Senior Advisor, CCBHCs

Department Summary

The Practice Improvement and Consulting Department (PIC) is central to the National Council's goal of providing timely and meaningful technical assistance and consulting to community mental health and substance use services organizations and others serving the health of our nation.

Position Summary

As a Senior Advisor, you will be based in the PIC Department and lead state-level training and technical assistance (TTA) development and implementation on a new pilot program focused on rapidly advancing statewide adoption of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) across the nation. CCBHCs are the vanguard of a national movement transforming Americans' access to addiction and mental health services through an integrated care model that emphasizes 24/7 crisis response, collaboration with hospitals and other community partners, and serving as a one-stop shop for comprehensive behavioral health treatment. You will serve as a Senior Advisor and subject matter expert on organizing multi-stakeholder, cross-agency systems transformation efforts, including alignment of the CCBHC model with other state Medicaid programming. You will drive forward the design and delivery of intensive TTA within the 3 states participating in the pilot to support rapid acceleration of statewide CCBHC adoption, achieve specified access and workforce goals, and ensure strong cross-sector collaboration with the intent of leveraging CCBHC as an opportunity to align vision across states and improve behavioral health access through innovative service delivery. As a qualified candidate for this role, you possess strong knowledge of the CCBHC program, criteria, and clinical, operational, and administrative needs for successful implementation, along with scalability of pilot initiatives and opportunities for leveraging Medicaid financing to optimize behavioral healthcare delivery.

This is an individual contributor role without direct reports. While this position can be done remotely from anywhere in the US, you must primarily work our Washington, DC business hours of 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM ET.

Key Responsibilities

Training and Technical Assistance (TTA)

• Provide high-quality coaching, technical assistance, and training to states optimizing CCBHC implementation, attaining specified workforce and access goals, and identifying opportunities for financing efficiency, sustainability, and programming alignment within Medicaid.
• Serve as faculty and/or advisor on activities for the new National Council CCBHC pilot initiative including learning communities, educational activities and consulting, that may include topics such as Medicaid financing and programming, integrated mental health, substance use and primary health care, healthcare financing and alternative payment model initiatives.
• Lead development of training and technical assistance curriculum materials, such as issue briefs, PowerPoint presentations, fact sheets and other resources.
• Provide on-site and virtual customized training and technical assistance on CCBHC to state agencies and representatives, CCBHC organizations, policymakers and other stakeholders, including webinars, coaching calls, office hours, and on-site visits as needed.
• Oversee and work alongside TTA partners and external consultants to ensure alignment, accuracy and quality of content.
• Engage with other project teams and departments as needed to provide CCBHC expertise.

Program Strategy and Implementation

• Work with project team and key partners to develop new and innovative, scalable, replicable models of state and clinic-level CCBHC TTA to support accelerated statewide adoption.
• Lead development of training and technical assistance strategies, frameworks and plans at multiple levels (national, state, clinic).
• Contribute best practices in training and technical assistance delivery, adult learning theory, participant engagement and human-centered design to maximize TTA impact.
• Build alignment across multiple teams (national and state) in TTA activities, design and delivery standards and processes to maximize efficiency.
• Oversee and support state technical assistance teams in implementation approaches and strategies, ensuring strong operational alignment in delivery as well as quality content.
• Oversee the content, quality and impact of external TTA providers (partners, consultants).
• Work collaboratively with project implementation team to drive progress.
• Work effectively across teams and other advisors within the CCBHC portfolio to advise on training and technical assistance strategy and policy analysis.
• Serve as an integral part of project implementation team as well as representative for project across interdisciplinary CCBHC Implementation efforts including Policy, Practice Improvement, Communications, and other National Council teams.

Organizational Activities - Participate in other National Council activities

• Participate in outreach, relationship-building, and representation at workgroups, advisory panels, and national meetings.
• Attend occasional travel events, internal meetings and trainings as needed.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant professional experience + a minimum of 5 years of progressive subject matter expertise in managing and implementing behavioral health programs
• Significant knowledge and experience in state and clinic-level CCBHC implementation, including but not limited to state operational, financial and administrative needs to support CCBHC adoption, state certification processes, state guidelines and oversight, support to clinics in CCBHC adoption, Medicaid programming alignment and leveraging Medicaid financing for sustainability
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders to drive impact at a systems level, such as members, state associations, state agencies, national, state, provider and consumer associations, behavioral health organizations, technical assistance providers and consultants
• Experience designing and delivering training and technical assistance for various audiences, leveraging best practices in TTA and adult learning theory, participant engagement practices
• Demonstrated ability and advanced skill at group facilitation, bringing multiple stakeholders together around a common purpose and training individualized to the site and population
• Successful experience as a change agent implementing quality improvement initiatives and health systems transformation efforts; ability to lead groups and individuals through planning, development and implementation of transformation efforts without formal authority or oversight
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in mental health, substance use prevention, treatment, or recovery
• Adept at simultaneously managing multiple, complex projects in varying stages of development
• Dynamic presentation, public speaking and technical writing skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook
• Ability to travel up to 30%. Approximately 6-8 national travels a year for about 2-3 days each trip for participation in CCBHC meetings, site visits and team/department meetings

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in a related field

Salary & Benefits

The salary range for this position is $151,200 to $198,900. Salary decisions within the range are based on experience, education and internal equity.

The National Council offers a comprehensive benefits package, which includes (but is not limited to):

• Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer contributions after 1 year of service
• Paid time off, including vacation, sick, personal, floating holiday, bereavement and observed federal holidays
• Parental support benefits, including adoption, fertility and surrogacy reimbursement and two weeks paid parental leave
• Free unlimited Relias professional development courses
• Annual professional development and tuition reimbursement funds
• Calm Premium access

About Us

The vision of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing is to make mental wellbeing, including recovery from substance use challenges, a reality for everyone. Despite overwhelming need, nearly 30 million people across the U.S. do not have access to comprehensive mental health and substance use treatment.

Founded in 1969, the National Council is a 501(c)(3) membership organization that drives policy and social change on behalf of more than 3,200 mental health and substance use treatment organizations and the more than 15 million children, adults and families they serve. We advocate for policies to ensure equitable access to high-quality services. We build the capacity of mental health and substance use treatment organizations. And we promote greater understanding of mental wellbeing as a core component of comprehensive health and health care. Through our Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program, we have trained more than 4.5 million people in the U.S. to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges.

The National Council is growing to meet this moment. We've more than doubled our dedicated team to 240+ employees since 2020. Although we have office space in Washington, D.C., we operate as a remote-first organization, with employees working from their various locations across the United States.

The National Council is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We embrace individuals from all backgrounds and perspectives, welcoming people of all races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, and ages, as well as veterans, people with disabilities, and those with lived experiences in mental health and substance use challenges to apply. We are committed to fostering a welcoming environment and recruitment process for everyone. If you require accommodation during the application process, please contact us at Recruiter@thenationalcouncil.org.