Substance Use - Adolescent Addiction Specialist

About the role

This is a remote contract position for a Substance Use - Adolescent Addiction Specialist, offering 10-40 hours per week at a rate of $45-$95/hour.

Responsibilities

• Review clinical case material describing adolescent substance use and document thorough assessments of risk, severity, and intervention urgency.
• Apply established frameworks such as DSM-5 SUD and ASAM to stage severity and recommend an appropriate level of care.
• Evaluate the safety and clinical appropriateness of both proposed and alternative interventions, including pharmacological options when relevant.
• Distinguish between developmentally normal experimentation and clinically significant patterns of substance use in youth.
• Identify and flag withdrawal, overdose, and safeguarding risks that require escalation or immediate action.
• Develop written guidance that is actionable for non-specialists, clearly explaining the rationale and referencing relevant standards or guidelines.
• Compare and benchmark your assessments against peer input and published best practice to ensure consistency and rigor.

Requirements

• Have strong relevant experience working directly with adolescents impacted by substance use.
• Clinical specialty in addiction medicine, or child/adolescent psychiatry or psychology with a primary focus on substance use disorders.
• Active clinical license/registration in good standing, with recent adolescent caseload experience.
• Proficiency with adolescent substance use screening and severity staging tools (e.g., CRAFFT, S2BI, DSM-5, ASAM criteria).
• Familiarity with medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD/MAT) and withdrawal management protocols for under-18s.
• Research-standard written English proficiency.
• Motivational interviewing training, adolescent inpatient/crisis experience, and/or history of developing guidelines or publications in youth SUD (nice to have).