CLINICAL DIRECTOR JOB DESCRIPTIONResidential Substance Use and Behavioral Health Facility
Location: Monroe, Louisiana
Position Type: Full-Time, Exempt
Schedule: Monday-Friday, Day Shift; 40 hrs a week
POSITION SUMMARY
The Clinical Director is responsible for the overall clinical leadership, supervision, quality, and effectiveness of the facility's substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment program.
This position leads the clinical team, oversees treatment planning and service delivery, monitors documentation and clinical quality, supports regulatory compliance, and ensures that services are individualized, evidence-based, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and consistent with the needs of the clients served.
The Clinical Director will also serve as, or meet the qualifications required to function as, the facility's Clinical Supervisor under Louisiana Administrative Code Title 48.
For ASAM Level 3.1 services, Louisiana requires the provider to have a clinical supervisor available for clinical supervision and telephone consultation.
TITLE 48 LICENSURE REQUIREMENT
The Clinical Director must qualify as a Licensed Mental Health Professional (LMHP) under Louisiana law and must maintain a current, unrestricted Louisiana professional license in good standing.
Louisiana recognizes the following professionals as LMHPs:
- Medical Psychologist
- Licensed Psychologist
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
- Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC)
- Licensed Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)
- Licensed Rehabilitation Counselor (LRC)
For the Title 48 Clinical Supervisor role, the applicant must also have at least two years of qualifying clinical experience as an LMHP in the provision of services offered by the facility.
A CAC, RAC, LCADC, LMSW, PLPC, or other credential that does not independently meet Louisiana's definition of LMHP will not, by itself, satisfy the Title 48 Clinical Supervisor qualification.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIESClinical Program Leadership
The Clinical Director will:
- Direct the daily clinical operations of the residential substance use and behavioral health program.
- Ensure services are delivered according to each client's assessed needs and individualized treatment plan.
- Develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate clinical programming.
- Ensure appropriate use of evidence-based and clinically accepted treatment approaches.
- Maintain a recovery-oriented and trauma-informed treatment environment.
- Ensure clinical programming is consistent with the facility's licensed level of care.
- Monitor the quality and effectiveness of counseling, psychotherapy, psychoeducation, case management, recovery services, and discharge planning.
- Participate in development and modification of clinical programs as needed.
- Identify gaps in service delivery and implement corrective improvements.
Clinical Supervision
The Clinical Director will:
- Provide clinical supervision to counselors, therapists, case managers, unlicensed professionals, counselors-in-training, and other clinical personnel as appropriate.
- Be available for clinical supervision and consultation as required by Title 48.
- Provide supervision using evidence-based techniques applicable to behavioral health and substance use treatment.
- Ensure staff remain within their lawful scope of practice, credentials, education, and competency.
- Maintain documentation of clinical supervision.
- Review clinical staff performance and identify training or competency needs.
- Provide consultation regarding difficult, high-risk, or complex clinical cases.
- Ensure appropriate supervisory coverage during planned and unplanned absences.
Louisiana Title 48 specifically assigns the clinical supervisor responsibility for providing supervision using evidence-based behavioral health counseling techniques and serving as a resource to other professionals treating behavioral health disorders.
CLIENT ASSESSMENT AND ADMISSION OVERSIGHT
The Clinical Director will:
- Oversee clinical screening and assessment processes.
- Ensure clients are admitted only when clinically appropriate for the facility's level of care.
- Review complex or questionable admission decisions.
- Ensure appropriate assessment of:
- Substance use history
- Withdrawal risk
- Mental health conditions
- Medical conditions
- Suicide and self-harm risk
- Violence risk
- Recovery environment
- Functional needs
- Legal and social needs
- Medication needs
- Ensure appropriate referrals are made when an applicant requires services beyond facility capabilities.
- Support appropriate application of ASAM placement and continued-stay criteria.
TREATMENT PLANNING
The Clinical Director will:
- Ensure every client receives an individualized treatment plan.
