POSITION DESCRIPTION
POSITION TITLE: COUNSELLOR - CHILD SEXUAL ASSULT
REPORTS TO: CLINICAL SERVICES COORDINATOR
CHRYSALIS SUPPORT SERVICES INC VISION:
A violence free community where healthy relationships prosper.
OUR VALUES:
Professionalism: We insist on an extremely high level of professionalism.
Non-judgemental: We provide support, without judgement, to our clients.
Respect: We respect each other and our clients and their right to confidentiality.
Empathy: We show empathy and understanding to our clients and the problems they face.
Empowerment: We empower our clients by increasing their knowledge, skills and confidence.
Teamwork: We work as a cohesive team to ensure the best service for our clients. We work closely with other agencies to get the best outcomes for our clients.
Individualised approach: We recognise that each person is unique and support must be individualised and driven by them.
OUR MISSON:
· Provide crisis accommodation to women and children experiencing the effects of domestic and family violence.
· Provide a range of high quality professional services including confidential counselling, advocacy and support to women, children and men and their families who are suffering the effects of family and domestic violence and recent and past sexual assault.
· To promote community acceptance of non-violence by holding community events to raise awareness of Family and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
· Provide community education focusing on prevention, respectful relationships and protective behaviours.
PURPOSE OF THIS POSITION DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of this position description is to assist each staff member in the following areas:
· Provide them with a clear understanding of their role within the team to assist Chrysalis Support Services reach its objectives.
· Ensure they are aware of the expectations Chrysalis Support Services has for their performance.
· Define the areas for which they are responsible and accountable for achieving specific outcomes in the most productive, efficient and cost effective manner possible.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE ROLE:
Provide counselling and therapeutic responses to children and young people and their families affected by child sexual abuse and children’s and or young people who are responsible for, or at risk of sexually abusing other children.
The service is to assist children and young people to recover from the harmful impacts of child sexual abuse and assist families and communities to support children and young people in the healing process.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:
The incumbent will be responsible and accountable for the following:
Occupational Health and Safety
· Responsible for personal health and safety in the work place. Ensuring that all work practices are carried out in as safe a manner as possible and complies with all organisational policies and procedures and within legislative requirements to minimise the risk to clients, visitors and self.
· Practice self-care strategies and apply safety procedures in all work practices.
Counselling
· Provide counselling, safety planning and advocacy to clients and their families who have witnessed and/or experienced sexual assault. Assisting parents or caregivers to link children to appropriate services.
· Conduct comprehensive risk assessment of clients and their families, whilst maintaining privacy and confidentiality during all communication, including case notes, the collection and collation of statistical data.
· Maintain knowledge and awareness of research, trends and issues in relation to counselling, assessment, safety planning an advocacy to clients and their families for those who have witnessed and/or experienced sexual assault/abuse and/or family and domestic violence. Provide appropriate therapeutic interventions, using evidence based models.
· Refer clients, where applicable, to other service providers in order for them to access a range of support, information, interventions and services to assist them deal with their identified issues. Provide referrals for clients who display at risk behaviour in a timely manner.
· Deliver therapeutic support programs to groups.
· Participate in on-call roster for Sexual Assault Crisis Line.
· Liaise with Clinical Services Coordinator, or in their absence CEO, on complex cases of counselling as required.
Agency Representation and Development
· Represent the organisation in a professional manner. Attend interagency meetings as required and as directed by Clinical Services Coordinator/CEO.
· Develop and maintain professional networks, utilising these and community activities to promote CSSI service.
· Contribute to the development and implementation of a service promotion plan for the organisation.
Continuous Improvement
· Encourage clients to provide feedback regarding the services they accessed at Chrysalis Support Services Inc. (CSSI) by completion of the client feedback form.
· Contribute to continual improvement processes, including identifying where improvements to service delivery can be made, fostering an ethos of improvement within the organisation.
· Consistently work on own professional development regarding professional trends and literature relevant to therapeutic support.
· In consultation with the Clinical Services Coordinator, identify training needs and opportunities and attend training as required.
Teamwork
· Share expertise and experience with other team members.
· Participate in staff meetings, training sessions, planning days, incident debriefing and working groups.
· Liaise regularly with other staff within the organisation to foster continuous improvement.
General
· Maintain personal / professional boundaries at all times.
· Attend regular professional development and clinical supervision, as put in place by CSSI.
· Preparation of reports including monthly service reports to the CEO, six monthly and annual progress reports and AGM reports are completed in a professional and timely manner.
· Uphold the values and support the vision and mission of CSSI.
· Follow the policies and procedures of CSSI.
· Other duties as directed and required by the Clinical Services Coordinator / CEO.
SELECTION CRITERIA
ESSENTIAL
To be considered for this position it is essential that you have:
· Recognised Tertiary qualifications (Degree) in Social Work, Psychology, Counselling or equivalent.
· A minimum of 3 years counselling experience and eligibility for membership to the relevant professional association.
· Highly developed counselling and assessment skills with experience involving children who may have experienced trauma with multiple needs and issues and exhibit complex / difficult / challenging behaviours.
· Demonstrated experience and knowledge of issues surrounding relationship conflict, sexual assault/abuse, individual counselling, therapeutic support services, health educational/promotion programs and integrated service delivery.
· Well-developed interpersonal, verbal and written communication skill including report writing for funding bodies. Demonstrated computer literacy competence/skills.
· Demonstrated ability to work compassionately and effectively with Aboriginal people and people from a cultural and linguistically diverse background.
· Understanding of disability access and inclusion plan (DAIP), occupational safety and health, as well as equal opportunity regulations and legislation.
· Ability to work independently and within time constraints.
DESIRABLE:
Qualifications/Training
· Professional development in the service provision of family relationship counselling, sexual assault/abuse.
Experience
· Experience in working with children recovering from harmful impacts of sexual abuse or domestic violence.