This position will remain open until a successful candidate has been identified.

UCSD Layoff from Career Appointment: Apply by 04/18/19 for consideration with preference for rehire. All layoff applicants should contact their Employment Advisor.

Special Selection Applicants: Apply by 04/29/19. Eligible Special Selection clients should contact their Disability Counselor for assistance.

UCSD Department of Psychiatry is one of the most innovative and productive academic departments in the country, offering challenging career opportunities in the diverse areas of advanced educational programs, cutting-edge research, and state-of-the-art clinical services. The department is committed to offering a dynamic learning environment and growing opportunities to its talented and dedicated employees.

Since 1996, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC) has been contracted to provide the Data Management and Evaluation Systems/Performance Outcomes contract from County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services. The focus of this contract encompasses four (4) areas: 1) managing and revising of a data management and evaluation service program for Children, Youth & Families Behavioral l Health Services (CYFBHS); 2) overseeing outcomes and quality assurance efforts of CYFBHS System of Care Programs and Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) Programs; 3) providing consultation services on program and client outcomes and other related research services and providing system-wide reports for CYFBHS; and 4) providing technical assistance at provider sites on data collection, data management, and data reporting.

As a part of MHSA, BHS is funding a number of other initiatives, including Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) programs, which are intended to intervene before clinical mental health problems develop to prevent clients from entering the mental health system, or to provide assistance early in the onset of mental health problems to ameliorate issues and reduce the symptoms and functional impact of the mental health condition. CASRC will oversee the outcomes and quality assurance efforts for the PEI programs, and work with the PEI programs that target children to assist with the selection and collection of outcomes measures. Full Service Partnership (FSP) programs, which provide services to children who may have serious mental illnesses, are also funded by MHSA; CASRC oversees data entry and reporting for these programs as well.

Under general supervision, incumbent will work as Sr. Mental Health Researcher for the Systems of Care Evaluation (SOCE) program in the Department of Psychiatry’s Child and Adolescent Services Research Center. The focus of services is on the continuous assessment of the quality of care being delivered by the 80+ participating community-based clinic sites that are part of the SOCE program, in accordance with federal, state and local laws, regulations and policies. Duties involve executing program-level and systemwide reporting for all PEI study sites and overseeing the execution of County PEI projects; establishing, prioritizing and monitoring project timelines and tasks related to data collection and analyses for multiple research projects; providing advice and expertise to personnel on children’s mental health system and research plans and projects; coordinating data collection, analysis and reporting for 10+ participating community-based Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) study sites, including data entry and extraction from the complex clinical Health Outcomes Measurement System (HOMS) Database and study measures.

Sr. Mental Health Researcher will manage, maintain, analyze and report on Full Service Provider (FSP) data entered into the State-developed Data Collection and Reporting (DCR) database, as well as provide DCR data entry support to FSP programs. Provide oversight to Research Assistants on PEI and FSP research tasks. Other duties include ad hoc research analyses in response to County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services (BHS) Administration requests, communication and collaboration with the BHS staff, database management and coordination of data from external sources, statistical analyses, manuscript preparation and submission, authorship or co-authorship of manuscripts for publication in scientific journals; Performance Improvement Project (PIP) consultation, and original contribution to collaborative publications and research design and procedures.Use advanced knowledge and skills of research methodology and psychology to make significant independent contributions to the development of the overall plan of approach to research questions. Supervise and perform a wide variety of networking tasks that require ingenuity, resourcefulness, and flexibility.

• Advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of mental health care for children and families, as typically acquired by a Master's or Ph.D. Degree in Psychology, Social Work or Related Field; or the equivalent in education and experience.

• Demonstrated experience with publicly provided children’s mental health services.

• Strong knowledge of Evidence-Based practices children’s mental health, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

• Extensive theoretical understanding of children’s mental health services, particularly in the assessment outcome measurement.

• Advanced working knowledge of statistical software packages such as SPSS or SAS including the ability to write syntax in SPSS. Skill in advanced statistical analysis.

• Excellent computer and data management skills. Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Access and Excel. Experience with large databases such as CCBH/Millenium, DCR, and/or ETO.

• Advanced knowledge of data collection strategies for mental health system outcomes and assessment.

• Comprehensive understanding of the public behavioral healthcare system in San Diego County.

• Verifiable demonstrated scientific writing skills and experience working within a research team. Experience in making original contributions to manuscript preparation.

• Demonstrated ability to develop reports and make oral presentations. Ability to translate scientific language into easily understood concepts.

• Strong experience in making significant independent contributions to research designs of various ongoing research projects.

• Proven ability to communicate research results effectively on the telephone, in writing, and in person.

• Proven experience in public relations and forming working alliances and building rapport with other mental health and research professionals.

Employment is subject to a criminal background check and pre-employment physical, including drug screen.