Job Description

Awarded 'Great Place to Work' ™ Certification Once Again!

Behind every award is a story, and ours is written every day by more than 900 dedicated employees and hundreds of compassionate volunteers who walk alongside patients and families when they need us most.

At Community Hospice & Palliative Care, we’re honored to bring clinical excellence and compassion to every bedside, every home, every conversation. Every day, we serve approximately 1,500 patients living with advanced illness, wherever they call home, be it a private residence, a long-term care or assisted living facility, a hospital, or in one of our nine inpatient care centers.

We’re here to improve quality of life, to ease pain and lift burdens, and to be the Compassionate Guide that families need when time matters most. And most importantly, as the only non-profit hospice provider in the region, we never turn anyone away due to an inability to pay.

Position Summary

The Community Hospice Child Life Specialist coordinates and provides therapeutic activities and opportunities for children up to age 21 of Community Hospice patients as they deal with the impending death of their parent or custodial grandparent/family member. Child life interventions will be provided in Community Hospice Centers for Caring, partner long-term care facilities, and Community Hospice patients’ homes. The position supports medical, nursing, pastoral, and social work/psychosocial providers working with the families.

Requires occasional evening and weekend work.

Essential Functions

• Provides memory making, legacy building activities, and anticipatory grief/bereavement support to child/children impacted by their loved one’s terminal illness and/or potential death.
• Provides child-life focused education to parents/caregivers on topics that include coping strategies, memory making, behavioral management appropriate to the child’s development, behavioral management, memory making, and coping strategies.
• Provides therapeutic play activities to facilitate expression of feelings and coping skills for the impacted child(ren).
• Collaborates with the interdisciplinary team to screen for patients most appropriate for child life interventions.
• Develops individual plans of care based on assessment of the child’s need, development, temperament, coping style, medical situation, and available support.
• Provides patients and families opportunities for medical play, memory making, distraction, activity modification, coping, and other child life-associated activities, to support the child and family and, as appropriate, to normalize the situation.
• Collaborates with Community Hospice social work/psychosocial specialist on patient/family psychosocial needs to ensure interventions specific to child life focus.
• Maintains ongoing inter-team communication related to child(ren) responses to child life interventions and observations.
• Helps parents to understand their child's response to child life interventions; assist child(ren) in better understanding their loved one’s illness/condition.
• Educates patients, families, and staff on child-life appropriate coping and support techniques.
• Demonstrates professionalism by developing, facilitating, and/or accomplishing skills and programs that reflect the state of art of child life.
• Contributes to the collaborative plan of care for patients through participation in weekly interdisciplinary team meetings as appropriate and able.
• Participates in professional groups and advisory boards related to pediatric and adult hospice and palliative care.
• Participates in planning and implementation of organizational remembrance events and support groups.
• Participates in education to staff and community on child-life related topics.
• Maintains professional certification.
• Demonstrates tact, sensitivity, professional attitudes and judgment relating to patients, families and colleagues.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Knowledge and Critical Skills

• Principles and practices of child development, therapeutic recreation.
• Dynamics of family relationships and family systems

Skilled at:

• Effective communication and listening skills
• Ability to work within framework of interdisciplinary team

Experience

• Must have child development/child life or therapeutic recreation experience

License / Certification

• Current State of Florida driver’s license with driving record acceptable to Community Hospice insurance carrier.
• Must be certified as a Child Life Specialist by the Child Life Certifying Commission under the Child Life Council

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Child Development or Therapeutic Recreation
• Must have child development/child life or therapeutic recreation experience

Other Requirements

• Medical clearance for communicable diseases and current immunizations required before participant contact.

The knowledge, skills and abilities listed above are typically acquired through the levels of education and experience listed. However, any equivalent combination of education and/or experience, which provide an applicant with the listed knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the job, is acceptable.

This description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this role. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications, or working conditions required of employees in this position. The organization reserves the right to modify or amend the duties of the position or to require that additional tasks be performed as organizational needs change. This description does not constitute a contract of employment, and employment with the organization is at-will, meaning either the employee or the organization may terminate the relationship at any time, with or without cause or notice.

Community Hospice & Palliative Care, including all of its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, is committed to complying with all applicable provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended. We provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities to ensure equal access to employment opportunities and the ability to perform the essential functions of a position. If you require an accommodation to complete the application process, interview, or perform the essential functions of a role, please contact Human Resources at humanresources@aliviacare.com.

We participate in E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees.

Where applicable, and as required by law, employment with Community Hospice & Palliative Care may be contingent upon successful completion of a background screening initiated by the organization through the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) Background Screening Clearinghouse. More information about the Clearinghouse, including positions that require screening, can be found here: https://info.flclearinghouse.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer