A Path Filled with Purpose and Interesting Shoes - Recognizing ...
“My job allows me to continually learn and challenge myself,” Johnson said. “Each day is a little bit different from the last.”
– Jessica Johnson, Clinical Specialist
Jessica Johnson has been conscious of mental health since she was a child. Growing up in a home that openly discussed and understood the importance of mental health set Johnson on a path toward her current role as a mental health clinical specialist.
“I basically grew up discussing mental illness and recovery around the dinner table,” explained Johnson, whose parents were both experts in the field. “My dad was a counsellor and a professor who also wrote psychology textbooks and my mom held a psychology degree with a focus on child development and education.”
Johnson was inspired by the impact her father’s support had on the individuals he saw through his private counselling practice in the family home.
“I never saw the people that came, but I can remember when I was little peeking at their shoes by the front door and being in awe that you could do this job where you got to help other people feel better when they were sad,” remembered Johnson. “Even as an adult, sometimes I still get caught up in the wonder of knowing our work helps people with a whole range of difficult feelings, thoughts and behaviors to live lives with meaning, purpose, joy.”
“And, hopefully, interesting shoes,” she joked.
Johnson moved to Winnipeg from Thunder Bay, Ontario almost a decade ago, choosing to work as a mental health and addictions clinical specialist with Shared Health.
“My job allows me to continually learn and challenge myself,” Johnson said. “Each day is a little bit different from the last, and you get an opportunity to work with a large variety of people and build connections across services in different parts of the health system.”
Clinical specialists have diverse professional backgrounds with different skills, training and specializations that allow members of the team to provide clinical support and educational training opportunities that is evidence and experience-based.
“Everyone has come into the role of clinical specialist with experience being clinicians and doing that frontline work,” Johnson said. “We have members of the team who are nurses and nurse educators, occupational therapists, social workers, and I hold a Master’s degree in clinical psychology.”
The multi-disciplinary nature of the mental health and addictions clinical specialist team is by design. Clinical specialists address key mental health and addictions issues by supporting and consulting with other direct care providers with clinical expertise and leadership and quality improvement to health services through education and training and research.
In essence, they are the support system, to the support systems.
“I feel extremely privileged to be able to provide direct support to our clinicians and our care staff on the different teams within our programs,” Johnson said. “They really are doing amazing work. They are dedicated individuals and they work tirelessly to help people engage in their recovery journeys. It’s really lovely to be a part of that.”
Johnson was one of the original members of the clinical specialist team, which started as a single position and then became a team with just two people. Since then, the team has grown to a dozen members and provides a variety of specialized supports.
Johnson’s specialties are substance use and addictions with a co-occurring lens, (meaning an individual is diagnosed with a substance use disorder or addiction and at least one other mental health condition). Even though she misses direct care interactions, she is passionate about assisting those who are in direct care positions now.
“The teams have more support and we are here for them during challenging times and we are also here to celebrate their successes,” Johnson said. “I love having the opportunity to watch people grow clinically, explore and build new therapeutic skills and their own passions, which is really great. Helping them and supporting them so they can keep doing the really important work that they do is the biggest gift of my role.”
Do you have a passion for supporting mental health and addictions care in Manitoba? Grow your career as a Clinical Specialist. Learn more by visiting Manitoba’s Health Care Job Board.
Between May 6 and 12, Shared Health encourages all Manitobans to recognize Mental Health Week, a national acknowledgement supported by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).
