The Rales Health Center (RHC) in the Division of General Pediatrics is seeking a full time Community Outreach Specialist (COS). The successful candidate will be primarily responsible for assisting students with behavioral health concerns and their families with capacity building, safety planning, navigating healthcare systems, linking to school or community-based care, ensuring regular follow up with care and services. Additional duties for this position will include, but not be limited to health program application assistance, screening and enrollment for eligible community programs; patient and family education; patient follow-up and reinforcement of treatment plan tasks; coordination with school nurses and school staff; and coordination of appointments school-aged patients of the Rales School-based Health Center at KIPP Baltimore. The Community Outreach Specialist will report to the Medical Director of the Rales Health Center and will work with an interdisciplinary team of nurses, medical assistants, nurse practitioners, physicians, educators, and other school-based staff to improve health and educational outcomes.

The mission of the Rales Health Center is to support health and educational success for students at KIPP Baltimore, in partnership with the school and community, through the design and delivery of integrated, compassionate, evidence-informed school health services, school-based healthcare, and school wellness programs. Through our work we strive to empower students, staff, and families to lead their healthiest, most joy-filled lives, and to remove health issues as barriers to learning. We share best practices and advocate for innovative approaches like ours to promote health and educational equity at KIPP Baltimore, throughout Baltimore City, and nationwide. In service of this mission, our primary goal is to improve health and educational outcomes for students at KIPP Baltimore.

The COS will be based at the RHC which is located within the KIPP Baltimore school building at 2000 Edgewood Street Baltimore, MD 21216.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Outreach & Care Management

• Receive referrals for children and adolescents with positive suicide risk screens from the RHC SBHC team.
• Conduct outreach to patients and families to support safety planning.
  
• Assist clients in meeting selected care plan components as assigned.
  
• Provide outreach and appointment follow up support to patients.

Patient Advocate

• Educate patients and families about mental and behavioral health and related conditions.
  
• Educate patients and families of available resources.
  
• Assist patients and families in obtaining support when necessary.
  
• Act as a patient and family advocate and support the development of problem-solving skills; provide instructions for navigating application processes in an accessible manner.

Appointments

• Support and implement strategies to increase intake completion and follow-up with school or community-based mental and behavioral health clinicians and the SBHC.

Administrative Duties

• Track outreach and other program data needed for clinical care and funder reporting.
• Remain familiar with Medical Assistance eligibility criteria, documents necessary for application submission, and necessary recertification procedures to ensure minimal lapses in health coverage for SBHC patients.
  
• Attend school-wide multi-disciplinary team meetings.
  

Collaboration

• Develop productive relationships that support work goals.
  
• Work as a team member dedicated to doing what is best for the team/organization.
  
• Work with others to solve problems and is respected and regarded as reliable partner in shared tasks/goals.

Additional Skills, Knowledge, & Abilities

• Must be able to speak, read and write in English.
• Working knowledge of social and health issues.
  
• Familiarity with medical terminology.
  
• Experience working with Electronic Medical Records.
  
• Ability to work independently and efficiently.
  
• If using a personal vehicle for work related travel, a valid Maryland driver’s license is required.

• High School Diploma or graduation equivalent.
• Two years related experience.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

• Familiarity with navigating health insurance benefit and other social services programs.
• Knowledge of Baltimore community-based organizations and resources.
• Exceptional initiative and attention to detail.
• Superb interpersonal and communication skills.
• Strong skills in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Teams, Excel and PowerPoint.

Classified Title: Community Outreach Specialist 
Role/Level/Range: ACRO37.5/02/CC  
Starting Salary Range: $15.70 - $26.25 HRLY ($45,000 targeted; Commensurate with experience) 
Employee group: Full Time 
Schedule: M-F; 8:00 to 5:00pm 
Exempt Status: Non-Exempt 
Location: School of Medicine Campus 
Department name: ​​​​​​​SOM Ped Bay Bayview Pediatric Unit  
Personnel area: School of Medicine