Program Coordinator - 20 Hrs
Massachusetts General Hospital(MGH)

GENERAL SUMMARY

Working along with MGH Everett Family Practice physicians, the Early Childhood Program Family Specialist uses the Healthy Steps model to addresses non-urgent, non-medical questions on a variety of topics such as child development, parenting, and connections to community resources. This support is offered to parents and other primary care givers at well-child visits with the goal of facilitating children's healthy growth and development.

The Early Childhood Program Family Specialist resides primarily at the MGH Everett Family Practice under the supervision of Community Health Improvement Unit to deliver evidence-based strategies for families with children ages 0 -3. The Early Childhood Program Family Specialist help parents build healthy attachments with their children by growing skills to deal with common parenting challenges and provide positive and responsive caregiving. The Early Childhood Program Family Specialist explore family risk factors like maternal depression, food insecurity, housing instability or homelessness, utility needs, transportation needs, interpersonal safety, substance misuse (alcohol and other drugs), and tobacco and if necessary, makes referrals to both in-house and community resources. A background in child development, social work, early childhood education or early intervention is an important requirement for this position.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Early Childhood Program Family Specialist provides consultations to families to address specific concerns about a child's development and/or behavior or a parental concern.
• Conducts office visits, either jointly with the physician/pediatric nurse practitioner or alone.
• Works closely with the pediatric providers around care coordination, goal setting, counseling, coaching and education about key aspect of a child's behaviors, development, and parenting practices.
• Closely tracks progress made in ongoing checkups.
• Early Childhood Program Family Specialist refers patients, parents, and families to both in-house and community resources based on identified needs.
• Early Childhood Program Family Specialist partners with community resource providers and families to help parents coordinate and navigate complex systems, offering close follow-up and support when barriers occur.
• Early Childhood Program Family Specialist uses care coordination to empower families by enhancing their health literacy and systems navigation capabilities, so they become their child and family's own best advocates.
• Early Childhood Program Family Specialist provides parents with guidance, education, information, and resources that help them support their children through the different stages of development.
• Early Childhood Program Family Specialist offers parents and families concrete strategies, activities and tools designed to support their child's early learning.
• Provide anticipatory guidance to parents and other primary care givers around common concerns such as early learning, fussiness, sleep, feeding, discipline, toilet training, etc.
• Works closely with the Parents As Teachers Home Visitors and the MGH Everett Family Practice staff as a resource for developmental and parenting concerns.

SKILLS/ABILITIES/COMPETENCIES REQUIRED:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Demonstrated expertise in child development issues.

• Demonstrated commitment to working with underserved populations in a community setting.

• Must be empathic, supportive and patient.

• Strong motivational interviewing skills.

• Ability to work with people of many cultures.

• Ability to take initiative and willingness to learn.

• Ability to work well both in teams and independently.

• Minimum 3 years of experience with parenting, child development or with human service work.

• Ability to collect and enter data for program management, evaluation and reporting purposes.

Qualifications
EDUCATION:

Bachelor's Degree required

Master's Degree is preferred.

EEO Statement
Massachusetts General Hospital is an Equal Opportunity Employer. By embracing diverse skills, perspectives, and ideas, we choose to lead. Applications from protected veterans and individuals with disabilities are strongly encouraged.

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