CASSANDRA O. KOSTENDT, LMFT #103279

• Establishes positive, trusting rapport with patients.
• Diagnoses and treats mental health disorders.
• Creates individualized treatment plans according to patient needs and circumstances.
• Encourage clients to talk about and explore their feelings, and behaviors.
• Meets with patients regularly to provide counseling, treatment and adjust treatment plans as necessary.
• Conducts ongoing assessments of patient progress.
• Involve and advise family members when appropriate.
• Refer patients to outside specialists or agencies when necessary.
• Maintains thorough records of patient meetings and progress.
• Follows all safety protocols and maintains client confidentiality.
• Contributes to practice by accomplishing related tasks as needed.
• Working with a diverse caseload including adults, adolescents, and families facing mental health issues.
• Addressing family conflict and communication challenges
• Evaluate therapy sessions and outcomes and writing reports, and networking within the health professional community and other

• Develops, implements, coordinates, and evaluates clinical treatment programs for the diagnosis, treatment, and/or referral of Health Plan members with acute or chronic mental illness.

• Participates in staff conferences to select, plan, and evaluate treatment programs.

• Provides outpatient psychotherapy to individuals, parents, families and groups.

• Instructs and counsels patients and their families regarding compliance with prescribed therapeutic regimens and adherence to prescribed medication regimens, within the scope of practice.

• Administer specialized therapeutic procedures, when appropriate.

• Provides appropriate support to members family. May develop and conducts psychoeducational classes and groups.

• Prepared intake summaries, treatment plans, and case summaries and maintained confidential records. Charts members treatment and progress in accord with state and NCQA regulations and in keeping with accepted community standards.

• Collaborates with physicians in screening and evaluating patients for psychotropic medications, within the scope of practice.

• Utilized resources of public and private agencies and community organizations to meet the needs of the members treatment.

• Provides consultation to other care providers and health educators on matters relating to mental health, health psychology and behavioral medicine.

• Provided appropriate support to members family, including explanation of treatment, instructions in how to support treatment and interventions to increase acceptance of and adherence to treatment, at members request.

• Participated in departmental program development, implementation and evaluation.

• Reported safety concerns to mandated reporting agencies.

• Communicates with the members of the healthcare team and court officers, conservator’s office and/or patient advocates as appropriate to expedite patient process, while upholding patient rights and facility safety
• Maintains ongoing communication with multidisciplinary team members regarding patient status and follow-up
• Consults with team members in development of treatment plans
• Attends treatment team and staff meetings
• Arranges and facilitates patient care conferences for difficult/high-risk psychosocial cases to enhance resolution of identified issues
• Identifies Bioethical dilemmas and initiates appropriate responses
• Consults, coordinates, and intervenes in crisis situations while assisting staff in de-escalating volatile situations and facilitating Code Green and uncritical incident debriefings
• Develops interdisciplinary education to increase staff knowledge
• Utilizes appropriate community resources on behalf of patients and families
• Develops and appropriate and timely discharge, educates patient and family of options and provides continuity of care referrals
• Completes thorough safety planning
• Provides professional role modeling and collaboration with interdisciplinary team
• Assess, evaluate, and document the psychosocial needs of the patient and family
• Provides therapeutic interventions within the scope of care with patient and family that are appropriate to the patients developmental milestones, age, culture, and ethnic diversity.

• Conducts mental health assessments, including 5150 and Tarasoff assessments
• Formulate appropriate disposition supporting client’s needs and safety requirements
• Utilize electronic chart documentation/EMR
• Consulted and collaborated with PERT Team Lead for any unusual or emergent situation
• Represented PERT during interactions with other agencies, professionals, community presentations, and the general public
• Provide education and training to public safety personnel on mental health issues to ensure effective and compassionate interventions with persons in mental health crisis, as well as their family members and support persons
• Provide clinical support to law enforcement and the community for dispatch calls involving persons in mental health crisis.

