Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced, independently licensed behavioral health clinician to provide direct, evidence-based mental health counseling in support of New Hampshire National Guard Service Members and their families.

This is not an administrative behavioral-health position. The selected clinician will be directly responsible for helping Service Members and military families address behavioral and emotional health conditions that can affect individual wellbeing, family stability, resilience, and ultimately military readiness. The clinician will provide individual counseling, family and relationship counseling, deployment and reintegration support, and limited counseling for children and adolescents. The PWS specifically identifies support for stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, family communication, and military-life transitions.

Ascension is looking for a clinician who combines strong therapeutic judgment with disciplined case management and documentation. The ideal candidate is empathetic but structured; comfortable exercising independent clinical judgment while operating within clearly defined Government processes; highly protective of client confidentiality; and capable of working with a geographically dispersed military population whose operational schedules may differ significantly from a traditional outpatient practice.

The successful candidate should be self-directed, dependable, responsive, detail-oriented, and skilled at balancing competing clinical priorities. This individual should be comfortable anticipating barriers to care, managing an active caseload, coordinating services, maintaining accurate documentation, adapting to military operational requirements, and communicating professionally with clients, Ascension management, and authorized Government personnel.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Licensed Mental Health Counselor supports the NHNG’s broader Military Readiness Support Services program, whose mission is to improve financial, behavioral/emotional, physical, and nutritional readiness across approximately 2,900 Soldiers and Airmen and to extend support to their families. The PWS recognizes that geographically dispersed Guard personnel may not have routine access to installation-based services and therefore requires proactive, accessible support to sustain a ready and resilient force.

The clinician will provide direct therapeutic services to adult Service Members, spouses and other adult family members, couples, and—on a limited basis—children and adolescents. Individuals who are uninsured or cannot obtain timely behavioral-health care are specifically prioritized under the requirement.

The Government provides an estimated planning baseline of 30 active individual cases per month per provider. This is not a guaranteed minimum or maximum, but it demonstrates that the position is intended to carry a meaningful ongoing clinical caseload rather than serve only as an on-call referral resource. The Government expects the contractor to maximize direct in-house clinical care before recommending external referrals. External referrals may not be initiated without prior written approval from the COR.

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

The selected clinician will:

• PROVIDE evidence-based individual mental health counseling to Service Members experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, adjustment challenges, and other behavioral-health concerns within the clinician’s authorized scope of practice.
• DELIVER therapeutic support to military spouses, couples, and families addressing communication, relationship stress, deployment separation, reintegration, and military-lifestyle transitions.
• COUNSEL children and adolescents, when appropriate and within professional competency, regarding deployment-related stress, family transition, parental absence, and other military-family challenges.
• CONDUCT clinically appropriate intake, assessment, treatment planning, progress evaluation, and case-management activities.
• MANAGE an active clinical caseload while maintaining timely access to care and appropriate prioritization of Service Members and families who cannot otherwise obtain timely behavioral-health services.
• INITIATE client contact within required timelines following receipt of an authorized referral through the program’s centralized intake system.
• DEVELOP individualized treatment plans and adjust interventions based upon documented client needs, treatment progress, risks, and clinical outcomes.
• DOCUMENT client encounters, treatment plans, progress notes, and relevant clinical information accurately and promptly.
• UTILIZE Government-furnished health/readiness information systems, including applicable MEDCHART components such as eCase and Health Readiness Record (HRR), as authorized.
• USE the contractor-provided HIPAA-compliant case-management/treatment-note platform for required clinical encounter, treatment-plan, and progress tracking.
• PROTECT PHI and PII in strict accordance with HIPAA, DoD, NHNG, information-security, and privacy requirements.
• MONITOR individual case progress, treatment effectiveness, continued service needs, and clinical capacity.
• IDENTIFY situations in which internal clinical capacity has been exhausted and prepare a formal recommendation for external referral when clinically necessary.
• COORDINATE referral recommendations through Ascension and the COR rather than independently initiating an external referral when Government authorization is required.
• SUPPORT military-family resiliency initiatives, wellness activities, outreach events, and behavioral-health educational programming when appropriate.
• PARTICIPATE in scheduled NHNG meetings, organizational events, unit activities, and selected drill-weekend support when required.
• COLLABORATE with Ascension’s Contract Manager and other readiness professionals while preserving clinical confidentiality and appropriate professional boundaries.
• CONTRIBUTE aggregated and de-identified workload information needed for monthly program performance reporting without improperly disclosing protected client information.
• MAINTAIN complete, accurate, auditable, and secure clinical records consistent with applicable professional standards and contractual requirements.
• SUPPORT continuity-of-care and transition activities, including appropriate warm handoffs and secure transfer of clinical records when required.
• COMPLY with applicable installation-access, cybersecurity, privacy, OPSEC, identification, and Government system-use requirements.

The PWS expressly requires the use of Government systems for treatment documentation/readiness information and requires all data handling to comply with HIPAA, DoD, and NHNG privacy/security standards. The contractor must also operate a HIPAA-compliant treatment-note system and centralized client referral/intake system.