CONTINUING EDUCATION SPECIALIST

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is recruiting for a full time Continuing Education Specialist.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (PBSCI) within the UW School of Medicine is the third largest clinical department  with 285 full-time faculty members, 280 clinical faculty members, and over 300 staff. Department faculty provide clinical services in 5 hospitals, 14 primary care locations, and several outpatient sites in addition to telepsychiatry consultations to more than 150 clinics in Washington and beyond. As the only academic psychiatry department serving the five state WWAMI region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho), the Department’s highly competitive residency training program is largely responsible for developing the mental health workforce in the Pacific Northwest. The Department’s robust research portfolio totals $35 million in grants and contracts per year for projects ranging from clinical neurosciences to treatment development to health policy and population health. The Department is recognized as an international leader in developing, testing, and implementing Collaborative Care, an integrated care model increasingly seen as a solution for population-based mental health care. Other areas of excellence include Addictions, Autism, High Risk Youth, Neurosciences, and Trauma, and the Department is developing innovative new programs in Technology and Mental Health, Global Mental Health, Maternal and Child Mental Health, and Targeted Intervention Development.

POSITION PURPOSE
Help Create Meaningful Change
The SPIRIT (Supporting Psychosis Innovation through Research, Implementation, and Training) Lab in the University of Washington’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences is a diverse group of researchers and trainers committed to improving the lives, wellbeing and supportive care of individuals who are at risk or have serious mental illness.                                                             

The Continuing Education Specialist will provide training and consultation to behavioral health and allied practitioners in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychosis (CBTp) on behalf of the SPIRIT Lab. The CBTp trainer-consultant will join our team of bright, talented, and passionate faculty and staff trainers, research coordinators, and administrators. They will play a key role in providing training and consultation in formulation based CBTp, group-administered CBTp, low intensity CBTp, and CBTp-informed care for a range of healthcare providers. This trainer-consultant may also collaborate with the Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (Northwest-MHTTC), which is co-directed by SPIRIT Lab faculty. Both the Northwest-MHTTC and the SPIRIT Lab primarily focus on implementation of evidence-based practices for adults with serious mental illness and early psychosis.

Position Complexities:
CBT for psychosis has been shown to produce positive outcomes. Several barriers to high-fidelity treatment delivery plague providers in both the private and public behavioral health sector.  Washington State is ahead of the curve in dedicating mental health block grant and state funding to the implementation and dissemination of CBTp and CBTp-informed care across First Episode Psychosis (FEP), adult outpatient, inpatient, and forensic settings. The SPIRIT Lab at the University of Washington serves as an Intermediate/Purveyor Organization to help organizations implement and sustain CBTp. We also contract directly with organizations and offer open enrollment CBTp training. Our team of faculty and CBTp trainers collaborate on innovations and adaptations in CBTp delivery and implementation. SPIRIT Lab faculty have contributed to national schizophrenia treatment guidelines, federal documents advocating for CBTp as standard of care, national workgroups pertaining to psychosocial interventions for psychotic disorders, and serve as core faculty with Washington State’s Center of Excellence in Early Psychosis. Further, the University of Washington is a hotbed of behavioral health Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) research, and SPIRIT faculty benefit from emerging D&I research to expedite emerging best practices in our own work with implementation stakeholders. This position will be critical to the professional reputation and growth of SPIRIT.  Successful candidates will possess both technical experience with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and psychotic disorders, as well as a commitment to working with clinicians and allied staff to learn to administer CBTp. The ideal candidate will be passionate about CBTp training, delivering high-quality psychological treatment to individuals experiencing psychosis, and a willingness to develop professional competencies associated with high-quality workforce development. Preferably, candidates will possess familiarity with in-person instruction and both synchronous and asynchronous virtual instruction for adult professional learners.

Position Dimensions and Impact to the University:
This position will contribute to both existing and emerging contracts.  A high level of professionalism, clinical expertise, and previous experience is required to obtain the cooperation and respect of all stakeholders to meet the SPIRIT’s contractual obligations for these projects and initiatives.  Stakeholders include the directors and program managers at the Washington State Health Care Authority, as well as administrators and providers of mental health services in Washington State and other parts of the U.S.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Training and Education (90%)
•Develop, refine, and deliver in-person and virtual trainings in group and/or individual-administered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp)
•Facilitate and co-facilitate live workshops, webinars, and e-learning courses for community partners on CBTp (if interested, qualified candidates may also provide trainings in complimentary approaches such as motivational interviewing strategies, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy or DBT skills)
•Integrate best practice strategies that adhere to principles of adult learning for both virtual and in-person trainings.
•Facilitate or co-facilitate professional consultation, including case-based consultation to clinicians (e.g., on ECHO Teleconsultation Clinics). This position may also be asked to participate in consultation to agency administrators to facilitate adoption and sustainment of evidence-based treatments or troubleshoot observed challenges to service delivery.
• Provide written and/or verbal feedback to learners on model adherence and fidelity.
•Respond to and triage training inquiries by collaboratively assessing feasibility, timeline, and implementation strategy for training efforts.

Administrative duties (10%)
• Work with admin and research staff on training logistics, training material development/refinement, and travel logistics for in-person trainings.
• Assist with stakeholder report preparation.

Lead Responsibilities:
Provide training and ongoing consultation in CBTp and/or CBTp-informed care. Participate in training team collaborative efforts.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS