Clinical Supervisor - Jail-Based Evaluation and Restoration - Psychologist II

State of Colorado; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work arrangements

PERA retirement plan

Medical and dental health plans

Paid leave and holidays

Job summary

Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) seeks a licensed psychologist to provide clinical supervision and expert guidance across its Forensic Services Division. The role includes directing program admissions, treating complex cases, and coordinating with jails, courts, and facilities to uphold restoration and competency standards.

The position emphasizes crisis management, multidisciplinary collaboration, and leadership in policy implementation, with travel across Colorado to support

Qualifications

• Current, valid licensure as a Psychologist from the Colorado State Board of Psychologist Examiners
• Three (3) years of experience as a licensed psychologist or permitted psychologist candidate, two of which must have been at the level of a fully operating psychologist
• No Substitutions

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical supervision and consultation to department staff, including five full-time positions in social work and health professions.
• Lead on-call rotations and after-hours crisis management for the programs.
• Conduct forensic evaluations and interpret psychological assessments to guide treatment and intake decisions.
• Serve as the department’s primary clinical consultant, offering education, psycholegal interpretation, and treatment planning recommendations.
• Collaborate with state psychiatric facilities, courts, correctional facilities, and other partners to ensure admissions, transfers, and continuity of care.

Job description

This position will be accepting applications from residents and non-residents of Colorado. This announcement is open to potential candidates who are legal residents of the United States. All legal residents of the United States are eligible to apply and compete. If appointed to a position, applicants from outside of Colorado will be required to relocate to Colorado prior to their start date, at their own expense.

Located within the Colorado Department of Human Services, Civil and Forensic Mental Health (CFMH) is responsible for policy development, service provision and coordination, program monitoring and evaluation, and administrative oversight for the public behavioral health system. CFMH funds, supports, and monitors numerous mental health and substance abuse community programs and providers. CFMH also operates the Colorado Mental Health Hospitals at Fort Logan and Pueblo, the Mental Health Transitional Living Homes, and the Forensic Services Division. CFMH executes the State’s federal responsibilities as the State Mental Health Authority and the State Substance Abuse Authority to administer federal block grant funds for mental health and substance abuse.

The Forensic Services Division is responsible for six departments, including Forensic Community-Based Services (FCBS), Jail-Based Evaluation and Restoration (JBR), Outpatient Restoration (OPR), the Forensic Support Team (FST), the Court Services Department, and the Operations Department. Our teams work within various settings, including community agencies, jails, courts, and hospitals. The locations can include locked units and secure facilities, and our clients may at times be unpredictable due to their mental health needs. Our team is required to make critical decisions in dynamic and fast-paced environments to ensure a high level of accountability for patient care. Our staff are required to maintain updated skills, knowledge, abilities, and competencies necessary to the position through continuing education, clinical supervision, literature review, and discipline and team development. This position may require traveling throughout Colorado to meet the needs of the department. The JBR Program exists to serve as the only program to provide jail-based competency restoration services for individuals found incompetent to proceed by the courts and ordered to undergo restoration treatment for the State of Colorado. In addition, the JBR department provides oversight to contracted private hospital programs. The program additionally provides treatment to those individuals ordered by the courts to undergo an initial evaluation of competency and mental condition/sanity evaluations. The JBR Program serves as the State expert on restoration and competency in a jail-based setting and collaborates with numerous other entities and governmental agencies to ensure best practices in admissions across the State, best practices in competency restoration treatment, and continuity of care and follow up care for individuals discharging from the program. The JBR program oversees all contracts associated with these programs, coordinates admissions, conducts program audits, establishes best practices, and engages in site visits.

Weekly Hybrid Working Arrangements

Minimum 2 days In Office and/or site and Maximum 3 days Remote Work;

This position will comply with the Forensics Services Department's current working arrangements.

Please note: Work arrangements are subject to change at any time.

