Mental Health Assistant

Facility Overview

NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler is a certified 815‑bed nursing facility with a 5‑Star CMS Quality Rating located on Roosevelt Island, nestled between Manhattan and Queens. Coler offers long‑term and subacute care, rehabilitation, and a dedicated memory care unit comprised of 150 beds featuring an acclaimed music and memory program. The facility features a robust rehabilitation therapy program with expansive gym space for residents. Coler also provides full‑time physician staff, psychiatry, dental services, an onsite 8‑chair dialysis unit for hemodialysis, and on‑site medical clinics to meet the clinical needs of its residents. From more than 600 nursing homes in New York, Coler ranks #10 in Newsweek’s Best Nursing Homes in New York 2026; earned a high‑performance rating for Long‑Term Care and Short‑term Rehabilitation from U.S. News & World Report’s Best Nursing Homes in America 2026; and received a 2024 Silver Beacon Award for Memory Care. At NYC Health + Hospitals, the mission is to deliver high‑quality health services without exception, guided by the ICARE values (Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence).

Responsibilities

• Utilize crisis and/or de‑escalation interventions with residents whose behavior cannot be otherwise supported.
• Assist psychiatrists and other clinicians in tracking residents’ behavioral patterns and obtain behavioral reports from the interdisciplinary team.
• Identify resident characteristics and environmental variables that may trigger agitated behaviors.
• Monitor assigned units for behavioral changes, psychological distress, or unsafe behaviors such as wandering, aggression, altercation, and hoarding; assist unit team members in managing these behaviors.
• Serve as a member of the Behavior Rapid Response Team (BRRT) to address urgent behavior‑management situations on or off the facility premises.
• Perform resident checks/rounds as required and report observations, interactions, and resident activity to the appropriate clinician(s).
• Escort residents to required locations on and off the premises, including appointments and fresh‑air experiences.
• Collaborate with the primary unit team for ongoing management of chronic unsafe behaviors (e.g., hoarding, non‑compliance with care plans).
• Establish rapport with residents and facilitate compliance with care plans, including medication administration, hygiene, and dressing.
• Monitor residents for behaviors suggesting alcohol or other substance possession or use.
• Participate in the ongoing behavior‑management care plan and provide social visits as identified by the team.
• Communicate all clinical matters to a mental health clinician or the unit RN/physician.
• Participate in staff, departmental, and team/committee meetings, as well as quality assurance/performance improvement (QA/PI) activities.
• Complete required training activities and document daily activities as needed.
• Assist the unit nursing team with residents’ daily routines to improve compliance with medication and care.
• Address residents’ unmet needs, such as phone calls to family, fresh‑air outings, purchasing small personal items, laundry assistance, and socialization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science, or a related behavioral science discipline; or thirty (30) college credits—including fifteen (15) credits in the behavioral sciences—and two (2) years of full‑time experience performing supportive mental health services under direct supervision of a professional staff member in a health‑care setting.
• High school diploma or equivalent; and three (3) years of full‑time experience performing supportive mental health services as described above; and completion of Mental Health First Aide training within three (3) months of appointment.