational interviewing techniques.
• Prior experience in Patient Navigation and connecting patients to required services or resources.
• Experience working with electronic health records.
• Experience working with clients who are involved with the criminal justice system, probation/parole, human services, and/or other similar referral sources.
• Experience providing administrative support to clients, families, staff, and other stakeholders in a substance abuse treatment setting.
• Experience managing financial paperwork including creating invoices, tracking expenditures, and gathering statistical data.
• Prior experience in sexual health education and/or with people living with HIV.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Excellent communications and interpersonal skills with the ability to establish and maintain rapport and positive relationships.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Proficiency utilizing Microsoft Excel to create, revise, update and maintain spreadsheets and macro-enabled reports.
• Proficiency utilizing Microsoft Outlook to create, send and receive e-mail communication.
• Proficiency utilizing Microsoft Word to create documents, tables, mail merge, reports, etc.
• Ability to effectively and accurately check for typographical, grammatical and/or spelling errors in documents.
• Ability to accurately and timely perform data entry.
• Ability to successfully multi-task in a high-pressure environment.
• Demonstrated critical thinking skills.
• Ability to manage difficult behaviors.
• Ability to be open-minded and nonjudgmental.
• Knowledge of basic care coordination, medical/hospital, and/or community resources.
• Knowledge of basic therapeutic confrontation and structures.
• Ability to engage successfully with substance dependent clients in treatment.
• Ability to comply with established rules, policies and procedures, and established deadlines.
• Ability to develop healthy relationships and boundaries with clients.
• Ability to exercise discretion and maintain patient confidentiality.

Conditions of Employment:

• Successful completion of the CCAR Recovery Coach Academy training within thirty (30) days of hire date.
• Must obtain Colorado Peer and Family Specialist (CPFS) certification within four (4) months of hire date.
• Must possess a valid driver's license and automobile insurance per State of Colorado requirements or obtain within thirty (30) days from date of hire. Must be willing and able to drive as part of daily responsibilities.
• Must agree to fingerprinting and criminal background check prior to being hired. Required background checks include a review with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Central Registry of Child Protection (Trails).
• Subject to pre-employment, post-accident, incident, and/or reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing per University/Addiction Research and Treatment Services Department Policies.
• This position may be required to work periodically on some weeknights and/or Saturdays and Sundays (for example, to represent the University/ARTS at events, stakeholder meetings, etc