Specialist - Mental Health Support 2025 - 2026

Mental Health Support Specialist

This position serves in a consultative and collaborative role to school staff, division leaders, and parents/guardians in support of PK-12 student mental health and wellness. The Mental Health Support Specialist collaborates with division- and community-based professionals to facilitate transitions related to mental health needs, and develops, facilitates, and evaluates mental health-focused professional development to enhance identification of and response to mental/emotional distress in students consistent with division, Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), and federal guidelines. This position serves on the division-level critical incident response team. Complex work is performed within specific objectives and policies. Contacts are regularly and frequently made at all organizational levels within and outside the school system, to explain programs or to coordinate unusual cases referred to a higher level.

Essential Job Functions:

• Implements suicide prevention programs, including Signs of Suicide and Sources of Strength, including training, consultation, and data collection/analysis
• Provides mental health consultation to staff members and caregivers at assigned schools, including initial assessment of needs and referral to community-based mental health supports
• Facilitates annual threat assessment training with new administrators and student support services team members (counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses)
• Provides support to school-level teams to complete the Threat Assessment process
• Contributes regularly to school-based critical incident responses to assist school communities with planning, resources, and grief/loss support
• Conducts Return to Learn training (re-entry plans) for school personnel in support of students returning to school following psychiatric treatment and in need of school-based mental health supports
• Facilitates Youth Mental Health First Aid training for staff members year round.
• Collaborates in support of mental health and wellness education for caregivers and professional development for staff with multiple departments throughout the school year.
• Builds and sustains relationships with community mental health providers, including Chesterfield Mental Health and local psychiatric hospitals.
• Partners with school- and community-based mental health professionals and organizations to educate caregivers about mental health response and resources.
• Coordinates mental health community engagement events and communication campaigns with Community Relations and individual schools.
• Maintains a comprehensive list of local, regional, and national (in person and online) mental health supports accessible to students and families in need.
• May perform other duties, as assigned.

Budgetary Responsibility: This position has no budgetary responsibility.

Report Preparation: This position is responsible for data collection and report preparation, including providing comparable threat assessment numbers between years, analyzing level of threat in addition to volume, relaying the number of reports made by students, and looking at opportunity costs of implementation.

Equipment Operation: This position uses an office computer for reports, data collection, and correspondence, as well as other media equipment for presentations.

Contacts: Frequent contact is made with Principals, Assistant Principals, Administrators of Special Education for consultation, Student Services personnel, teachers, staff, and parents. Regular contact is made with public agency representatives for collaboration of service delivery to students.

Work Direction/Supervision: This position does not provide work direction to or supervise any positions.

Decision-Making: Complex work is performed within specific objectives and policies. A high level of independent decision-making is necessary.

Formal Policy-Setting Responsibilities: This position does not have formal policy-setting responsibilities.

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here represent those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands and fingers, reach with hands and arms, handle or feel objects, printed materials and/or controls and talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, sit and drive. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close and distance vision.

Work Environment: While performing the duties of this job, the employee performs work in various locations within Chesterfield County Public Schools. Frequent travel within the school division is required. Work may require transport of materials from location to location. The noise level in the work environment is typically quiet to moderate.

Qualifications: Considerable knowledge of human and child development, threat assessment rationale and procedures, adult learning styles, and effective instructional techniques. Considerable knowledge of human development and family dynamics. Considerable knowledge of intervention techniques, learning theory, and school organization. Considerable knowledge of federal and state laws and regulations related to pupil service programs. Demonstrated knowledge of individual, group and crisis counseling. Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. Demonstrated ability in decision-making, problem analysis, conflict resolution, interpersonal relationships, and effective presentation skills.

Requirements: Must hold a valid Virginia license as a School Counselor, School Psychologist, School Social Worker, or a valid professional counselor license by the Virginia Department of Health Professions (DHP), and an applicable Master's degree in a related field. Valid VA Driver's License. This position requires the employee to drive. Preferred: Demonstrated prior progressive experience in developing and implementing programs at the district level. Applicants considered for employment must successfully complete the following background investigations/tests: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal History Investigation, State Police Criminal History Investigation, Child Protective Services (CPS) Investigation, Tuberculosis Screening/Test.