MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR, R.N.

Position/Program Information

EXAM NUMBER :
b5278I

JOB TYPE :
OPEN COMPETITIVE JOB OPPORTUNITY

FILING START DATE:
3/03/2022 at 8:00 a.m. (PT)
This examination will remain open until the needs of the service are met
and is subject to closure without prior notice.

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS A REPOSTING TO ADD SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

Definition:
This experienced-level class functions as a primary provider of mental health nursing services to individuals, families, and groups in a range of mental health care settings.

Essential Job Functions

Provides individual counseling to a caseload of assigned patients in the regional Mental Health Clinic.

Conducts initial interview and ongoing assessment of client's presenting problems, including mental status, level of functioning, developmental status, social and employment skills, co-occurring substance abuse problems, and mental and physical health educational needs.

Obtains client's social and medical history, and integrates assessment of physical health problems that impact the client's mental illness. Provides input to the multidisciplinary team with respect to the client's diagnosis as impacted by physical health problems.

With the participation of the client and appropriate others, plans and conducts the Client Care Coordination Plan; and in collaboration with the treatment team, determines whether the client requires long- or short-term counseling, the priorities in which the problems will be addressed, the counseling methods to be used, and the advisability of using individual or group counseling.

Administers psychotropic medication; monitors drug effectiveness and side effects; and provides drug education to clients and clients' families.

Provides periodic and ongoing re-assessment of changes in client's mental and physical health status, nutritional status, and progress toward recovery.

Plans and conducts conferences with family members, significant others, and caregivers in order to gain insight into the client's mental illness by observing how the client reacts to the family and the family to the client.

Evaluates client outcomes and periodically consults with the psychiatrist to determine the need for adjustments in the Client Care Coordination Plan.

Guides individual and group therapy activities by facilitating communication, clarifying questions, explaining behavior characteristics, and encouraging interaction within the group in order to assist clients in gaining insight into their emotional problems and in developing new coping strategies.

Identifies community agencies and resources to assist clients with rehabilitation and recovery while living in the community; and may interact with private medical facilities, courts, and governmental agencies to link or coordinate services.

Participates in team meetings to discuss ongoing client needs and progress, shift activity, and adherence to program policies and procedures such as documentation and timeliness of services and/or treatments provided.

Serves as a member of the Psychiatric Mobile Response Team or similar crisis response team in reply to urgent requests to evaluate the mental status of persons who appear dangerous to themselves or others, or who appear to be gravely disabled due to mental illness.

Assesses client's suicidal or homicidal tendencies, potential for violence toward self or others, and grave disability; makes independent judgment with respect to client's need for involuntary treatment; and, where appropriate, signs application for immediate 72-hour detention at a hospital facility or schedules an appointment for evaluation and treatment at mental health clinic.

As acting Officer of the Day, provides triage, information and referral when appropriate, and may assess incoming clients for assignment within the unit or department.

Conducts site reviews and investigates client complaints or grievances by reviewing clinical records to ensure quality of care, appropriateness of medications administered based on diagnosis, and overall mental health treatment plan; writes plan of corrective action as appropriate and conducts follow-up visits as necessary to ensure that compliance standards are met.

Requirements

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
OPTION I: One year as an Assistant Mental Health Counselor, RN* in the service of Los Angeles County.

OPTION II: A Bachelor's degree** in Nursing from an accredited*** college or university with completion of specialty coursework**** in psychiatric nursing - -AND-- two years of full-time post baccalaureate experience as a licensed registered nurse in psychiatric nursing.

OPTION III: A Master's degree** in Psychiatric Nursing from an accredited*** college or university --AND-- one year of full-time post-graduate experience as a licensed registered nurse in psychiatric nursing.

LICENSE REQUIREMENT:

A valid, active license (without limitations or restrictions) to practice as a Registered Nurse issued by the State of California Board of Registered Nursing*****.

A valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize an alternative method of transportation when needed to carry out job-related essential functions.

