Title: Family Support Specialist (FSS)

Status: Non-Exempt                                                                                    

Department: AVPH Healthy Families America® (HFA) Home Visitation Program                

Reports To: Supervisor

Hours: Full-time, Weekdays; Occasional evenings, and/or weekend work required

Effective Date: 01/01/2018

$23.00/Hr.

Job Summary:

The Healthy Families America® (HFA), Family Support Specialist (FSS), is selected because of a combination of personal characteristics, experiences, and educational qualifications, per the current Healthy Families America® (HFA) Best Practice Standards (BPS) cited requirements. Individuals must reflect a willingness and desire to work in, and with, culturally diverse communities, while utilizing their knowledge, skills, and abilities to provide a comprehensive home-based service with voluntary participants, who are either pregnant, or parenting children ages 0-5.

 The role of the Family Support Specialist is to primarily provide in-person home visitation as a direct service offered voluntarily to families consenting for services. Virtual visits may also be offered/provided if public health climate indicators require such, or if initiated by family request. The FSS must use a personal vehicle to conduct in-person home visits, outreach activity, or any additional case management/programmatic needs.

 The Family Support Specialist is responsible for participant assessments/screenings, risk identification, participant and funder identified documentation, database input, outreach, and providing resources through home-based supportive services. Additionally, the Family Support Specialist provides strength-based maternal child health and parenting educational instruction, on-going support, and guidance. The Family Support Specialist must be able to initiate, engage, maintain good rapport, and build trusting relationships with participant families as they progress and transition through the continuum of services, typically for 3-5 years.

The Family Support Specialist incorporates and emphasizes the Protective Factors while partnering with families as they become more resilient, connected to their community, have developed an appropriate and wholesome understanding of prenatal, infant, and early childhood development, have exhibited healthy parenting practices, and reflect the ability to manage stressful events, while mitigating or eliminating risk.

 The Family Support Specialist who routinely collaborates with the Supervisor(s), and/or the Program Manager, and/or Director, therefore, must be open and receptive to the parallel process, Reflective Practice concepts and activity, motivational interviewing, 1:1 Reflective Supervision, Clinical Reflective Group process, and actively participate in a co-case management, evidence-based service model, while effectively supporting a caseload of assigned voluntary participants.

Education and Experience:    

• AA degree or Bachelor’s degree preferred; minimum requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent with experience as described.
• Bi-lingual English/Spanish preferred.
• Be at least 18 years of age.
• One year experience working in the field of maternal child health and/or related program.
• One year’s experience and maturity successfully working with children (0-5 years of age) and their families.
• Appropriate knowledge of infant and child development, milestones, and concerns  
• One year home visitation experience preferred.
• Experience and humility working with families and children ages 0-5, in culturally diverse communities, and the ability to be socially sensitive, respectful, and appropriate; accepting of an individual’s differences.
• An ability to establish trusting relationships.
• Experience performing interviews and assessments preferred.
• Willingness to engage in building reflective capacity (e.g., capacity for introspection, communicating awareness of self in relation to others, recognizing value of supervision, etc.) 
• Infant Mental Health (IMH) endorsement level l or ll – preferred.
• Recommended, but not required, COVID-19, fully vaccinated.

Family Support Specialist - Specific Areas of Responsibility, Includes:

The ideal candidate for this position will possess a combination of skills, experience, and passion in the following areas:

Initiation of Services

• Pull and review participant documents/charts of referred, or pre-screened/identified potential individuals who meet the target population requirements.
• Contact participants to establish an interview/assessment/education session within 24-48 working hours of pre-screening or referral identification.
• Complete and score the FROG (Family Resilience and Opportunities for Growth) scale assessment tool in a comprehensive manner to determine risk factors of interviewed clients, eligibility “best fit” for their needs, and potential enrollment.
• Based on assessment outcomes, offer voluntary home visitation services and/or community referrals and linkage.
• Schedule initial in-person home visit for intake and assessment within 1-week of initial referral and assessment eligibility/Acceptance, contact, meeting with participants to review home-based service expectations, which includes evaluation, and completion of required documents pertaining to informed consent, voluntary services, participant rights, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability), the AVPH complaint/grievance process, and child abuse reporting mandates.
• Either virtually, or in-office setting, complete a start to finish day – electronically notating client contact and database documentation/assessment outcomes, sort and file all participant contacts, preferably the same day of participant contact.

Case Management/Education

• Conduct routine assessments to identify risk, assess individual/family status, and to monitor progress as needed.
• Partner with the Supervisor to review the intake and assessment results, addressing concerns by developing a Home Visit Service Plan requiring intake and assessment issues identified through e.g., FROG Scale conversational assessment is initially reviewed (Intake), continuously addressed, and updated based on Service Plans, family’s Service Level (guidance/frequency of visits) over the course of receiving voluntary services.
• Perform infant-child development screenings at specified time point intervals, beginning with ages Newborn to 3 months, and then on-going based on predetermined intervals.
• Perform age specific and developmentally appropriate parent-child activities.
• Conduct maternal depression screenings/assessments, prenatally and postpartum, during specified time points, and as needed.
• Conduct routine/timeline maternal and programmatic assessments, monitor participant compliance with prenatal/OB visits, post-partum well-woman checks, newborn 6-week follow up visits with medical providers, and routine infant immunizations/well-child exams; Breastfeeding; and age-appropriate child nutrition.
• Educate and guide parents as they learn about newborn-infant safe sleep practices, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) prevention, home and child safety, ages prenatal – 5 years.
• Use of Creative Outreach measures routinely to initiate and ensure on-going participant engagement, involvement, and retention.
• Utilize cultural competencies; establish trusting relationships with families using nonjudgmental, nurturing interventions, which are family-focused and strength-based.
• Foster strategies to achieve progressive maternal/fetal/child health practices including education, teacher-demonstrator, guidance, support, linkage/referral, advocacy, and skill-building while utilizing the HFA chosen prenatal, post-natal, and early childhood development curricula(s).
• Assist, guide, and support participants as they develop routine Family Goal Plans with short and long-term goals emphasizing hope, identified participant strengths, and enhance family functioning.
• Assist, guide, and support participants to identify their parental and personal capacities and build upon the Protective Factors which will assist them in creating an optimal home environment, healthy relationships, competencies, self-confidence, social supports, resilience, and adaptable life-skills.
• Assist, guide, and support participants to develop and strengthen coping, critical thinking skills, accessible resources, and abilities.
• Assist, guide, and support participants as they begin to apply new knowledge, insight, and skills gained through home based educational experiences.

