Wellness Director (Creative Arts Therapist-L III) Job at NYC Health + Hospitals

Title: Creative Arts Therapist/Wellness Program Director

About NYC Health + Hospitals

NYC Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur is a 295-bed Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) with a 5-Star CMS Quality Rating located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Gouverneur offers enhanced, cutting edge healthcare services in a state-of-the-art space. It provides 24-hour care for individuals in need of sub-acute care, long-term care or hospice care which include services like physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and vocational rehabilitation. Gouverneur is an academic affiliate of NYU School of Medicine and Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.

From more than 600 Nursing Homes, Gouverneur ranks #7 in Newsweek’s Best Nursing Homes in New York2024; and also received high-performance ratings for Long-term Care and Short-term Rehabilitation from U.S. News & World Report’s Best Nursing Homes in America 2024.

At NYC Health + Hospitals, our mission is to deliver high quality care health services, without exception. Every employee takes a person-centered approach that exemplifies the ICARE values (Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence) through empathic communication and partnerships between all persons.

Job Description

The Wellness Program Director will work as a part of the holistic, proactive, and preventative Helping Healers Heal (H3) program bringing workforce wellness to all NYC Health + Hospitals staff across all tours. Reporting to the H3 Leads, the Wellness Program Director is responsible for coordination, crisis support, and successful planning, deployment, improvement and integration of wellness programming. The position will be based at the partner site or service line, working closely with Central Office. The role is workforce facing and has no patient engagement responsibilities.

The Wellness Program Director will support program development and implementation, create promotional materials, and track program outcomes. This role is intended for a detail-oriented self-starter with a passion for health and wellbeing, and partnership building. The Wellness Program Director will be responsible for supporting the organizational delivery and maintenance of wellness programming throughout their site/locations. The Wellness Program Director may make regular site visits to Central Office (virtually and in-person when appropriate) to build internal capacity to deliver wellness programs that align with the NYC Health + Hospitals’ 8 Dimensions of Wellness – Emotional, Environmental, Financial, Intellectual, Occupational, Physical, Social, and Spiritual.

The role requires coordination with Behavioral Health Services and the EAP at assigned locations, as well as to facilitate staff wellness activities such as wellness events, proactive unit-based wellness rounds, emotional support debriefs, trainings and in-services, management of the wellness room, and the adoption of unit-based wellness. This role requires consultation at all levels of the organization with leadership, departments, units, and individuals to establish wellness plans, activities (events, debriefs, trainings, etc.), and acts as contact/guide during staff crises. This person will collaborate with the H3 Lead to maintain strong relationships internally to strengthen staff wellness programming as well as co-facilitation of the H3 Steering Team.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Responsible for strategic planning associated with health and wellness programs and overall embedding and fostering of wellness culture; facilitate the strategy and process to launch new programs based on the 8 Dimensions of Well-being across the facility/service line.

• Demonstrates effectiveness in planning, organizing, and managing the ongoing operations of employee wellness at assigned location(s).

• Assist in coordination and facilitation of wellness activities and programs for all employees ac

• Proactive wellness and real-time crisis support for employees; assist in the development of service line/facility-based crisis plans for employees.

• Lead and facilitate, in concert with Helping Healers Heal stakeholders, department meetings to embed unit-based wellness programming across the facility/service line.

• Maintains the budget for the Workforce Wellness department.

• Plan and implement trainings, speakers, seminars, and custom in-services that promote overall awareness and well-being of employees.

• Collaboration with Communications and Public Affairs offices to generate promotion and publicity plans for wellness programs throughout the facility/service line.

• Ensure awareness of wellness programs and resources available to improve utilization.

• Provide emotional debriefs, a 1:1 or group conversation with a focus on reflection, to foster a supportive and safe environment for all employees to connect and engage in emotional and psychological processing; minimum of 40 wellness encounters (1:1/group debriefs and wellness events) per month across all tours.

• Track all encounters on a monthly basis, enter pertinent information into the quality assurance program portal, and provide qualitative and quantitative data-based insights on facility/service line-specific utilization of the H3 program to key stakeholders.

• Oversee data management, ensuring integrity of data and use of H3 portal to accurately reflect wellness programming utilization.

• Handle sensitive and confidential mental health information due to the nature of emotional debriefs while upholding HIPAA compliance.

• Manages relationships with internal departments, partnerships with external vendors and stakeholders, and monitor the confidentiality, quality and accuracy of data and information shared/collected.

• Participate in service recovery surrounding staff well-being after sentinel events as well as risk management cases while ensuring the facility/service line are equipped to provide the necessary confidential wellness support to their staff in times of need.

• Ensure wellness programming is spread across the facility/service line equitably while establishing access across tours, weekends, and holidays by overseeing facility-specific H3 teams and programs.

• Facilitates proactive and preventative wellness rounds covering 100% of the facility/service line.

• Compile statistical summaries of participant data, training attendance, equipment inventories, process and outcome measures to ensure proper program evaluation.

• Assists the facility/service line in the development of policies and procedural guidelines relevant to the operation of the overarching wellness program and critical response workflows.

• Provides discipline & service-based wellness education and quality assurance report-outs (e.g. resident orientation, grand rounds, M&Ms, Town Hall, executive meetings, safety huddles, department heads meetings, etc.).

• Partner with H3 stakeholders and facility/service line-based H3 Steering Teams to develop partnerships with local Chiefs, Chairs, Department Heads, Directors, etc. to integrate wellness action plans across local areas and across tours and disciplines

Minimum Qualifications

• LCAT, LCSW, or a similar license issued by the New York State Education Department of Office of Professions or
• Attending an accredited university to attain board certification/licensure within a behavioral health field;

Department Preferences

• At least 3 years of experience preferred
• Knowledge and experience related to project management techniques and project planning activities
• Demonstrated interest/experience in staff wellness
• This position relies heavily on having strong interpersonal and critical thinking skills
• Excellent verbal, written, presentation, and group facilitation skills required
• Ability and desire to work with a diverse group of individuals. This includes cultural competency, cultural humility, and the ability to communicate respectfully and effectively with clinical and non-clinical staff, and leadership
• Strong leadership and management skills
• The ability to find innovative ways to resolve problems
• At least three years of experience in healthcare. Relevant experience in program development, program management, project management, or group facilitation preferred.

How To Apply

If you wish to apply for this position, please apply online by clicking the "Apply Now" button

NYC Health and Hospitals offers a competitive benefits package that includes:

• Comprehensive Health Benefits for employees hired to work 20+ hrs. per week
• Retirement Savings and Pension Plans
• Loan Forgiveness Programs for eligible employees
• Paid Holidays and Vacation in accordance with employees' Collectively bargained contracts
• College tuition discounts and professional development opportunities
• Multiple employee discounts programs