Family Support Counsellor

Position Summary

The Family Support Counselor is responsible for the delivery of family support services to the children and families in the care of Wood’s Homes, in order to preserve the family as a unit, ensure the safety of all individuals and promote family wellness. Family Support services are provided in the home and in the community. Family support work is defined as work with family groupings in their homes (usually) and sometimes in community or group settings. Support is given to families through role modeling, hands-on examples of interventions, teaching of new communication skills, assisting with the management of crises, providing information about individual and family developmental stages and expectations, and assisting with the managing and learning about parent-adolescent conflicts.

Family support is immediate in nature and has a practical base. It’s often used as an adjunct to therapeutic services. Family support can identify more serious or wide-ranging problems, concentrate and focus on one issue at a time, and develop practical actions that are connected to therapeutic ideas and analyses.

Family Support Workers can be attached to educational, residential or community based services and is governed by the needs and procedures of those programs.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Conducts a needs’ assessment to identify the individual social, emotional, behavioral and academic requirements of the child and family and documents same as part of the engagement and Intake of the family.
2. In conjunction with program management, develops treatment goals and case management strategies that reflect the family as the unit of care while providing for the specific and individual needs of the child(ren) and family members identified as requiring specific assistance.
3. Liaises between the family, school, community and other professional groups and service providers in order to strengthen the families’ capacity to function autonomously.
4. Advocates for the family and in that role supports the development of a network of resources with the family, community and other involved professionals while teaching the families how to advocate for themselves.
5. Assists the child and family to address issues that could be affecting the child’s social/emotional/behavioral/academic progress by providing direct services such as parent/child relationship building training, parent skills training, supportive individual and/or family counselling.
6. Facilitates the family receiving concrete services such as food, clothing, and shelter, based on need.
7. Attends to the safety of all family members at all times by intervening directly in crisis situations and providing follow-up care as required.
8. Participates in weekly supervision, case reviews, clinical rounds and team meetings in order to ensure the delivery of effective Family Support services.
9. Develops skills in individual, group and family counselling through in-services training and professional development opportunities.
10. In the role of case manager, ensures that medical and clinical services are provided and connected to the overall treatment plans for the child and family. Communicates with the service team and documents all information in accordance with Wood’s Homes policies and standards.
11. Communicates with parents, clinicians, social workers, school personnel, and other professionals via case conference, team meetings, written reports and clinical rounds.
12. Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

An undergraduate degree in on of the Human Sciences, Child Care or a related field. Two to four years’ experience working with adolescents and families. In-home support experience preferred. Must have own transportation. Personal suitability.