Physical Class II - Light: Light physical effort which may include occasional light lifting to a 10 pound limit, and some bending, stooping or squatting. Considerable walking may be involved.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS Additional credit will be given for all desirable qualification.

• Experience working with clients with multiple diagnoses including mental disorder, substance abuse and/or homelessness as a licensed registered nurse.
• Experience providing mental health services to clients in a field-base community setting as a licensed registered nurse.
• An active and current national certification as a Psychiatric-Mental Health Registered Nurse (RN-BC,PMH) issued by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Additional Information

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT INFORMATION

Option I : *To qualify, applicants must have County status in the class as evidence by holding or having held such payroll title in the service of Los Angeles County for the required amount of time to qualify. NO OUT-OF-CLASS EXPERIENCE WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Option II : **To qualify, applicants must include a legible copy of degree and official transcripts showing the completion of the required psychiatric nursing coursework with the corresponding unit credits at the time of application submission or within seven (7) calendar days of application filing.

*** Accredited Institutions:
Transcript : *In order to receive credit for any college or university course, or any type of college or university degree, or any certificates, such as Bachelor's or higher, you must include a legible copy of the official diploma, or official transcripts from the accredited institution which shows the area of specialization with your application at the time of filing or within 7 calendar days of filing.

• Foreign degrees must be evaluated for equivalency to United States accredited institutions standards by an academic credential evaluation agency recognized by The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services or the Association of International Credential Evaluators, Inc. (AICE). See Employment Information under Accreditation Information.

Official Transcript is defined as a transcript that bears the college seal and states "official and/or copy" issued by the school's Registrar Office. A printout of the transcript from the school's website is NOT considered official and; therefore, will NOT be accepted and may result in your application being incomplete or rejected.

***** Registered Nurse License:
Applicants MUST include a legible copy of the Registered Nurse License from the accredited institution which shows the title of the required license, number, date of issue, date of expiration and the name of the issuing agency with your application online at the time of filing or within seven (7) calendar days from application submission to Exams@dmh.lacounty.gov. A conditional, provisional, probationary, or restricted license will NOT be accepted.A printout of your RN license information from the Department of Consumer Affairs which shows the issue and expire date is acceptable.

NOTE: If you are unable to attach the required documents with your application online, you must e-mail them to Exams@dmh.lacounty.gov within seven (7) calendar days from application submission. In the "Subject" of the e-mail please type the Exam Number and Exam Title.

SELECTIVE CERTIFICATION:
In accordance with Title 5 - Personnel, Appendix 1 (Civil Service Rule 11.03) of the Los Angeles County Code, selective certification may be used for some positions that require special skills and/or training. A Selective Certification may be established for the following locations below:
• Lancaster
• Palmdale

SPECIAL INFORMATION:
Past and present mental health clients and family members are encouraged to apply.

SHIFT:
Any - Appointees must be willing to work any shift, including evenings, nights, weekends, and holidays.

EXAMINATION CONTENT:
This examination will consist of an evaluation of training, experience, and desirable qualification based on application information and supplemental questionnaire at the time of filing weighted 100%.

APPLICANTS MUST MEET THE SELECTION REQUIREMENTS AND MUST ACHIEVE A PASSING SCORE OF 70% OR HIGHER ON THE EXAMINATION TO BE PLACED ON THE ELIGIBLE REGISTER.

VACANCY INFORMATION:
The resulting eligible register for this examination will be used to fill vacancies in the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:
The names of candidates receiving a passing grade on this examination will be placed on the eligible register in the order of their score group for a period of twelve (12) months following the date of promulgation on the eligible register.

NO PERSON MAY COMPETE IN THIS EXAMINATION MORE THAN ONCE EVERY TWELVE (12) MONTHS .

APPLICATION AND FILING INFORMATION
Applicants are required to complete and submit an online Los Angeles County Employment Application in order to be considered for this examination. Paper applications, resumes, or any unsolicited documents will not be accepted in lieu of completing the online application.
We must receive your application by 5:00 pm, PT, on the last day of filing.