The position serves as the Department’s psychological expert and clinical supervisor and provides direct oversight and monitoring of the 110‑bed program located at Peak View Behavioral Health, the 78‑bed restoration program located at the Arapahoe County Detention Facility, and the 18‑bed restoration program located in Denver County. A primary role of this position is to serve as the clinical subject matter expert in Colorado Statute for competence to stand trial and civil commitment, psychiatric disorders, inpatient psychiatric and restoration treatment, psychological evaluation and interpretation of various assessments, and jail-based restoration treatment. This position is responsible for interpreting and maintaining expertise in psychological assessments in order to guide treatment and consultation regarding competency to stand trial, violence risk, diagnostic differentiation, patient disposition, and civil commitment. The Supervisor serves as the clinical expert in the implementation of new legislative initiatives on behalf of this Department and in partnership with the Director. In order to maintain expertise, this position may conduct forensic examinations on behalf of the Department, as required. This position provides clinical supervision and consultation to the department’s three (3) Health Professionals and two (2) Social Work positions, as well as any student trainees. This position regularly engages in site visits across all department programs to ensure restoration best practices are being utilized, serves as a clinical consultant, develops and conducts various training, and assesses patient treatment needs. The supervisor maintains decision‑making authority for program admissions, patient placement, and patient movement based on clinical knowledge, legal demands, and program variables. This position will also lead on‑call rotations and responsibilities to provide after‑hours support and crisis management to the programs. Along with the Director, this position will lead program auditing, identify deficiencies, provide recommendations, and determine action plan needs to ensure fidelity to the contractual agreement and best practices within service provision. This position assists with coordination of programmatic functions with various entities (e.g., communicating changes in patient treatment needs to inform patient movement to different treatment programs/level of care), tracks data that corresponds to records and movement, and engages in daily communications with various agencies and departments. This position collaborates with the Director in gathering data to report to CFMH and CDHS management about the program’s performance and compliance with policies and procedures. This position collaborates with the department in writing departmental policy and procedure and develops process improvements to increase efficiency. This position is critical to the organization and functioning of the Jail Based Restoration department and the ongoing care of patients in our custody.

Other duties include:

• Relies upon psychological expertise and knowledge in severe and persistent mental illness, administration and interpretation of psychological assessment, behavioral interventions, competency restoration, civil commitment, treatment planning, and violence risk in order to use established criteria to determine admissions, transfers, and discharges to and from all departmental programs.
• Must apply their knowledge to established practices in order to interpret information and reach decisions, as well as provide clinical recommendations to staff and treatment team members. In order to maintain expertise and relevant knowledge, this position may conduct a variety of forensic evaluations, as needed, for the Department.
• Analyzes information including clinical records, psychological assessments, competency evaluations, and judicial outcomes in order to make clinical decisions regarding patient treatment needs at all points in their care with the Department.
• Responds quickly to the changing needs of a patient’s placement or the program and is frequently required to make decisions based on specialized knowledge. This includes determining the level of urgency for referrals for transfer to and from the State hospitals. In doing so, this position must communicate with internal and external stakeholders often regarding all patient placement and transfer decisions in a manner that makes clinical language understandable to lay persons.
• Collaborates with the various stakeholders, including state psychiatric facilities, county jails, agents of the courts, contractors, FSDV programs, CMHHIP admissions program, CMHHIP legal‑medical records, and CMHHIP DPS transport to ensure essential information is communicated as needed for admissions, discharges, and continuity of care.
• Collaborates and directs the Program Assistant with aspects of communication that may overlap and/or correlate with one another.
• Serves as the Department’s primary clinical consultant, in order to offer treatment and intervention guidance to our program’s treatment staff. This involves providing education, clinical expertise, psycholegal interpretation, behavioral interventions, compensatory treatment strategies, and treatment planning recommendations.