- Ensure treatment plans reflect assessment findings, diagnoses, strengths, risks, preferences, and recovery goals.
- Participate in or oversee interdisciplinary treatment-team meetings.
- Ensure treatment plans contain measurable goals and clinically appropriate interventions.
- Ensure plans are reviewed and updated within required timeframes.
- Review treatment plans when a client's clinical condition changes.
- Ensure clients participate in treatment planning to the extent clinically appropriate.
- Monitor progress toward treatment goals.
- Ensure treatment plans support appropriate discharge and continuing-care planning.
CLINICAL SERVICES
The Clinical Director will ensure the availability and quality of clinically appropriate services that may include:
- Individual counseling
- Group counseling
- Family counseling and education
- Substance use disorder education
- Relapse prevention
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills
- Motivational interviewing
- Trauma-informed interventions
- Coping-skills development
- Emotional regulation
- Anger and stress management
- Recovery planning
- Craving and trigger management
- Healthy relationships
- Communication skills
- Medication education
- Overdose-prevention education
- Case management
- Care coordination
- Life-skills development
- Community reintegration
- Discharge and continuing-care planning
- Peer and recovery-support linkage
- 12-Step, SMART Recovery, Celebrate Recovery, or other approved recovery-support activities
INTERDISCIPLINARY TREATMENT TEAM
The Clinical Director will:
- Participate in and provide leadership for interdisciplinary treatment-team meetings.
- Coordinate input from counselors, case managers, medical providers, psychiatric providers, residential staff, and other professionals.
- Review:
- Client progress
- Continued-stay appropriateness
- Treatment participation
- Medical and psychiatric concerns
- Medication issues
- Drug-testing results
- Relapse events
- Safety risks
- Behavioral concerns
- Housing needs
- Employment and vocational needs
- Legal requirements
- Barriers to treatment
- Readiness for transfer or discharge
ASAM Level 3.1 requires the provider to maintain appropriate clinical staffing and supervision, including a clinical supervisor and sufficient LMHP or unlicensed professional coverage.
CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION
The Clinical Director will:
- Ensure documentation is accurate, timely, complete, and clinically appropriate.
- Monitor:
- Assessments
- Treatment plans
- Progress notes
- Group notes
- Individual counseling notes
- Continued-stay reviews
- Case-management documentation
- Discharge summaries
- Crisis documentation
- Conduct routine chart audits.
- Identify documentation deficiencies and ensure correction.
- Ensure clinical documentation supports services billed.
- Prevent backdating, falsification, cloning, or inappropriate alteration of clinical records.
- Coordinate corrective education when documentation standards are not met.
REGULATORY AND ACCREDITATION COMPLIANCE
The Clinical Director will maintain working knowledge of and support compliance with:
- Louisiana Administrative Code Title 48
- Louisiana Department of Health requirements
- Behavioral Health Service Provider licensing standards
- Louisiana Medicaid requirements
- Managed Care Organization requirements
- ASAM criteria
- CARF accreditation standards
- HIPAA
- 42 CFR Part 2
- Professional licensing-board requirements
- Mandatory reporting laws
- Applicable federal, state, and local requirements
The Clinical Director will:
- Participate in LDH surveys, CARF surveys, Medicaid audits, MCO reviews, and other regulatory activities.
- Assist with plans of correction.
- Implement corrective-action plans.
- Monitor ongoing compliance following survey findings.
- Review and revise clinical policies and procedures when necessary.
- Ensure actual clinical practice matches written policy.
QUALITY ASSURANCE AND PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
The Clinical Director will actively participate in the facility's QAPI program.
