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Execcutive Director (VT) Executive Director - Another Way, Inc. (VT)Posted 12/22/2011 Another Way Inc. seeks a dynamic Executive Director to manage our small and vibrant non-profit organization. For over twenty years, Another Way Inc. has operated a peer-run community center in Montpelier that offers support, advocacy, resources, and crisis response to psychiatric survivors and people at risk of psychiatric intervention. Our homelike atmosphere is a place to relax and connect with others, learn how to live in community, share meals, attend support gatherings and educational workshops, create art and music, garden, build support networks, and access phones, computers, and other vital resources. The Executive Director is a full-time administrative and direct service position, with responsibility for managing ongoing operations of the community center, maintaining a strong funding base, representing the organization in the community, interacting regularly with Another Way members, and assuring effective working relationships among the staff, board, and agencies essential to Another Way's success. Candidates should have strong communication skills, supervisory experience, financial management abilities, a passion for advocacy, and excellent mediation, problem solving, multi-tasking, and coalition-building skills. Experiential knowledge of the mental health system as a consumer/survivor/ex-patient is desired. Please send a cover letter, resume, and further inquiries by February 24th to anotherwayvt@gmail.com Further Information about Another WayFor over twenty years, Another Way has operated a community center in Montpelier that offers peer support, advocacy, resources, and crisis response to psychiatric survivors and people at risk of psychiatric intervention. Our homelike atmosphere is a place for people to relax and connect with others, learn how to live in community, share meals, attend support gatherings and educational workshops, create art and music, garden, build support networks, and access phones, computers, and other vital resources. We also provide information about benefits and services, and we maintain a small library with alternative and critical perspectives on mental health and psychiatric treatment. We are open every day of the year with special celebrations on holidays. We see about 80 unique adults in a week and about 30 in a day. Another Way currently employs 16 people in 3 full-time positions and 13 part-time positions. The part-time positions are partly designed to accommodate people who receive benefits and want to work without losing them. All of our employees are peers with lived experience, and many are individuals who have spent time in Vermont State Hospital. Another Way receives most of its funding from the Department of Mental Health, but also runs important initiatives with small grants from other sources. Additionally, we recently collaborated with our local food co-op and Transition Town Montpelier to raise money for healthy food and transform our small backyard into a permaculture garden where we grow apples and berries, herbs and tea, produce for our meals, and have earthen benches and rock gardens for relaxation. At Another Way, relationship is our prime service. We consider peer support an informal process – not something "given" from staff to non-staff, but rather an expectation amongst everyone who visits our space. We have lots and lots of conversations. People get involved in one another's lives in meaningful and often lasting ways, and there are as many ways of support as there are needs and personalities. There is not a context of "mental health" at Another Way, though we do speak of the place as being "for psychiatric survivors." People are not working out "mental health issues," but rather being in relationship with one another, using resources, relaxing, creating art and sharing meals, challenging one another to think in new ways, and giving and receiving wisdom. This is a crucial distinction between Another Way and traditional service providers. In traditional mental health services, there is the implication that something is "wrong" with users (mental illness) and that "help" should be provided to them (treatment). While that context may be useful for some individuals in some ways, we do not start with the assumption that anything is "wrong" with people at our center, and people are free to act how they act without threat of being labeled, denigrated, or prescribed an intervention. However, if someone is acting in ways that are difficult for others, a conversation happens and feedback is given. There is an overarching context of creating a safe, supportive, warm, creative, and useful space here, and it is within this context that these conversations happen. This process looks different depending on who is giving and receiving the feedback, though we dialogue often about how to communicate in honest and helpful ways. It's this relational dynamic that often makes peer support different from traditional mental health services. The focus is not on trying to get individuals to manage their symptoms or set goals so they can have better lives, it's on trying to have good relationships so we can have better lives. We believe this context creates stronger communities, encourages personal responsibility, and allows genuine opportunities to build trust and take risks. Because experiences commonly called mental illness and their subsequent treatment by others generally leads to isolation and alienation, we believe the ideal of community can be a vital part of health for folks with psychiatric diagnoses (as it is with others, too). Too often the expectation by treatment providers has been for people with psychiatric diagnoses to fully integrate into their surrounding communities as-is, as opposed to working with communities to integrate people with psychiatric diagnoses as-is. While we