Plan to submit your online application well in advance before the deadline as you may be required to verify your email address. This only needs to be done once per email address, and if you already have a job seeker account on govermmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty,gov you can verify at any time by logging in and following the prompts. This is to enhance the security of your online application and to ensure you do not enter an incorrect email address.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILING ONLINE
Apply online by clicking on the "Apply" tab for this posting. You can also track the status of your application using this website.

Applicants must complete and submit their online applications and upload required documents (e.g. license, transcripts, resume, etc., ) as attachment(s) during application submission or send by email to exams@dmh.lacounty.gov within seven (7) calendar days from date of application submission. Please be sure to reference your full name and examination title on the subject line of your email.

The acceptance of your application will depend on whether you have clearly shown that you meet the Minimum Requirements. Your online application must show complete license, education and work experience information necessary to evaluate your qualifications. License information section must show title of license, license number, original date of issue, and expiration date. Education information section must include name and address of school attended, complete dates attended, name of course/s taken, number of units earned, and degree/s earned. Work experience section must include job title, employer name and address, name of work area/facility, actual payroll title held and not the working and/or functional titles, from/to dates of employment including month, day and year, total number of months, total number of hours worked per week - not a range of hours (full or part-time), and complete and detailed description of related job duties. If range of hours is provided, experience will be prorated based on the lowest number of hours worked per week. LIST separately each job experience to be evaluated. All information supplied by applicants is subject to verification. We may reject your application at any time during the examination or selection process.

IMPORTANT NOTES
• Please note that ALL information included in the application materials is subject to VERIFICATION at any point during the examination and hiring process, including after an appointment has been made.
• FALSIFICATION of any information may result in DISQUALIFICATION or RESCISSION OF APPOINTMENT.
• Utilizing VERBIAGE from Class Specification and/or Selection Requirements serving as your description of duties WILL NOT be sufficient to meet the requirements. Doing so may result in an INCOMPLETE APPLICATION and you may be DISQUALIFIED.

For the time being, all notifications, including results letters and notices of non-acceptance, will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application. It is important that you provide a valid email address. Please add isan@dmh.lacounty.gov as well as norply@governmentjobs.com and info@govermentjobs.com to your email address and list of approved senders to prevent email notification from being filtered as span/junk/clutter mail.

Applicants have the ability to opt out of emails from LA County. If you unsubscribe, you will not receive any email notification for any examination for which you apply with Los Angeles County. Regardless of whether you choose to unsubscribe, you can always check for notifications by logging into governmentjobs.com and viewing your profile inbox, which saves a copy of all emailed notices.


SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER LANGUAGE
Please include your Social Security Number for record control purposes. Federal law requires that all employed persons have a Social Security Number.

COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS AT LIBRARIES
For candidates who may not have regular access to a computer or the internet, applications can be completed on computers at public libraries throughout Los Angeles County.

NO SHARING USER ID AND PASSWORD:
All applicants must file their application online using their own user ID and password. Using a family member or friend's user ID and password may erase a candidate's original application record.

FAIR CHANCE INITIATIVE:
The County of Los Angeles is a Fair Chance employer. Except for a very limited number of positions, you will not be asked to provide information about a conviction history unless you receive a contingent offer of employment. The County will make an individualized assessment of whether your conviction history has a direct or adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job, and consider potential mitigating factors, including, but not limited to, evidence and extent of rehabilitation, recency of the offense(s), and age at the time of the offense(s). If asked to provide information about a conviction history, any convictions or court records which are exempted by a valid court order do not have to be disclosed.

DEPARTMENT CONTACT
Department Contact Name: Irene San, Exam Analyst
Department Contact Phone: (323) 705-4074 or (213) 972-7034
Department Contact Email: exams@dmh.lacounty.gov

For detailed information, please click here

• 

• Los Angeles County

• (800) 970-5478

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