Milieu Counselor - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) is a vibrant, innovative health system dedicated to providing essential services to all members of the community. With almost 140,000 patients in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston’s Metro North region, CHA is a local provider of choice for primary care, specialty care, emergency services, hospital care, maternity care and behavioral health.

CHA opened an inpatient center for youth with acute behavioral health needs. Located in Somerville, the beautiful facility offers care for children, adolescents, and children with acute neurodevelopmental challenges. The Center for Inpatient Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Somerville provides a transformative continuum of patient and family-centered care for diverse youth with mental health needs.

Our units offer private rooms, communal eating and living areas, an outdoor activity space, an active sensory room, quiet ‘calming’ spaces for both individual and group play and learning.

The 5 West Adolescent Unit is a secured psychiatric unit that provides care for children between the ages of 12 and 18. The unit is located in Somerville Hospital. This is an acute care unit, working on assessment, stabilization and after care treatment planning. We have a multidisciplinary team focused on teaching self-regulation, de-escalation and restraint reduction. This approach is used to provide patient and family centered care.

CHA is offering a $5,000 sign on bonus for all Milieu Counselor positions that are 32-40 hours per week and $3,000 for 24-29 hours per week

Job Purpose

The Milieu Counselor is a member of the multidisciplinary team who, under the supervision of a registered nurse, is responsible for a safe and structured service as well as attending to the individual needs of patients in crisis in an inpatient psychiatric setting.

The role of a Milieu Counselor will assist with ADL's (Activities of Daily Living) lead or co-lead groups, perform regular safety protocols, 1:1 meetings with patients, and will accurately chart patients B/P, TPR & weight, while notifying the RN of any changes in vital signs. The Milieu Counselor accurately measures and documents a patient's intake and output, while maintaining their nutritional and hydration needs, as well as any additional tasks assigned by the charge RN.

Qualifications/Experience: 

• High school diploma required; B.A, B.S., or M.A. preferred or equivalent years of human service experience.
• Current American Heart Association Basic Life Support (BLS) certification
• Prior human services, inpatient behavioral or psychiatric experience is strongly preferred. 
• All newly hired candidates must successfully complete a job specific physical test.