• Provide appropriate therapy to clients
• Regularly evaluate the progress of therapy and incorporate changes as indicated
• Fully document all therapeutic interventions
• Administer, score, and interpret appropriate standardized assessment instruments for children
• Utilize additional non-standardized assessment techniques (e.g
• Interview and observation)
• Produce assessment reports that address bio-psycho-social issues and include an analysis and synthesis of all information gathered during the assessment process as well as recommendations for treatment
• Utilize DC 0-3R to provide diagnoses or diagnostic impressions for children aged birth to three
• Utilize DSM-IV TR to provide diagnoses or diagnostic impressions for young children
• Produce Progress Reports as required
• Participate as a member of interdisciplinary teams with members of clients’ families and other professionals to facilitate meeting the identified goals for clients
• Attend and participate in required staff meetings and trainings
• Provide testimony in court, as required
• Any other duties as assigned by the supervisor

• Conducts clinical interviews and assessments; gathers information for diagnostic and treatment planning purposes
• Provides interventions using evidence-based techniques and methodologies approved by the department
• Provides individual and collateral interventions; provides an atmosphere of trust and safety
• Provides crisis intervention to clients who are in apparent emotional distress
• Provides referrals to community agencies and providers for support or additional services
• Assures compliance with State Regulations, legal requirements and established County policies and procedures related to mental health services
• Assist patients in locating resources by contacting appropriate agencies over the phone and in person; coordinate with other agencies concerning referrals of mental health cases; arrange for hospitalization for mental patients requiring inpatient care
• Uses a variety of diagnostic and rating tools to evaluate client progress, effectiveness of intervention and/or to assist treatment planning
• Participates in the development of treatment plans for clients to alleviate current areas of impairment; assures that treatment plans have problem solving objectives
• Serves as service coordinator as assigned
• Documents daily interventions provided for clients; provides information regarding sessions and contacts using the Status and Activity Plan (SAP) format
• Participates in weekly clinical supervision and follows training guidelines and instructions as provided by the clinical supervisor
• Attends and participates in team meetings where current cases are reviewed; reviews cases with social and community agencies as appropriate; adheres to applicable confidentiality laws and regulations
• Maintains case records including agency forms, documentation sheets, time cards and related forms concerning cases
• Performs related duties as assigned.

• Implements operation of treatment program and supervises child care staff in the implementation of resident’s treatment plans
• Develops and/or collaborates in the development of individual treatment plans with other treatment program consultants
• Responsible for the development of resident’s educational curriculum commensurate with treatment plans
• Conducts individual, group, and family therapy
• Responsible for planning and organizing, or collaborating in the planning and organizing of, the recreational and directed activities children participate in
• Conducts weekly staff treatment planning sessions regarding: resident’s treatment plans; discharge plans; goals and objectives; assessing progress toward goals and objectives; and effectiveness of treatment plans
• Records and maintains client case records
• Screens and interviews for placement of client population
• Completes intake evaluations and prepares needs and service plans
• Acts as liaison with placement agency workers and other community resource persons
• Responsible for documentation of treatment effectiveness and treatment outcome
• Responsible for all treatment reports to placing agencies and all incident reports to State and Local agencies
• Responsible for maintaining standards of physical plant and reporting any deficiencies to administration for correction
• Maintains current awareness of professional standards for residential treatment programs
• Conducts in-service training to child care staff, as required or in collaboration with outside training consultants.

• Presented case history material to review and discuss with other staff members.
• Observed and monitored client behavior and responses to treatment.
• Facilitated a smooth discharge by encouraging and reassuring clients throughout their transitions.
• Conducted therapeutic individual therapy session.
• Developed and implemented treatment plans and modified when needed.
• Directed person-centered, strengths-based, culturally competent and individualized intakes and assessments.
• Trained in substance abuse, co-occurring disorders, and the effect of employment and housing issues on mental health.
• Connected clients with community service and resource agencies.
• Displayed sensitivity to the cultural and linguistic needs of the clients served.
• Guided clients in therapeutic exercises integrated from Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Solution Focused Therapy, and Motivational Interviewing.
• Developed goal-oriented psycho-educational and activity therapy groups to improve clients’ level of functioning.
• Kept abreast of new and developing information in the mental health field by regularly attending professional conferences and workshops.
• Offered and documented treatment consent forms in patient health records.
• Consulted with a licensed clinical supervisor and several other highly trained mental health to make mental health diagnosis.

• Provides for the protection, physical safety and well-being of children 6-18 years in a residential setting
• Supervises planned group and/or individual structured activities according to a daily schedule
• During Day Treatment/Rehabilitation hours at the Children's Shelter, works as Rehabilitation Staff under the direction of a licensed or waivered therapist/staff member in delivering all services in the Day Treatment schedule, except for psychotherapy.