Mental Health Aide - Dog Handler

Your Opportunity:

We are looking for an individual who is passionate about supporting clients and their families through moderate to severe addictions and mental health treatment in our Step Up Step Down Program. This position is listed as multi-site indicating you may provide services within the Children’s Addictions & Mental Health Portfolio including at Unit 39 (Red Deer Hospital), PChAD, or others as assigned within Red Deer. Please note that the position you are interviewing for/being offered has transitioned to Recovery Alberta effective September 1, 2024. Candidates who accept an offer of employment for this position will transition to Recovery Alberta. This is a unique position in that it includes the primary handling of our facility dog. The ideal candidate would have experience working with youth, mental health and canine training. Ideally, the candidate will have training in trauma informed care and mental health approaches. Working alongside the facility dog, the candidate will help youth and families cope with the stresses related to trauma, grief, loss and addictions/ mental health. This individual would be required to take training out of province, continue with ongoing training and care of the facility dog and have the dog live in the handler’s residence full time. As a Mental Health Aide with dog handler duties, you will be responsible for providing all typical MHA duties in addition to primary dog handling as well as all daily care of the dog including feeding, exercise and play, toileting, training, medical appointments and managing the dog’s workload. You will provide all command training to the team to enable the dog to continue to be able to do their job effectively when not in your presence. This position requires significant commitment in that the dog will be your sole responsibility outside of work hours as well.

Description:

As a Mental Health Aide, you will work as a collaborative member of the multidisciplinary team to provide a welcoming and safe care environment. You will assist in the provision of direct patient/client care as delegated in a person-centered, recovery oriented and safe manner. In this position, you will assist and / or promote independence to patients/clients in completing activities of daily living as well as assisting other health professionals with providing treatments and observing and reporting relevant patient/client information to professional staff. You will assist new patients/clients and families with orientation, and assist in the general support of the work area.