Responsibilities include monitoring:
- Admission appropriateness
- Treatment engagement
- Completion of clinical services
- Treatment-plan compliance
- Client outcomes
- Successful completions
- Unplanned discharges
- Relapse events
- Positive drug screens
- Transfers to higher levels of care
- Hospitalizations
- Suicide and self-harm events
- Behavioral incidents
- Client grievances
- Clinical documentation deficiencies
- Staff performance
- Client satisfaction
- Recurring clinical trends
The Clinical Director will assist in developing and monitoring corrective and performance-improvement plans.
CRISIS AND RISK MANAGEMENT
The Clinical Director will:
- Provide consultation and leadership during behavioral health crises.
- Ensure staff appropriately respond to:
- Suicidal ideation
- Suicide attempts
- Self-harm
- Violence or threats
- Psychiatric deterioration
- Intoxication
- Relapse
- Overdose
- Withdrawal symptoms
- Abuse, neglect, or exploitation
- Ensure high-risk clients receive appropriate reassessment.
- Determine when referral or transfer to a higher level of care is clinically necessary.
- Coordinate with emergency departments, hospitals, crisis providers, withdrawal-management programs, and other treatment providers.
- Participate in review of serious clinical incidents.
MEDICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC COORDINATION
The Clinical Director will collaborate with the Medical Director, psychiatric providers, primary-care providers, pharmacies, and other medical professionals as appropriate.
Responsibilities include:
- Supporting continuity of medical and psychiatric care.
- Reviewing significant medication-related concerns.
- Coordinating psychiatric referrals.
- Supporting access to medications for substance use disorders when clinically appropriate.
- Addressing medication misuse or diversion concerns.
- Coordinating clinical response to adverse medication effects.
- Ensuring clinical staff understand when medical or psychiatric escalation is necessary.
SUBSTANCE USE AND RELAPSE RESPONSE
The Clinical Director will:
- Review significant positive alcohol and drug tests.
- Ensure relapse is addressed as a clinical event rather than solely as a disciplinary issue.
- Assess whether continued placement remains appropriate.
- Revise treatment plans when indicated.
- Increase clinical services when appropriate.
- Coordinate additional testing or assessment.
- Recommend transfer to withdrawal management or a higher level of care when clinically necessary.
- Participate in discharge decisions involving repeated substance use, diversion, distribution, or safety concerns.
CLINICAL STAFF LEADERSHIP
The Clinical Director will:
- Participate in recruitment and interviewing of clinical personnel.
- Assist with onboarding of new clinical staff.
- Review credentials and qualifications in coordination with administration.
- Establish clinical expectations.
- Provide orientation and ongoing training.
- Conduct or participate in employee performance evaluations.
- Address performance deficiencies.
- Promote staff development and retention.
- Encourage professional and ethical conduct.
- Promote effective communication between clinical and residential departments.
POLICY AND PROCEDURE DEVELOPMENT
The Clinical Director will:
- Participate in development and annual review of clinical policies and procedures.
- Ensure policies reflect actual clinical practice.
- Recommend revisions based on:
- Regulatory changes
- Clinical best practices
- Survey findings
- Incident reviews
- Quality-improvement findings
- Staff needs
- Changes in program services
- Provide clinical review of policies involving treatment, assessment, medication, crisis response, discharge, client rights, and other clinical operations.
DISCHARGE AND CONTINUITY OF CARE
The Clinical Director will ensure discharge planning begins early in treatment and addresses:
- Current level-of-care needs
- Housing
- Outpatient treatment
- Intensive outpatient treatment
- Residential transfer
- Medical care
- Psychiatric care
- Medication continuity
- Recovery-support services
- Peer support
- Employment
- Transportation
- Family supports
- Legal obligations
- Relapse prevention
- Overdose prevention
- Naloxone access
- Other community resources
The Clinical Director will participate in complex discharge, transfer, and administrative-discharge decisions.
CLIENT AND FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
The Clinical Director will:
- Promote client participation in treatment.
- Encourage appropriate family involvement when authorized.
- Support family education.
- Ensure culturally responsive and client-centered services.
- Respect client preferences and recovery goals.
- Ensure clients understand treatment expectations and available services.
