Mental Health Counselor, EarlyON Program

Alliance for Healthier Communities; Toronto; On-site; CAD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading community health organization is seeking a dedicated EarlyON Mental Health Counsellor. This role involves providing clinical counseling and community-focused programs support to enhance mental wellness, particularly in Black communities. The ideal candidate will facilitate workshops and advocate for clients while ensuring safe and supportive environments. If you are passionate about mental health and community service, apply now to contribute to a vibrant team dedicated to improving lives.

Qualifications

• Must be eligible for registration with Ontario regulatory body.
• 2-5 years experience in community mental health required.
• Lived experience or deep understanding of Black/African/Caribbean cultures preferred.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate mental wellness groups for Black parents.
• Provide short-term counseling and advocacy for clients.
• Maintain comprehensive client records and adhere to standards.

Skills

Crisis Management

Counseling Skills

Group Facilitation

Advocacy

Education

Master’s Degree in Social Work

Tools

Electronic Health Records

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

• Temporary Full Time Position: 35 hours per week
• Contract Period: April 2025 – March 2026

LAMP Community Health Centre is a multi-service, community based charitable organization that provides a wide range of programs and services to improve a person's health. LAMP uses a coordinated approach to connect people to medical services and other programs that build personal resources. By providing services that improve physical, emotional, social and economic well-being, people can better control their health and environment.

Under the general supervision of the Children’s Programs Manager, working within the context of LAMP’s mission and strategic directions, the EarlyON Mental Health Counsellor will provide clinical counselling, and community-focused mental wellness within the standards ofrespective professional college.

This role involves conducting assessments, offering short-term counseling, and making referrals. Additionally, the EarlyON Mental Health Counsellorwill be responsible for facilitating and coordinating weekly mental wellness groups and workshops for Black parents/caregivers and children aged 0-6, as well as parent-child interactive programs and workshops for staff. The incumbent will ensure that all organizational policies are followed.

PrimaryResponsibilities

• Facilitate parent/caregiver and child interactive mental wellness groups/workshops for Black communities.
• Provide short-term counselling to clients; and provide case management by developing plans to assist clients in achieving their goals.
• Organize and deliver educational seminars, workshops, and training for families, service providers, and staff, where need, interest and ability exist.
• Advocate for and on behalf of Black clients to support them in accessing services/resources/programs.
• Creating a culturally safe, supportive, empowering, and welcoming anti-oppressive environment that supports mental health prevention for program participants to be active decision-makers.
• Act as a resource for EarlyON staff by providing information, written materials, and discussions about children's and adults' mental health conditions.
• Maintain and assist with preparing statistics and reports and completing administrative duties associated with the program/department.
• Maintain comprehensive client records that meet required standards of practice.
• Enter client encounter data regularly into the EMR and maintain up-to-date client documentation.
• All other tasks and duties as assigned by the Supervisor/ Manager.
• Master’s Degree in Social Work, Psychotherapy, Psychology, Counselling or other health related discipline.
• Must be eligible for registration with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Services Workers or College of Registered Psychotherapist of Ontario.
• Current membership in good standing from respective professional college.
• Hold professional liability insurance in accordance with the requirements set out by the respective college in Ontario.
• Demonstrated clinical counselling experience and a high degree of comfort with short term client interventions and group work.
• Two to five years’ experience in planning, implementing, and evaluating client-centered groups for adults and children in a community setting, and understanding the mental health challenges and needs of children and adults.
• Proven experience providing assessments, and client intervention, as well as advocating for identified communities in need.
• Demonstratedknowledge and practice of trauma-informed care, anti-oppression frameworks, and Afrocentric practices in mental health.
• Must be client focused with excellent facilitation and problem-solving skills, as well as, the ability to deal effectively with crisis and conflict, cope with trauma, do self-care, balance crisis support and counselling duties, as well as maintain clients’ records.
• Lived experience or deep understanding of Black, African and/or Caribbean cultures.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to clearly convey information and ideas.
• Strong organizational and administrative skills related to program delivery and funding reports.
• Positive attitude, empathetic, flexible and dependable with strong initiative and the ability to work both independently and in a team-oriented atmosphere.
• Maintain all activities within LAMP’s values, following a participant involvement model which focuses on strengths.
• Proven understanding of the social determinants of health and a health promotion framework; commitment to interdisciplinary team approach to coordination of health and social services, practice of anti-racism and anti-oppression (including anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-sexism, and others); commitment to harm reduction approach; and, mental health prevention principles.
• Solid working knowledge and ability to navigate a PC windows environment, including shared drives.
• Strong skills and experience using Microsoft applications (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint & Publisher).
• Strong skills and ability to easily navigate the internet/intranet environment.
• Experience and accuracy using database applications (i.e. Electronic Health Records – Purkinje & Nightingale, funder databases, etc.)
• Ability to learn new software quickly and willingness to continuously develop technology skills

WorkingConditions

• Must have a willingness to work evenings or weekends
• Incumbent needs to attend to self-care, dealing with illness and death of clients, stress from working with challenging clients, and have confidence and competence in dealing with clients in crisis.
• Must be able to work in a fast paced, multi-faceted environment and make quick decisions.
• The ability to stand for up to two to three hours for outreach efforts (approx. three times a year)
• Ability to effectively understand the appreciation of guiding fundamentals at LAMP, i.e. Health Promotion, Anti-Oppression; Harm Reduction and the principles of community-based practice. “Walk the talk.”
• There is an expectation for all employees to participate in two events per year for the agency; these events may be during the evening or on a weekend.
• Frequent data entry, with extended periods of time sitting stationary in front of a monitor while keyboarding (60%) and frequent standing for extended periods of time and some occasional lifting may be required (40%).
• Ability to balance all job requirements in a busy atmosphere, including responding promptly to all communication.
• Demonstrates good and safe work habits and maintains a clean working environment.
• Ensures that staff and clients are compliant with LAMP’s Health & Safety regulations and LAMP’s policies and procedures, including the immediate reporting of any breaches of Health & Safety or Environmental incidents, accidents or concerns to their respective manager/supervisor and/or the Director, Human Resources.

As part of our mandate for inclusivity, reasonable accommodations can be made for all incumbents to perform the described physical functions of the aforementioned job.

Location

How to apply:

LAMP Community Health Centre is dedicated to achieving a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community it serves and encourages applications from equity seeking groups.

Please send your resume with a cover letter to Human Resources:

• Subject │Job Opening for Mental Health Counsellor, EarlyON Program
• Internal Deadline │5:00 pm on Thursday, April 10, 2025
• External Deadline │5:00 pm on Thursday, April 17, 2025

We thank all applicants for their interest. However, only those selected for interviews will be contacted.