Supervision and Clinical Oversight:

• Serves as the direct supervisor for five (5) full‑time staff in the Department within the social work and health professional job classification series. Supervisory duties include the provision of clinical and administrative supervision, professional development, employee performance evaluations, plans, and disciplinary actions, staff scheduling, position descriptions, recruitment, retention, interviewing and hiring, onboarding and training, and ensuring ongoing quality standards are achieved.
• Responsible for the hybrid work arrangements and workflow assignment for all supervisees, ensuring quality standards are met, and productivity is maintained through development and implementation of efficient processes and systems.
• Participates in on‑call responsibilities during weekends and evenings for situations that require an immediate response, including crisis management and intervention guidance.

Program Implementation, Training, and Contractor Performance:

• Guides how various programs implement mental health treatment and competency restoration education. It also serves as a contract monitor for program performance using program and individual client data, site visits, inpatient and jail‑based best practices, contracts, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), The Joint Commission (TJC), and The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) requirements, laws, clinical expertise, and audits to assess contractor performance.
• Must recognize treatment deficiencies and guide the development of the necessary mechanisms to support patient care and contractor performance.
• Assists with data collection, tracking, analyzing, and interpreting.
• Assists with reporting to CFMH and CDHS management about the program’s performance and compliance with policies and procedures and data reporting.
• Expected to create and provide ongoing training to various programs and internal staff based on identified needs, changes in law, changes in best practices, and field innovations in psychological practices.
• May be called upon to represent the Division in various presentations regarding mental health programming and restoration education as well. Duties may require commuting to various locations for training, supervision, evaluation, meetings, and stakeholder engagements.

Policy, Procedure, Research, and Data Tracking:

• Plays an important role in data collection, interpretation, application, and reporting in various formats to assess programmatic trends, needs, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Collaborates with the Director in gathering data to report to CFMH and CDHS management about the programs’ performance and compliance with policies and procedures.
• Collaborates with the department in writing departmental policy and procedure and develops process improvement to increase efficiency and ensures departmental staff adhere to approved practices.
• Expected to maintain knowledge of current national practices, psychological field practices, innovative programming, and general national trends associated with inpatient psychiatric programming and competency restoration in both the jail based and inpatient settings. This may also include CMS, TJC, CDPHE, and other regulatory authorities.

Other Duties As Assigned:

• Any other duties that may arise and need to be completed by this position that aren’t covered in the above duty statements.

Education/Licensure/Certification/Experience:

Current, valid licensure as a Psychologist from the Colorado State Board of Psychologist Examiners

Three (3) years of experience as a licensed psychologist or permitted psychologist candidate, two of which must have been at the level of a fully operating psychologist

No Substitutions

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with in‑custody, inpatient psychiatric treatment, or community‑based treatment with the SPMI population
• Experience providing competency restoration treatment
• Experience providing clinical supervision to multidisciplinary behavioral health professionals
• Significant experience conducting a variety of forensic evaluations including but not limited to adult competence to stand trial and risk.
• Significant experience with a variety of psychological assessment measures.
• Experience working with individuals with a combination of severe and persistent mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and neurocognitive disorders.
• Doctorate degree in Psychology is required (Psy.D. or Ph.D.).
• Specialized supervisory and/or leadership training
• Demonstrated background in handling personnel matters
• Demonstrated background in establishing and maintaining quality assurance standards in forensic report writing, supervision, psychological assessment, and testimony.
• Advanced knowledge and experience in psychological assessment, including test administration, interpretation, diagnostic differentiation, violence risk assessment.
• Demonstrated ability to develop, implement, and deliver clinical training, provide expert consultation, and support professional development among clinical staff.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with correctional facility leadership, psychiatric treatment providers, courts, legal professionals, and other community and state agency partners.
• Experience providing administrative supervision and leadership.
• Experience managing complex clinical situations, providing crisis consultation, and making independent clinical decisions in high‑acuity or secure treatment environments.
• Experience conducting clinical programming audits and strong knowledge of CDPHE, TJC, and CMS standards and regulations.