certainly recognize that belonging to mainstream society has its benefits, we also believe that having spaces where psychiatric survivors can work together on their own terms can strengthen one's sense of self, feeling of belonging and overall purpose, as well as create larger social change. For these reasons, we have seen Another Way break the cycles of hospitalization and homelessness for some individuals – all without a treatment plan, goal-setting programs, or direct approaches to managing symptoms. Indeed, becoming a part of a community naturally challenges an individual to grow and to adapt, to reflect on patterns of behavior that are not working, and to have opportunities to try new ways of being that are respected by friends, all of which parallels so-called recovery from mental illness. Additionally, joining together with peers of similar experiences creates opportunities for advocacy, especially if the understanding amongst one another is that oppression exists and that individuals operate within larger contexts, some of which are operated by material entities that can be challenged. Crucial to the creation of community is a shared understanding of personal boundaries. Traditional mental health services erect strong boundaries between staff and patients. Patients are ill; staff are experts on the illness. Personal disclosure of certain life experiences by staff – one's own problems, trauma or psychiatric history, even interests – is strongly discouraged or outlawed, as it is seen to negatively impact a patient's recovery by unnecessarily influencing his or her decision-making, by sending mixed messages, or by overwhelming him or her mentally and emotionally. These boundaries are put forth to "protect the patient." However, such boundaries often have the adverse effect of reinforcing to a person that he or she is "the sick one" and part of the "other group" and is incapable of handling stress or negotiating relationships. Besides being paternalistic, this approach essentially creates the opposite of community, as it disallows genuine connection between people because it segregates folks into two types – those who are expected to communicate openly and realistically about all the troubles of their lives, and those who are expected to stay quiet about such matters, or in some silly situations, talk about them in the third person. Another Way is built on a different understanding of boundaries. Most staff persons also use Another Way as a resource center, and certainly staff and users have relationships that extend well beyond our community center. There are few top-down policies that curtail personalities – for instance, there is no dress code beyond wearing some kind of clothes to cover the body, and no rule about sharing a beer after work among staff and users. Issues such as excessive swearing are naturally curtailed by community norms, and people – whether paid or not – are free to be as open as they like about their lives. Of course, ethical conflicts do not dissipate just because there is greater liberty: problems do arise about relations. The point is, we address them as a community, not because of policy. This approach encourages self-reflective learning and deepens moral responsibilities. Yet it also relies on strong leadership, and at the risk of sounding polemical: a striving for the common good. A few other notes about our philosophy:
Finally, it is important to mention that a spirit of volunteerism and giving permeates our culture. While Another Way has business hours, people support one another long after we close. People stay with each other during crisis, encourage one another, give rides to one another, offer assistance in hard times, cook meals for each other, stand up for each other, and so on. Another Way has served as a hub for networking to meet not just peers, but comrades who are there for one another when needed.
Executive Director - Virginia Advocates United Leading Together (VA)Posted 12/22/2011 Virginia Advocates United Leading Together (VAULT) is looking for an exciting, motivating Executive Director. VAULT is a statewide non-profit 501(c) (3) organization that brings diverse groups together to advocate on behalf of people with disabilities in Virginia. VAULT’s mission is to give and receive awareness, knowledge, advocacy, and support so those living with disabilities can direct their lives, use their strengths to live fulfilling lives, and be active participating members of their communities. During 2010, a group of 13 leaders from Virginia disability groups and organizations came together to form a statewide, cross-disability non-profit organization to bring people with disabilities together for public policy decision-making at the local, state and regional levels. People with disabilities, groups and organizations make up the board of directors for VAULT, including:
The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors and is responsible for the organization's consistent achievement of its mission and financial objectives. The successful candidate must have experience, skills, abilities and/or working knowledge of:
Preferred qualifications for the Executive Director are:
Priority consideration will be given to a candidate with a disability. This position is grant funded for 30 hours per week. The salary range is $29,000 – $35,000 with no health benefits. VAULT’s office is located in Richmond, Virginia. The position is open until filled. If interested, please submit a cover letter and a resume to:
VAULT is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Women, minorities and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Executive Director - Consumer Quality Initiatives (MA)Posted 11/9/2011 Consumer Quality Initiatives (CQI) is seeking an experienced, strategic thinking, entrepreneurial, and visionary executive director who will help guide CQI into its next level of development. Candidates who have lived experience with a mental health condition and recovery (consumers) are especially encouraged to apply. The new executive director will help the organization develop new partnership and contract opportunities in order to deepen and expand CQI's research and evaluation initiatives. Successful candidates will have five to ten years of demonstrated success in nonprofit management and in developing new revenue-generating opportunities; have experience with growing an organization and developing consumer leadership; and have a strong interest in using research and evaluation to affect behavioral health policy change. For the complete position profile and application guidelines, visit: http://www.tsne.org/jobs/CQI. CQI's mission is to develop opportunities for the meaningful involvement of consumers and family members in all aspects of mental health research and program evaluation. CQI aims to study issues that are relevant to the community, initiate changes to improve the system for all, and narrow the gap between research/evaluation and practice. CQI conducts research and evaluation projects that utilize a community-based Participatory Action Research approach, a collaborative method that equitably involves all partnering organizations and consumers in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. We hope you will pass the Position Profile on to potential candidates, or to people who may know of candidates. We are also including a short job announcement (see below) that we hope you can help us publicize on bulletin boards, web sites, list serves, and social networking sites. For more information about CQI, you can direct people to CQI's website at http://www.cqi-mass.org. Chief Executive Officer - Thresholds (Chicago IL)Posted 11/1/2011 ORGANIZATION: Thresholds ABOUT THRESHOLDS Thresholds is the oldest and largest organization in Illinois delivering community based services to people with severe and persistent mental illness. For more than 50 years, Thresholds has served the Greater Chicagoland community. With its diverse array of services, this venerable organization reaches the most vulnerable populations. More than 6,000 people annually depend on Thresholds to help reclaim their lives and live more independently. Nearly 800 Thresholds members reside in agency housing and outreach staff makes another 155,000 visits to members living in the community. Thresholds strives to be in the forefront of community-based mental health services. Throughout its existence it either has offered programs which research has proven to be successful or has introduced innovative approaches for better addressing the challenges of community life for individuals with mental illnesses. Thresholds offers assertive community treatment, award-winning supported employment programs, housing and center-based programs. In addition Thresholds offers programs targeted at young adults, mothers, individuals in need of integrated dual diagnosis treatment, the homeless, those with criminal justice involvement, the deaf and veterans. Thresholds believes in the power of research. The Thresholds Dartmouth Institute is a fully-staffed research and training center operated by Thresholds. The Institute works in tandem with several academic research partners around the country, most notably the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center as well as with the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts. THE OPPORTUNITY Thresholds has proven, as a community-focused, evidence based service provider, that high quality programs can lead to the recovery of members. Yet, these outcomes, these stories of recovery, have never been more at risk than in the current environment. Professionals in the field as well as the more inspired legislative leaders at state and federal levels know that insufficient funding of At the same time, there is a growing acknowledgment that mental health problems are health problems – public health problems more specifically. Many believe that the system of healthcare providers is becoming a new, emergent system that can no longer be significantly improved merely by funding the discrete pieces. In the future, with healthcare reform measures more fully implemented, public and private funding sources are more likely to realize their desired outcomes, economic and political, by working with these emergent systems and the complex health problems they are set up to solve. Thresholds is in a position to demonstrate real solutions within this new system. Thresholds will face at least two financial issues under these scenarios. The first is the need to balance the budget without depriving individuals with severe and persistent mental illnesses of essential services. As long as government is the major funding source, and cuts in service occur, funding for services will be in jeopardy. The second is the changing method of payments, moving from public grants to fee-for-service and managed care models which pay for only a portion THE POSITION Reporting to the Board of Directors of Thresholds, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has overall responsibility for the implementation of policies, programs and operations of the organization. The CEO is the public face of Thresholds and thereby provides leadership in advocacy, public policy, resource development and community involvement activities. An important function of this position is to be a visible, consultative leader in resolving problems affecting members of the population with severe mental illnesses. The CEO is responsible for an organizational culture that values professional training and development, the promulgation of innovative problem-solving and adaptability in managing through a changing and complex external healthcare environment. Thresholds has over 800 employees, a current annual operating budget in excess of $49 million and total assets of nearly $40 million. The CEO is responsible for the financial oversight, general