Neurodiversity-Affirming Resource Coordinator

Summary

All Brains Belong VT is hiring a full-time (approximately 40 hours per week) Resource Coordinator. The person in this position will serve as our patients’ accommodation for accessing community resources. Because we live in a world that is often not accessible to people who learn, think, or communicate differently than the so-called “typical” brain, many of our patients struggle to access many essential, meaningful aspects of society. This role is being newly created specifically to offload our patients’ burdens of navigating complex, often inaccessible and extremely dysfunctional systems. 

Mission

Founded in November 2021, All Brains Belong VT (ABB) is a 501(c)(3) organization in Montpelier providing healthcare, education, and community programs for kids and adults. At All Brains Belong, we celebrate neurodiversity and support the self-actualization and inclusion of people with all types of brains.

What We Are Looking For

Transparency is one of ABB’s core values, so we’re going to lay it all out here.

We are looking for someone to help us change the world. The thing is: it’s hard to change the world. 

As a startup nonprofit founded and operated by neurodivergent people to support neurodivergent people, it is exceptionally hard to do All the Things – particularly when it comes to navigating inaccessible systems outside of ABB. We are inventing our own accommodations on a daily basis, to meet our own needs and figure out how to meet our patients’ needs. We are a team that has learned to be comfortable with building the plane as we’re flying it, where priorities shift by the day (and sometimes by the hour). We have a culture here of interdependence, where we depend on one another for skills, support, and dopamine.  We are looking for someone whose unique skill and interest profile compliment the strengths and access needs of our existing team. Everything we outline here in this job description are the specific things that are NOT within our team’s collective Zone of Genius. 

Job Description

We will do our best to describe what we expect daily life in this position to be like, so that you can evaluate whether this is the right fit for your interests and skills. When our organization secures funding to hire additional staff, we hope to be able to shift and allocate responsibilities based on the best fit for both people. However, these are the current essential duties of the position being created.

Patient support and care coordination (50%)

• Navigate third party inaccessible websites and paperwork
• Initiate phone calls to third party organizations with inaccessible phone tree systems 
• Initiate phone calls and emails to community partners and resources
• Provide executive functioning, motor, and communication support to patients to secure enrollment in health insurance and community benefits programs
• Meet with patients to coordinate access to community resources, by Zoom, Google Meet, and in-person.
• Attend third party organization’s virtual meetings, utilizing often inaccessible technology and supporting our patients’ ability to access this technology
• Join medical providers (virtually) at the end of appointments for a warm “handoff,” then independently work with the patient on things they need between visits (referrals, labs, prescriptions, community resources, insurance navigation, social connection opportunities, school / employment-based needs, patient education materials) 
• Collaborate with patients to identify their needs, and facilitate their access to community resources to meet these needs
• Navigate conflicting access needs between patients, families, and systems.

Administrative aspects of patient care (50%)

• Document care coordination notes and complete required documentation to bill patients’ health insurance
• Support medical providers by compiling information from multiple electronic sources, transcribing information provided auditorily, preparing patient education materials including text, pictorial and video formats, researching Internet-based resources, and completing patient forms.
• Navigate frequent interruptions with emails and text messages from patients.
• Return emails, text messages, and phone calls from patients and prospective patients
• Process medical referrals, record requests and release forms, as well as insurance prior authorizations for medications by electronic fax and multiple third party websites including multi-factor authentication and other difficult to access features. 
• Develop and maintain system for tracking referrals, labs and record requests, including recording data in shared team spreadsheets 
• Develop and maintain systematic initiation of telemedicine virtual platform encounters and pre-visit forms
• Accepting patients’ dictations to complete intake forms over the phone.

Requirements 

Experience

• 2+ years experience providing Care Coordination in the state of Vermont, including aspects of health insurance billing/coding and public health and disability resources in the community 
• Required experience navigating the following systems: Health Insurance, School Accessibility services, VocRehab, state and federal benefits, disability-related advocacy pathways
• 2+ years experience working with people with a wide range of visible and invisible disabilities
• Strong track record maintaining relationships with clients, families, community partners
• Preferred but not required: Familiarity with the special education system in Vermont, experience with project management 

Skills 

• Read and accurately complete paper and electronic forms for clients - unfortunately, these forms (from agencies outside of ABB) are inaccessible to many of our patients (and our staff). The employee in this role will be functioning in the role of providing accommodations for our patients who themselves are unable to access these forms.
• Navigate the specific technological systems used internally or by our community partners (which may or may not be accessible) - Google Workspace, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
• Access others’ written language and independently compose written language, with or without assistive technology.
• Adapt communication (tone, word choice, length of conversational turns) to be understood by varying audiences, with diverse abilities, ages, cultures, and roles - this includes our patients, community partners, state workgroups
• Initiate telephone calls. This position will involve a heavy amount of initiating telephone calls.
• Triage and shift plans and priorities hour by hour. Must have adequate time management and energy management skills to be able to transition between tasks and complete target priorities.
• Record one’s own notes and prepare one’s own visual supports for auditory instructions, with or without assistive technology. 
• Exercise judgment and impulse control in the setting of navigating stressful situations
• Coordinate multiple ongoing activities and shift between tasks and web browser windows.
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Independently ideate and initiate new tasks, and work without close supervision 

Logistics

Our Resource Coordinator will work remotely from home, in addition to weekly in-person (often outdoor) activities. There is some flexibility regarding days of the week / times of day during which work can take place. 

• Almost all of the day is spent interacting with people and being connected with a computer. 
• Must be able to work from home with a private location in an unshared workspace (HIPAA compliance)
• Must have reliable, adequate speed Internet connection in this unshared, HIPAA-compliant home work location
• Must be able to attend evening meetings on a weekly basis, in addition to occasional weekend work.

This position will report directly to the Executive Director.

Commitment to Inclusion

All Brains Belong is an equal opportunity employer. We recognize that, in addition to neurodiversity, there are many factors that shape people’s experiences and identities including, but not limited to, race, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, and all other LGBTQIA+ identity aspects, religion, socioeconomic status, and trauma. We affirm all aspects and intersections of identity. We welcome applications from candidates with all types of identities.