Conditions of Employment:

• 2‑Step TB (tuberculosis) screening is required Annual Influenza vaccination and other vaccinations as required by the State of Colorado.
• On‑call Status – Explain: This position shall contribute to an on‑call rotation, crisis management, and may be required to engage with stakeholders and supervisees after hours.
• Frequent in state travel between offices CMHHIP, CMHHIFL and various detention facilities/hospitals
• Full Background CDHS employees (all Direct contact with vulnerable persons):
  • CBI name check and fingerprint check, ICON Colorado court database, Medicare fraud database, Reference Checks, Professional License verification (licensure requirements), Drug Screen, PREA (Division of Youth Services), Trails check (direct contact with children), CAPS (direct contact with adults – Mental Health Institutes, Regional Centers, Veterans Community Living Centers)
  • Former State employees who were disciplinarily terminated or resigned in lieu of termination must:
    • Disclose that information on the application.
    • Explain why the prior termination or resignation should not disqualify you from the current position.
    • Provide your employee number from your prior State employment. Absent extraordinary circumstances, prior disciplinary termination or resignation in lieu of termination and failure to provide this information will disqualify the applicant from future State employment with CDHS.

About Us & Benefits

If your goal is to build a career that makes a difference, join the dedicated people of the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). Our professionals strive to design and deliver high quality human and health services that improve the safety, independence, and well‑being of the people of Colorado. Each of us is committed to contributing to a safe and accessible CDHS. In addition to a great location and rewarding and meaningful work, we offer:

• Strong, secure, yet flexible retirement benefits including a PERA Defined Benefit Plan or PERA Defined Contribution Plan plus 401(k) and 457 plans
• Medical and dental health plans
• Employer supplemented Health Savings Account
• Paid life insurance
• Short- and long-term disability coverage
• 11 paid holidays per year plus vacation and sick leave
• State of Colorado Employee BenefitHub Resource Center
• Employee Wellness program
• Excellent work‑life programs, such as flexible schedules, training and more
• Remote work arrangements for eligible positions
• *Some positions may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

Our Values

• We believe in a people‑first approach: We prioritize the needs, well‑being, and dignity of the individuals, families and communities we serve. We commit to respect, fairness and access in every decision, policy and interaction. We engage client voices and experiences in the development and implementation of the services we provide.
• Balance creates quality of life: We want our team to be resilient through a supportive workplace that values flexibility, health and wellness, and employee engagement.
• We hold ourselves accountable: We take responsibility through our actions, programs, and results for the state of health and human services in Colorado.
• Transparency matters: We are open and honest with employees, our partners, the Coloradans we serve, and the public.
• We are ethical: We abide by what is best for those we serve by doing what is right, not what is easy.
• Collaboration helps us rise together: We work together with all partners, employees, and clients to achieve the best outcomes for Coloradans.

ADA Accommodations

CDHS is committed to a Colorado for ALL qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, our agency will assist individuals who have a disability with any reasonable accommodation requests related to employment.

This includes completing the application process, interviewing, completing any pre‑employment testing, participating in the employee selection process, and/or performing essential job functions where the requested accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodation to ensure you have a positive experience applying or interviewing for this position, please direct your inquiries to [e-mail].

EEO Statement

The State of Colorado is an equal opportunity employer

We are committed to increasing a “Colorado for ALL” of our staff and providing culturally responsive programs and services. Therefore, we encourage responses from people of all backgrounds and abilities. The State of Colorado believes that a “Colorado for ALL” drives our success, and we encourage candidates from all identities, backgrounds, and abilities to apply. The State of Colorado is an equal opportunity employer committed to building inclusive, innovative work environments with employees who reflect our communities and enthusiastically serve them. Therefore, in all aspects of the employment process, we provide employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, medical condition related to pregnancy, creed, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, or military status (with preference given to military veterans), or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.