Referrals and Linkage

• Assist, guide, and support participants as they identify, explore, and utilize natural and community support systems.
• Assist, guide, and support participants to advocate for themselves, their children and community.
• Make referrals to community agencies as needed for case management, collaborative services, and mandates.
• Comprehensively and accurately follow-up on referrals while additionally gathering data/outcomes as it becomes available, preferably within 5-working days from date of service.
• Maintain daily work schedule, routines, and organizational management duties, such as keeping Outlook calendar updated and reflective of a start to finish day, to include accountability activity such as home visit appointments, trainings, Reflective Supervisions,’ program meetings, etc., completed the last workday of the week, prior to the following week, and updated regularly as scheduling changes occur.
• Attend and participate in agency, programmatic, and community-based meetings, trainings, and outreach events as required, and as authorized.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Supervisor, Program Manager, and/or Director of Direct Services.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

 Knowledge

• Knowledge and experience of maternal/fetal/child health.
• Knowledge and experience working with families and children 0-5 years.
• Working knowledge of infant and early childhood development, bonding, attachment and enhancing parent-child relationships.
• Knowledge of at-risk, high-risk families experiencing domestic violence, substance abuse, depression, disabilities, child abuse, and that of a mandated reporter’s duties and responsibilities.
• Knowledge of community resources and how to access them.

Skills

• Skill and ability to assess risk and respond accordingly using best practices within the law, adhering to the standards, policies and procedures set forth by AVPH, Healthy Families America®, and the AVPH HFA® Home Visitation Program.
• Strong Interview and assessment skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to empathetically relate to families, maintain boundaries, set, and hold limits within the home visitation models’ scope of practice.
• Strong grammatical and written skills.
• Proficiency in data entry and computer skills with the desire and ability to learn new database systems and office applications as needed.

• Skills in collaboration and teamwork.

Abilities

• Ability to establish and maintain personal/programmatic boundaries, while providing supportive services that are best fit for the family.
• Ability to believe in, and is secure, with approach and advocating for nurturing, nonviolent discipline of children.
• Ability to interview effectively to solicit thorough, pertinent, and accurate information.
• Ability to relate to participants from a family focused and strength-based paradigm.
• Ability to engage families and sustain participant retention.
• Ability to refrain from providing clinical intervention.
• Ability to provide basic and supportive skills.
• Ability to communicate with others respectfully and effectively.
• Ability to multi-task, maintain and file records/reports/documents in an organized and timely manner.
• Ability to understand, acknowledge, and follow AVPH and HFA programmatic policy and procedures, including that of mandated reporter duties and professional reasonability.

Administrative:

• Function as part of the interdisciplinary team.
• Attend agency and programmatic meetings and training courses as required, locally as well as outside of the Antelope Valley SPA-1 (Service Planning Area 1) region when necessary.
• Perform all duties in a professional, positive, respectful, and caring manner.

Other Essential Duties:

• Operate phone/communication systems, photocopiers, computers, and all other office related equipment to complete required duties.
• Proficiency in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Excel.
• Contribute to job-related skills and abilities through educational pursuits.
• Supports and adheres to the values and mission statement established by AVPH Board of Directors.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Supervisor, Program Manager, and/or Director of Direct Services.

Required Licensure and/or Certifications:

• Current and maintained CA driver’s license.
• Current/maintained auto insurance.
• Reliable and available transportation for work-related purposes (up to 75% of daily activity).
• Current and maintained CPR.

• Meet basic health requirements, background check, and physical job standards.
• Bi-lingual, English/Spanish, preferred.
• Certified Lactation Educator (CLE) preferred.
• Infant Mental Health (IMH) endorsement level l or ll – preferred.

Physical Requirements and Working Conditions:

• Work in flexible settings, such as: Hybrid, In-office/desk and/or Virtually; In participant homes/ residential locations; Community; and other business locations as needed, to perform job duties.
• Work with low economic and varied cultural backgrounds, living in high-risk areas, unstable housing, etc.
• Able to maintain HIPAA requirements with confidential information, safely and discreetly, as required, when working in various settings.
• Able to follow all safety and communication protocols.
• Work is often performed under stressful and emotional conditions.
• Work may require sitting for occasional extended lengths of time.
• Work may require periods of case management and documentation in the field using electronic devices.
• This position requires lifting/carrying up to 25 lbs., reaching, stooping, bending, squatting, sitting on the floor, walking, running (may be needed).