High Intensity Peer Counselor (RISE Guide)

firsthand; Vancouver (WA); On-site; USD 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

firsthand supports individuals living with SMI through a team of peers, clinicians, and benefits specialists to improve health outcomes. As a RISE Guide, you provide intensive post-discharge management and navigate care and medication plans, coordinating with multidisciplinary teams to ensure safe transitions and ongoing engagement.

This role emphasizes empathy, problem solving, and collaboration within a community setting.

Qualifications

• Lived experience with SMI and/or SUD and recovery.
• Two years demonstrated recovery time from a mental health and/or substance use disorder.
• State Peer Recovery certification or eligibility and willingness to obtain within six months.

Responsibilities

• Provide intensive post-discharge management and transitions of care, ensuring stability post psychiatric hospitalization.
• Coordinate and support treatment plans for substance use disorders when applicable.
• Assist individuals with navigating medications, addressing barriers to adherence and communicating with prescribers.
• Develop safety plans and action steps based on individual supports and triggers.
• Co-navigate systemic barriers to access care including appointments, transportation, and enrollment.
• Participate in daily huddles and regular reviews to coordinate care for RISE individuals.
• Support after-hours rotation for crisis or urgent needs when required.
• Maintain engagement with individuals, building trust through empathy and problem solving.
• Help our broader RISE team minimize sentinel or traumatic events and promote better outcomes.

Skills

Empathy

Active listening

Communication

Interpersonal skills

Collaboration

Multidisciplinary teamwork

Job description

firsthand supports individuals living with SMI (serious mental illness). Our holistic approach includes a team of peer recovery specialists, benefits specialists and clinicians. Our teams focus on meeting each individual where they are and walking with them side by side as a trusted guide and partner on their journey to better health.

firsthand's team members use their lived experience to build trust with these individuals and support them in reconnecting to the healthcare they need, while minimizing inappropriate healthcare utilization. Together with our health plan partners, we are changing the way our society supports those most impacted by SMI.

We are cultivating a team of deeply passionate problem-solvers to tackle significant and complex healthcare challenges with us. This is more than a job-it’s a calling. Every day, you will engage in work that resonates with purpose, gain wisdom from motivated colleagues, and thrive in an environment that celebrates continuous learning, creativity, and fun.

We named our company firsthand because we believe that lived, or \"firsthand,\" experience is invaluable for gaining trust and building meaningful relationships. Because of that, we have many Peer Recovery Specialists that play a critical role in both outreach and long term engagement, supporting individuals living with SMI to achieve and maintain both behavioral and physical wellness. Internally, we refer to this important role as a firsthand Guide (fG). Some of our individuals will benefit from a higher intensity level of care than others, and to support those individuals, we have another Peer Recovery Specialist role: our RISE Population Guides ( RISE guides).

Our RISE Guides carry much of the same expertise as a Peer Recovery Specialist, however they will focus uniquely on supporting our individuals who need the highest level of care we provide at firsthand, often engaging and supporting them multiple times a week (or a day!). This is a role that will be performed in Community, working alongside our CORE firsthand guides, but serving a different panel of individuals than our core Community team.

As a RISE Guide, you will:

• Provide intensive post-discharge management and transitions of care, ensuring stability post psychiatric hospitalization and supporting them, ideally with in-hospital engagement and discharge planning


• Coordinate and support their Substance Use Disorder treatment plan, if applicable


• Support individuals in navigating their relationship with medications, including identifying and addressing barriers to adherence and facilitating communication with their prescribing team


• Develop a deep understanding of the individual's supports and triggers for deterioration, and be able to quickly develop safety & action planning to support them


• Co-navigate systemic barriers alongside individuals to ensure they are able to access care, including appointments, transportation, enrollment into care services, and more


• Actively problem solve and own to resolve social challenges, such as housing, food, transportation


• Participate in daily huddles and regular IPRs to ensure a coordinated approach for RISE individuals


• Potentially participate in (Post-Pilot) after-hours rotation to support individuals experiencing a crisis or urgent need outside of standard business hours.


• Maintain engagement and build a trusting relationship with their individual, supporting them with empathy and assistance with problem solving


• Support our individual, and our broader RISE care team, with ensuring our individuals avoid any sentinel, traumatic events - leading to better clinical outcomes and quality of life

RISE guides should have:

• Empathy, compassion, and approachability


• Excellent listening, communication, and interpersonal skills


• Personal knowledge of recovery and/or behavioral health


• Patience, persistence and a desire to help individuals experiencing SMI and/or SUD on their wellness journey


• Comfort working collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams, including clinicians


• Comfort or willingness to be an advocate for individuals in acute healthcare settings such as ERs and hospitals.


• Strong personal boundaries and the ability to navigate high-stress situations while maintaining a calm, grounded presence


• Demonstrated mastery with technical tools like smart phones, email, messaging services, and apps


• Openness to receiving feedback and a commitment to professional growth

The required experience you bring to this role includes:

• Lived experience with SMI and/or SUD and recovery


• Two (2) years demonstrated recovery time from a mental health and/or substance abuse disorder at the date of application


• State Peer Recovery certification, or eligibility and willingness to obtain certification within six (6) months of employment


• Agreement to complete a paid training peri