Clinical Psychologist - Healthy Steps Program

Healthy Steps is an evidence-based, interdisciplinary pediatric primary care program that promotes positive parenting and healthy development for babies and toddlers, with an emphasis on families living in low-income communities. The entire practice works together to implement the Healthy Steps model, with leadership from a Physician Champion and the Healthy Steps Specialist who is integrated into the primary care team.

The Pediatric Healthy Steps Specialist provides support for families with children age 0-3 years to facilitate the development of attachment, self-regulation skills, and family resiliency. In addition, the Healthy Steps Specialist will provide child development guidance to high-risk parents and other primary care givers at well child visits with the goal of facilitating children’s healthy growth and development. Our practice screens for risk factors for healthy emotionally development, such as maternal depression. The Healthy Steps Specialist takes the lead in providing low level counseling for these families.

Responsibilities:

1. Conducts team based well child visits with parents and their babies and young children with the physician/pediatric nurse practitioner
2. Provides consultations with families with babies and young children regarding developmental and behavioral concerns such as sleep, discipline, picky eating, etc.
3. Collaborates with healthy step team to implement all core components of the program including universal child development and SDOH screening, making positive parenting and early learning guidance information readily available to all practice staff, and adjusting workflows for optimal efficiency.
4. Provides consultation to medical professionals and all practice staff re: early childhood development, infant mental health, and trauma informed practice.
5. Provides referrals and tracks follow-up, as appropriate, to help families make connections to key resources within the community.
6. Maintains extensive databases required to meet HS fidelity metrics including both internal and external referrals.
7. Collaborates with HS team to complete annual site reporting to the National Office, which may include analysis of both external database files and EMR data reports.
8. Documents all patient clinical activity and care coordination in electronic medical records.
9. Maintains open communication with medical staff and members of the care team.
10. Works closely with pediatric providers around care coordination, goal setting, counseling, coaching and education about key aspects of a child’s development.
11. May conduct home visits and may accompany families to key medical, specialty, and community agency appointments as needed.
12. May facilitate parents’/caregivers’ groups.
13. Participates in reflective supervision meetings.
14. Participates when appropriate in community-wide early childhood meetings.

Qualifications
A background in child development, mental health counseling, psychology, early childhood education, or early intervention is an important requirement for this position.

• Licensed with a doctorate in psychology, counseling, early childhood education, or related field highly preferred.
• Experience and knowledge about early childhood growth and development, parent-child relationships, child health infant mental health, and family systems.
• Experience evaluating the growth and development of infants and children under three years of age.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• 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 a willingness to learn.
• Ability to work well both in teams and independently.
• Ability to collect and enter data for program management, evaluation, and reporting purposes.
• Interest in the use of technology to improve care quality a plus. Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.

• “Grace under pressure” with the ability to multitask and triage/juggle multiple appointments and conflicting priorities.
• Comfort with an open-door policy, potentially frequent interruptions, and warm hand offs.
• Flexibility in communication: able to switch between being on the floor playing with young patients and communicating with medical professionals regarding mental health interventions in a professional, coherent, and efficient manner.
• Ability to tolerate isolation as the HS Specialist may be the only behavioral health professional on site.
• “Professional Backbone,” confidence, and assertiveness with providers and colleagues (shaping appropriate referrals, etc.).
• Reflectiveness, insight, and curiosity about oneself.

Weill Cornell Medicine is an E/E/O employer. Please send questions and CV to: Cori Green, MD, MS Director, Behavioral Health Education and Integration Pediatrics Email cmg9004@med.cornell.edu