Lead Community Health Worker Behavioral

LifeLong Medical Care; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 48,000 - 66,000; Full time

Job summary

LifeLong Medical Care is seeking a Lead Behavioral Health Community Health Worker to coordinate referrals, support a diverse patient population, and optimize behavioral health services across clinics in the East Bay area. The role emphasizes collaboration with BH leadership, clinical teams, and community resources to improve access and continuity of care.

Responsibilities include managing referrals, schedules, and templates, performing warm hand-offs, and tracking patient progress.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent; a bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education/experience preferred.
• Experience in community health or social services with diverse, low-income populations.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel).

Responsibilities

• Facilitates referrals to therapy and psychiatry and connects patients to behavioral health resources.
• Schedules and tracks BH provider availability and contributes to Cross Clinic efficiency.
• Conducts warm hand-offs to integrate care and support high-risk patients.
• Maintains patient panels with reminders, attendance tracking, and follow-ups.
• Assists in data collection, reporting, and QA for BH referrals and templates.
• Supports BH CHWs and providers in using EHR tools to ensure access and productivity.

Skills

Bilingual English/Spanish

Communication

Organization

Problem-solving

Microsoft Office

Education

High school diploma/equivalent or bachelor's degree

Job description

SUMMARY:The Lead Behavioral Health Community Health Worker (BH CHW) must be able to provide direct care services to a diverse patient population and coordinate Cross Clinic BH referrals.This position is represented by SEIU-UHW. Salaries and benefits are set by a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and an employee in this position must remain a member in good standing of SEIU-UHW, as defined in the CBA.JOB DUTIES:Facilitates and manages patient referrals to therapy and psychiatry. Contacts, screens, triages, and connects patients to both internal and external behavioral health resources. Maintains and shares in-house waitlist if appropriate.Provides coverage for sites who have vacant BH CHW positions and/or need support (approximately half of time).Maintains behavioral health provider schedules with a focus on optimizing productivity. Fills provider schedules and manages templates.Supports behavioral health patient panels by making reminder calls, tracking patient attendance, following up on no-shows to support and improve continuity of treatment, and having patients complete screening questionnaires and other paperwork.Tracks patients’ progress and alerts providers to need for outreach and for enhanced services.Ensures appropriate consent and parental involvement for pediatric patients in behavioral health (at sites serving pediatric patients).Provides basic support to patients in connection to patient portal and video telehealth visits.Conducts warm hand offs of patients from medical providers to facilitate integration of care, to connect high risk/high priority patients to behavioral health services, and/or for patients who have a positive screening for unhealthy alcohol use.Updates and expands BH Cross Clinic Pool across LMC, to ensure maximum patient access and filled appointment slots. This includes coordinating with BH providers and BH Community Health Workers across the agency to identify and fill open slots.Proactively scans agency wide BH provider schedules, templates, Tableau, and productivity spreadsheets to find additional capacity for Cross Clinic and expand access to patients. Works with BH leadership, Associate BH Directors (including Interim BH Team Leads), and Psychiatry AMDs to ensure slots are filled.Assists with quality improvement and quality assurance for BH referrals. Regularly reviews BH Referral Workqueue to ensure referrals are addressed in a timely manner.Assists with agency wide templates in multiple ways. Assisting with initial templates during new provider onboarding. Supports ongoing work of auditing, correcting, and optimizing BH provider templates agency wide.Supports agency wide BH CHWs and BH providers in efficiently using BH Caseload and similar EHR tools to ensure patient access and productivity.Assists in compiling and sharing data on monthly/annual productivity goals for BH providers agency-wide.Actively participates in Cross Clinic team meetings and department planning.Assists Cross Clinic providers both in Cross Clinic Department and those that do not have a BH CHW (such as SHP). Checks in telehealth patients each day and connects patients/providers to eligibility staff at patient’s home sites when needed.Assists in coordinating and supporting behavioral health patient groups, patient surveys, and patient focus groups, and pilot programs. May co-facilitate patient groups.and/or staff trainings.Contacts community agencies and maintains updated resource lists of BH resources in the community.Responsible for data collection, entry and generation of reports.Works with BH leadership on updating and sharing BH resources agency-wide.With BH CHW Program Manager, cofacilitates monthly BH CHW meeting. Assists with onboarding new BH CHWs, and training BH CHWs.Provides backup support to BH CHW Program Manager and BH Templater.Actively participate in work to promote Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in support of patients and staff.Participates in special projects under the direction of supervisor.JOB QUALIFICATIONS:Commitment to the provision of behavioral health and primary care services for the underserved with demonstrated ability and sensitivity in working with a variety of people from low-income populations, with diverse educational, lifestyle, ethnic and cultural origins.Strong organizational, administrative, and problem-solving skills, and ability to be flexible and adaptive to change.Ability to prioritize tasks, work under pressure and complete assignments in a timely manner.Ability to effectively present information to others.Ability to collaborate with individuals and organizations at the local level to build support.Ability to seek direction/approval on essential matters, yet work independently with little onsite supervision, using professional judgment and diplomacy.Work in a team-oriented environment with a number of professionals with different work styles and support needs.Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written skills and ability to effectively work with people from diverse backgrounds and be culturally sensitive.Conduct oneself in internal and external settings in a way that reflects positively on LifeLong Medical Care .Ability to see how one’s work intersects with that of other LifeLong departments.Be creative and mature with a “can do,” proactive attitude and an ability to continuously “scan” the environment, identifying and taking advantage of opportunities for improvement.Job Requirements:High school diploma/equivalent and completion of a bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of education and experience.Minimum of one year of relevant experience in a community health or social services agency working with a diverse, low-income population.Administrative experience with proficiency in Microsoft Office, Outlook, Word, and Excel.Knowledge of East Bay health and social service resources.Job Preferences:Experience and sensitivity working with people who are low-income, have histories of trauma, have mental health and/or substance use disorders, and/or who are HIV positive.Bilingual English/Spanish.Epic experience.