Now Hiring Social Workers
Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division, known as B-HEARD, is a ground-breaking, health-centered response to 911 mental health calls.
B-HEARD teams include FDNY Emergency Medical Technicians/Paramedics and a mental health professional from NYC Health + Hospitals that are dispatched as first responders to people experiencing a mental health emergency.
B-HEARD is part of New York City’s commitment to treat mental health crises as public health problems, not public safety issues. B-HEARD teams are jointly operated by the New York City Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services and NYC Health + Hospitals, with oversight from the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health.
Current Job Openings
Social Worker
Social Work Supervisor Level IV
Social Work Supervisor Level V
The goals of the B-HEARD pilot program are:
- Route 911 mental health calls to a health-centered B-HEARD response whenever it is appropriate to do so.
- Increase connection to community-based care, reduce unnecessary transports to hospitals, and reduce unnecessary use of police resources.
B-HEARD is now hiring licensed Social Workers to join their teams!
What you will do:
- The program currently operates 7 days a week, between the hours of 9am and 1am. Social workers work during 8-hour shifts.
- B-HEARD Teams use their physical and mental health expertise, and experience in crisis response, to de-escalate emergency situations and provide immediate care. Social Workers combine clinical assessment, brief treatment, and linkage to appropriate levels of care.
- Teams have the expertise to respond to a range of behavioral health problems, such as suicidal ideation, mental health conditions, including serious mental illness, substance use/misuse, as well as physical health problems, which can be exacerbated by or mask mental health problems.
- If the person requires emergency medical services, the EMTs or paramedics on the B-HEARD Team are able to provide emergency medical care and call for an ambulance transport to a hospital.
- Typically, B-HEARD teams do not respond to calls involving individuals who require immediate transport to a hospital, present risk of imminent harm to themselves or others, or get deployed in situations where EMS call-takers do not have enough information to assess risk of imminent harm.
Training: Social Workers and EMTs/Paramedics are trained together over the course of several weeks, prior to responding to 911 mental health calls. Training will provide de-escalation and other clinical skills necessary to ensure team members are able to support and connect New Yorkers to appropriate levels of care.
Learn more about B-HEARD
Contact: BHEARDjobs@nychhc.org