Peer Recovery Specialist - Ryan White Project, University of Colorado

The ARTS Adult Outpatient Program (AOP) within Addiction Research and Treatment Services (ARTS) at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is seeking a full-time University Staff (non-classified) Peer Recovery Specialist. The ARTS Adult Outpatient Program within the School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry has clinic locations in Denver, Aurora, and Arvada. These clinics provide drug and alcohol assessment and psychosocial and pharmacological treatment for adults. Programs in various clinic locations include traditional outpatient, intensive outpatient, and may contain specialty services for clients referred by the criminal justice system, county departments of human services, services for pregnant women, individuals who are HIV-positive, and gender responsive services.

The Peer Recovery Specialist provides peer support and recovery services to people living with HIV who have problems with substance abuse at the ARTS Parkside Clinic and Specialized Outpatient Services (SOS) Clinic; both located in Denver. This position provides activities to engage, educate, and offer support to HIV-positive patients, their family, and caregivers, as well as connect patients to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up sessions.

The Peer Recovery Specialist is also responsible for conducting outreach activities with organizations, patients, staff, community partners, subcontracted agencies, and/or other entities as appropriate. This position will also travel to various sites and perform other duties as assigned or required.

Standard working hours for this position are Monday through Friday, 6:00am to 2:30pm, or 8:30am to 5:00pm. This position may be required to work some Saturdays and/or Sundays (for events/clinic coverage) depending on the needs of the clinic.

This position is a full-time position partially supported by Ryan White Care Act grant funds, whose funding levels will be reviewed on a periodic basis. Accordingly, the position’s status may be affected over time by any applicable variations in the grant and/or funding amounts.

Key Responsibilities:

• Under general supervision, provide services as a Peer educator and support specialist to implement interventions to improve outcomes for HIV-positive patients participating in medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and traditional outpatient treatment.
• Conduct structured, individual and group interventions that focus on health education, care coordination, as well as identifying and reducing barriers to care for patients.
• Conduct outreach activities in the community to engage HIV-positive patients in substance use treatment.
• Plan, coordinate, and conduct community outreach events such as Denver Pridefest and the Colorado AIDS Walk.
• Conduct case management for patients, and provide referrals of necessary, appropriate resources to patients as needed.
• Implement standardized intervention, track patients for engagement, and connect patients to HIV treatment and care.
• Collaborate with supervisor and staff and coordinate efforts to ensure successful delivery of services.
• Attend and participate in trainings, team/staff meetings, supervision, and other events as needed.
• Identify any problems, challenges, or obstacles in coordination of services, identify potential solutions, and resolve such problems, challenges, or obstacles in a timely manner, and ensure all duties and responsibilities are performed for effective and appropriate benefit of patients.