business and program development of Thresholds. Under his or her oversight, all standards and regulations of the Illinois Department of Human Services Office of Mental Health, Department of Children and Family Services, Council on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities and other accrediting, governmental and funding bodies THE CANDIDATE PROFILE We seek an experienced professional with a proven track record of accomplishment leading mission-driven organizations, facing multiple challenges, successfully leading change in an organization and managing highly qualified human service providers. This person must be able to demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to recovery from severe and persistent mental Proven leadership ability to bring passion, vision, direction, business acumen and inspiration to an organization is required. The ideal candidate will possess exceptional leadership qualities highlighted by a history of being a dynamic communicator of ideas and by maintaining a presence in human service and philanthropic communities. We seek in this person a big-picture thinker with This individual should be an innovator, a strategic thinker and a problem-solver. She or he must be able to demonstrate effective management approaches in building consensus, visioning solutions to problems and acting with decisiveness. A commitment to best practices in professional and management development should be a distinguishing factor in the candidate's career. The successful candidate must also be able to demonstrate an understanding and ability to work with a wide variety of constituents and stakeholders including members, donors, families, community groups, political leaders and others with diverse needs and interests. To apply, please send a current resume and letter of interest to Kittleman & Associates, LLC at resumes@kittleman.net. For more information please visit our website at www.kittleman.net or Thresholds at www.thresholds.org. Recovery Services Specialist LASMO (LA)Posted 10/26/2011 www.magellanhealth.com (Job Listing #11930) Job Summary The Recovery and Resiliency Specialist will provide work to develop, sustain, and expand peer-run programs in communities and provider settings. This position will work closely with advocacy organizations and other stakeholders to promote recovery for consumers at all levels. Essential Functions:
Non-Essential Functions: Performs related and other duties as required and special projects as assigned. Minimum Requirements: TO APPLY: Please visit www.magellanhealth.com under Join Our Team / Job Search for requisition 11930 for further information and to apply online. Director, Recovery and Resiliency - Baton Rouge (LA)Posted 10/26/2011 www.magellanhealth.com (Job Listing #11929) Job Summary The Director will provide leadership on developing services and programs that promote the resiliency and recovery of adults with mental health and/or substance abuse problems. This position will ensure adherence and implementation of Louisiana system principles throughout the adult service system. This position will also oversee the expansion of peer-operated and peer-delivered services. In addition to providing technical assistance and training, this person will serve as Magellan’s spokesperson at external meeting related to recovery, resiliency, and consumer leadership. Essential Functions:
Minimum Requirements: Preferred Qualifications: Education: Advanced degree in Health and Human Services, Business Administration or Public Policy areas preferred. Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
TO APPLY: Please visit www.magellanhealth.com under Join Our Team / Job Search for requisition 11929 for further information and to apply online. Executive Director - Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Network of Minnesota (MN)Posted 10/20/2011 CSN is a 501(c)(3) organization run by people who have experienced psychiatric disorders. We serve adults in every county in Minnesota, providing support, education and advocacy to our peers, family members, mental health providers, policy makers and the general public. In 1994, a small group of Minnesotans who had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the mental health system founded CSN to promote alternatives to traditional mental health care practices. Inspired by a national movement that focused on recovery and honored the personal experiences of every person affected by a mental health disorder, CSN is a leading expert in the consumer/survivor movement. CSN’s mission is to transform, empower and build connections in our communities by promoting recovery and wellness. We are dedicated to individual empowerment, education, community building and systems change to achieve a world free of discrimination. To learn more about the CSN, please visit our website at www.mhcsn.org Major Duties
The major duties described above should not be construed as a detailed statement of duties and responsibilities. The Executive Director will be required to perform many other job-related functions necessary to assure the success of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Network of Minnesota. Qualifications
The successful candidate will have demonstrated the following qualifications or experience: Required:
Preferred:
Work Structure Reports to: Board of Directors Application Process Qualified candidates may apply by sending the following application packet:
Close date: October 7, 2011 Completed application packets should be to the attention of: Consumer Survivor Network Or Email to: edsearch@mhcsn.mn Please direct all questions to edsearch@mhcsn.org Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Network of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer. CSN's policy is to prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or age. Magellan Health Services
Supervisor, Care Management
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