Erie County is an Equal Opportunity Employer and committed to workplace diversity.

Residence Requirements:

CANDIDATES MUST HAVE BEEN LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY FOR AT LEAST ONE MONTH IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE OF THE WRITTEN TEST AND MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ERIE COUNTY AT THE TIME OF APPOINTMENT. There is one present vacancy at the Erie County Department of Mental Health. 

A promotion examination will be held at the same time as this examination. The list resulting from the promotion examination will be used first but appointments from this open competitive examination are anticipated. Use of the list may be suspended after it is one year old for any position which it is practical to fill through a new promotion examination.

Examples of Duties:

A Director of Forensic Mental Health manages and oversees the clinical administration of the integration of the Single Point of Entry for care coordination, assisted outpatient treatment and housing with the Adult Forensic Clinic;

Supervises and assigns tasks, projects and initiatives to staff and oversee follow through;

Approves preliminary disposition reports of lower level professionals for submission to the referring agency;

Establishes procedures and methods of operation that insure risk management and service coordination between court, hospital, correctional and community settings;

Coordinates with other treatment and criminal justice stakeholders in the planning and supervision of evaluation, treatment, risk management and linkages to ongoing evidence-based practices for imprisoned individuals and other high risk individuals including policy formulation for admission and discharge procedures;

Provides consultation and training to community based mental health providers on mental health principles and practices as applied to the legal-panel system;

Assures the accountability of the Forensic Service to established standards;

Conducts periodic quality improvement evaluations of ongoing initiatives and program operations;

Coordinates with the Department of Social Services concerning entitlements and the expansion of collaborative projects such as the Medication Grant Program.

Qualifications:

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:  Candidates must meet the following requirements on or before the date of the written test:

Graduation from a regionally accredited or NYS registered four year college or university with a master’s degree in a health related or social/behavioral science field and five (5) years of forensic mental health experience, three (3) years of which must have involved oversight of service coordination, service monitoring, and client assessment, and two (2) years of which were in a supervisory* or administrative** capacity.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT: New York State Department of Education licensure as a Social Worker or Mental Health Counselor at time of appointment.

Notes:

1. *Supervision – Responsible direction and control of subordinate employees.  This involves the assignment of work, approval of work, training, evaluation and discipline of employees.  The supervisory aspects must be an integral part of the job, not incidental or occasional.

2. **Administrative experience is defined as the responsible planning, management and control functions of an organization or organizational unit including the development and/or approval of operating policy and procedures    

3. Verifiable part-time and/or volunteer experience will be pro-rated toward meeting full-time experience requirements.

4. Your degree and/or college credit must have been awarded by a regionally accredited college or university or one recognized by the New York State Education Department as following acceptable educational practices. A grade of "D" or better is necessary for a course to be credited as successfully completed. If your degree and/or college credit was awarded by an educational institution outside of the United States and its territories, you must provide independent verification of equivalency. You can write to this Department for a list of acceptable companies providing this service; you must pay the required evaluation fee.

Notice to Candidates: Transcripts will now be accepted by the Department of Personnel ONLY at time of application.
All subsequent transcripts must be submitted at time of interview.

The New York State Department of Civil Service has not prepared a test guide for this examination. However, candidates may find information in the publication 'General Guide to Written Tests' helpful in preparing for this test. This publication is available on line at:https://www.cs.ny.gov/testing/testguides.cfm

Subjects of Examination:

Scopes / Subjects of examination: A test designed to evaluate knowledge, skills and /or abilities in the following areas.

Preparing written material

These questions test for the ability to present information clearly and accurately, and to organize paragraphs logically and comprehensibly. For some questions, you will be given information in two or three sentences followed by four restatements of the information. You must then choose the best version. For other questions, you will be given paragraphs with their sentences out of order. You must then choose, from four suggestions, the best order for the sentences.

Understanding and interpreting written material

These questions test for the ability to understand and interpret written material. You will be presented with brief reading passages and will be asked questions about the passages. You should base your answers to the questions only on what is presented in the passages and not on what you may happen to know about the topic.

Administrative supervision

These questions test for knowledge of the principles and practices involved in directing the activities of a large subordinate staff, including subordinate supervisors. Questions relate to the personal interactions between an upper level supervisor and their subordinate supervisors in the accomplishment of objectives. These questions cover such areas as assigning work to and coordinating the activities of several units, establishing and guiding staff development programs, evaluating the performance of subordinate supervisors, and maintaining relationships with other organizational sections.

Administration

These questions test for knowledge of the managerial functions involved in directing an organization or an organizational segment. These questions cover such areas as: developing objectives and formulating policies; making decisions based on the context of the administrator's position and authority; forecasting and planning; organizing; developing personnel; coordinating and informing; guiding and leading; testing and evaluating; and budgeting.

NOTICE TO CANDIDATES:  It is recommended that candidates use a quiet, hand held, solar or battery powered calculator.  Devices with typewriter keyboards, "Spell Checkers", “Personal Digital Assistants", "Address Books", "Language Translators", "Dictionaries", or any similar devices are prohibited.  You may not bring books or other reference materials.

**IMPORTANT APPLICATION FEE - READ CAREFULLY**

A $20.00 filing fee is required for this exam. The required fee must accompany your application. Send or bring check or money order made payable to Erie County Personnel Department and write the examination number(s) on your check or money order. Do not send or bring cash, as the County cannot be responsible for cash payment. As no refund will be made, you are urged to compare your qualifications carefully with the requirements for admission and file only for those examinations for which you are clearly qualified.