Counseling Career in Georgia USA

Job Summary

Family First is a non-profit family service organization located in Georgia. The organization assists over 37,000 families, children, and women each year. The Agency’s mission is to ensure the success of children in jeopardy by empowering families. The purpose of Family First is to encourage all kinds of families with various needs to gain strength in parenting. The aim is to foster strong communities by delivering empowering and sustainable solutions to families and children. Successful applicants will participate in providing solutions that improve child welfare to guarantee family self-sufficiency by focusing on three elements.

The first principle is child and youth permanency, which ensures long-term stability and support by providing adoption, fostering healthcare, and availing residential group homes for children experiencing disrupted lifestyles. The second element is family sustainability and empowerment by collaborating with various organizations to guarantee self-sufficiency by offering access to housing and health support services to chronically homeless families. The third strategy is family and relationships achieved through offering training and affordable counseling programs to impart to parents and families knowledge, skills, and experience to build healthy and stronger relationships.

Job Description

The role of the counselor is to provide skilled directives, information, and awareness regarding social, personal, and functional aspects to individuals, families, and groups requiring assistance to solve environmental, emotional, and environmental issues. The responsibility may require stakeholders to facilitate group seminars, training, and assessment programs to deliver appropriate psychological interventions (Hired, 2022).

Notably, successful candidates will operate on a contractual basis. Nevertheless, the Family First agency demands counselors to adhere to assigned responsibilities, professionalism, and integrity as part of the organization’s culture. Family First agency requires counselors to adhere to organizational standards defined by policies and laws. For instance, employees should conform to sexual harassment and discrimination laws designed to protect clients. In that regard, the Agency expects counselors to maintain an overall professional environment and abide by the code of professionals (Simply Hired, 2022). That implies that successful applicants will perform duties and responsibilities with the highest integrity and professionalism. Counselors must correspond to and abide by ethical codes and standards as outlined by the state of Georgia. They should adhere to the professional codes in which they are licensed.

Furthermore, counselors offer mental health services as program interventions to individuals, families, and groups. The procedures are classified based on a defined professional procedure that involves an assessment test to determine the mental health needs of an individual, couple, or family. The assessment team should recommend a course of action. The next stage involves individual therapy based on levels such as adult or child (Simply Hired, 2022). The final phase involves therapy based on whether the involved party is a family, couple, or group.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Counselors will assess clients such as adults or children by carrying out initial tests at the request of the client or recommendation by programming staff, adult service directors, or advocates.
• A counselor will use initial assessment recommendations to refer the client or resident to therapy interventions for individual, family, or group counseling (Simply Hired, 2022). The directive will consider the availability of the service, expertise, and client desires.
• Counselors with work as a team to provide significant organizational changes that transform the lives of individuals, families, and groups involved.
• Counselors will provide agreed-upon mental health services with priority given to families on-site unless directed by senior director programmers.
• Counselors will provide holistic and high-quality support services to families, individuals, and groups through training, seminars, or workshops to educate involved parties appropriately.
• Counselors must adhere to HIPPA and Georgia laws to maintain privacy and confidentiality. In that regard, counselors will apply state of Georgia procedures to report abuse, neglect, violence, or bullying issues. The concerned healthcare officers should report any incidence within 24 hours to the senior director of programs (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 2022). Such reports include an immediate threat that affects the well-being of clients, staff members, volunteers, or clients’ children.
• Counselors should maintain current professional licensing and update educational progress through career growth and development programs. Counselors are answerable to professional liabilities and should have insurance to provide professional duty in their areas of specialization.
• Counselors should report to the senior director of programs on findings regarding residents or other clients. They should report filed claims involving malpractices, disbarment, payouts, liability settlements, and licensing.
• Counselors should attend advocacy team meetings. They should provide monthly attendance activity logs containing names, appointment dates, attendance data, and services offered to the senior director of programs. They should provide a report for the previous month’s first Monday of each month.
• Counselors will keep all client therapy records, case notes, and confidential data within the professional sites. The recording should facilitate easier retrieving of hardcopy files assisted by electronic records (Simply Hired, 2022). Record keeping is essential for maintaining client histories, future references, and follow-up services.
• Counselors should schedule sessions at times that are convenient for families. Shift-based operations should guarantee availability at night, on weekends, and on holidays. Maintaining a flexible working schedule is essential to ensure complete client intake for 24 hours healthcare (Simply Hired, 2022). Therefore, successful applicants will work shifts to maintain 24 hours availability at the workstation within seven days.

Qualifications

Interested applicants should have a Master’s degree in professional counseling, social work, marriage, or family counseling. Applicants should have at least two years of experience or practice therapeutic treatment in CBT, DBT, Marriage Family Therapy (MFT), and MST (Learn organization, 2022). Applicants should also have licenses from LAPC, Clinical Marriage Family Social Worker (LMSW), Clinical Public Counseling (LPC), Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), and Clinical Marriage Family Therapy (LMFT). Other recognized qualifications include licenses provided by the Georgia Composite Board of Professional Counselors, Social Workers, and marriage and family therapists (Simply Hired, 2022). Soft skills required include excellent written and verbal communication and proficiency in computer packages, presentations, and Microsoft word.

Work Settings

Counselors will work within Family First organization centers and agencies. They will mainly deliver services to residents in various centers and outside clients. Therefore, clients shall include people of different gender, races, color, religion, sex, nationality, age, marital status, genetic information, gender orientation, and disability. Therefore, employees will interact with individuals with diverse demographic characteristics.

Due to the current Covid19 outbreak, successful applicants must have the Covid-19 vaccine or be willing to receive a full dose of the Covid-19 vaccine before the recruitment date. According to Georgia health policy, Covid-l19 vaccination is a condition subject to approved accommodation (Simply Hired, 2022). In that regard, vaccination proof is required before the start date. They should assess the safety and health environment and use clinical strategies to promote safety.

References

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. (2022). Marriage and family counselor job description, career as a marriage and family counselor, salary, employment. Job Descriptions and Careers, Career and Job Opportunities, Career Search, and Career Choices and Profiles – StateUniversity. https://careers.stateuniversity.com/pages/727/Marriage-Family-Counselor.html

Learn organization. (2022). Learn.org –. Learn.org -. https://learn.org/articles/Whats_the_Job_Description_for_Marriage_and_Family_Counselors.html

Simply Hired. (2022). Counselor (Contract) – Families first | Atlanta, GA. Job Search Engine | SimplyHired. https://www.simplyhired.com/job/0UCS1CPOpVVOrdv3hp7F5M0f158iB59IXOtcTX_rm4vQrcOawXljgA?isp=0&q=marriage+and+family+therapist