- Support appropriate grievance resolution.
COMMUNITY RELATIONS
The Clinical Director may:
- Build relationships with referral sources.
- Coordinate with hospitals and treatment providers.
- Participate in community meetings.
- Represent the facility at professional events.
- Support relationships with courts, probation/parole, healthcare providers, and community organizations.
- Assist with development of a strong referral and continuing-care network.
ADMINISTRATIVE COLLABORATION
The Clinical Director will work closely with the Administrator to:
- Coordinate clinical staffing.
- Monitor clinical resources.
- Develop program goals.
- Review clinical budgets when appropriate.
- Address regulatory concerns.
- Review incidents and grievances.
- Implement organizational improvements.
- Maintain survey readiness.
- Ensure staffing levels support safe and effective treatment.
- Support strategic planning and program development.
REQUIRED EDUCATION
A master's degree or higher in an appropriate behavioral health discipline is strongly preferred and may be required depending on the applicant's professional license and assigned duties.
Acceptable fields may include:
- Counseling
- Psychology
- Social Work
- Marriage and Family Therapy
- Addiction Counseling
- Rehabilitation Counseling
- Nursing
- Another related behavioral health discipline
REQUIRED PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE
Applicant must qualify as a Louisiana Licensed Mental Health Professional (LMHP) and maintain a current, unrestricted Louisiana professional license in good standing.
Qualifying licenses include:
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
- Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC)
- Licensed Psychologist
- Medical Psychologist
- Licensed Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)
- Licensed Rehabilitation Counselor (LRC)
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- Minimum two years of qualifying clinical experience as an LMHP providing services consistent with the services offered by the facility, as required for the Title 48 Clinical Supervisor role.
- At least two years of clinical leadership, supervisory, or management experience in substance use disorder or behavioral health treatment strongly preferred.
- Residential substance use disorder treatment experience strongly preferred.
- Experience supervising multidisciplinary clinical teams preferred.
- Experience with Medicaid-funded behavioral health services preferred.
- CARF accreditation experience preferred.
- Experience with ASAM criteria and residential levels of care preferred.
LICENSURE AND CREDENTIAL MAINTENANCE
The Clinical Director must:
- Maintain an active Louisiana professional license in good standing.
- Immediately report any restriction, investigation, suspension, sanction, or disciplinary action affecting professional licensure.
- Complete continuing education required by the applicable professional board.
- Maintain required facility training and competencies.
- Maintain CPR/First Aid certification when required by facility policy.
- Complete required background, exclusion, and credential verification processes.
- Practice only within lawful professional scope.
PHYSICAL AND WORK ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS
The position requires the ability to:
- Work on-site in a residential treatment environment.
- Move throughout clinical, residential, and administrative areas.
- Respond promptly to clinical emergencies.
- Use computers and electronic health-record systems.
- Communicate effectively with clients and staff.
- Participate in meetings, supervision, and training.
- Maintain reasonable availability for on-call consultation.
Reasonable accommodations will be provided as required by applicable law.
SCHEDULE AND AVAILABILITY
- Full-Time
- Primarily Monday-Friday, day shift
- On-site position
- On-call availability as needed
- Must be available for clinical consultation and supervision consistent with facility operations and regulatory requirements
- Must be able to respond to significant clinical or regulatory issues outside normal business hours when necessary
COMPENSATION
$69,000-$79,000 annually, based on experience, licensure, qualifications, and leadership background.
BENEFITS
Benefits may include:
- Health insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Life insurance
- 401(k)
- Employer 401(k) matching
- Paid Time Off
- Flexible scheduling when operationally appropriate
- Professional development opportunities
- Supportive, mission-driven work environment
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $69,000.00 - $79,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Flexible schedule
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Education:
Experience:
- Addiction counseling: 1 year (Preferred)
License/Certification:
- LMHP, LCSW, LPC, LMFT, LAC, or LCADC (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
