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Chicago, Illinois

Behavioral Health Tech - EMTs & Paramedics

Behavioral Health TechIncludes weekendsContract

Listed compensation

$30/hr

The week · per this posting · weekdays assumed

Ask the employer about the work setting, call expectations, nights and shift pattern and time off.

Posted 1mo ago

Job Description

Responsibilities

Now offering an assignment up to 6 months for EMT / Paramedic - at the rate of $30/hr.

**

Must Be Willing to Work a Full Time Flexible Schedule

** Must have a valid state of IL EMT or Paramedic license

  • A Career with Hartgrove Behavioral Hospital Offers....
  • A rewarding career improving the lives of adults and youth
  • Career advancement and mobility
  • An engaged leadership team with a commitment to patient and staff safety

And much more!

About Us...

Hartgrove Behavioral Health System consists of a 160-bed leading psychiatric hospital dedicated to providing quality behavioral health services for a diverse population of all ages. Hartgrove is a flagship behavioral health facility within Universal Health Services, Inc. and throughout Illinois.

Hartgrove is a state-of-the-art facility offering some of the most advanced technologies and programs found in the behavioral health field.

We are dedicated to our teamwork approach and provide a highly compassionate and therapeutic environment, as well as offering a continuum of specialty programs throughout our inpatient, partial and outpatient services.

Job Summary

The Mental Health Specialist provides direct patient care under the supervision of a registered nurse. Primary responsibilities include the provision of a safe and therapeutic milieu, crisis intervention and activities of daily living.

No benefits offered.

Qualifications

Qualifications Required

Licensure/Certification: State of IL EMT or Paramedic Certification

Essential Job Functions

The Essential Job Functions are defined as the fundamental job-related duties that are necessary to the position. An employee is deemed qualified for this position if he or she can perform the following duties with or without accommodations:

  • Perform all crisis intervention techniques (verbal and physical) and respond to code situations
  • Monitor and ensure patient safety at all times via continous Q15 minute rounding
  • Ability to therapeutically communicate with patients
  • Ability to recognize and communicate the physical and psychological status of the patients under their care
  • Assist patient with Activities of Daily Living when necessary

Nonessential Job Functions

  • Maintain a clean work setting and milieu
  • Assist in the transporting of patients to and from the hospital when needed
  • Performing vital signs on patients
  • Perform other duties as assigned.

Success Factors/Job Competencies

  • Positive therapeutic relationships and interventions with patients
  • Service Excellence with all customers
  • Ability to use least restrictive measures
  • Clear and concise documentation
  • Adherence to Hospital Attendance policies

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions:

Environmental Conditions: Exposure to psychiatric patients who may exhibit violent/aggressive behavior. Potential for exposure to communicable diseases, blood/body fluids and other hazardous waste. General hospital environment.

Physical Demands: Ability to communicate verbally and in writing. Physical agility to manage patients during physical interventions. Push, pull and lift up to 40 pounds. Intermittent sitting; prolonged standing, walking, bending and stooping. Ability to perform visual and auditory observation of patients. Drug and alcohol free as evidenced by negative results of post-offer, pre-employment urine drug screen.

Performance Standards

  • 90 Day performance evaluation
  • Annual Performance Appraisal
  • Ongoing support from supervisor

Supervision Exercised: None

Line of Promotion: Program Specialist

Job Classification: Non-Exempt; Hours vary based on staffing needs and include day, evening, night and weekend shifts.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to demonstrate competency in the criteria listed in this job description. The specifications listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and ability to meet the minimum requirements for this position. Staff must demonstrate flexibility for reassignment to units providing care to varied populations including children, adolescents, and adults. This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by this employee. The Mental Health Specialist will be required to follow any other instructions and to perform any other duties requested by the Charge Nurse, Nurse Manager or Program Specialist.

EEO Statement

All UHS subsidiaries are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates. UHS subsidiaries are equal opportunity employers and as such, openly support and fully commit to recruitment, selection, placement, promotion and compensation of individuals without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), genetic information, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

We believe that diversity and inclusion among our teammates is critical to our success.

Notice

At UHS and all our subsidiaries, our Human Resources departments and recruiters are here to help prospective candidates by matching skillset and experience with the best possible career path at UHS and our subsidiaries. We take pride in creating a highly efficient and best in class candidate experience.

During the recruitment process, no recruiter or employee will request financial or personal information (Social Security Number, credit card or bank information, etc.) from you via email.

The recruiters will not email you from a public webmail client like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc. If you are suspicious of a job posting or job-related email mentioning UHS or its subsidiaries, let us know by contacting us at: uhs.alertline.com or 1-800-852-3449.

Qualifications

Education
Professional certificate or licensure

Key Skills

Therapeutic communicationVital signs monitoringActivities of daily living assistancePhysical interventionPatient roundingPsychiatric care

Behavioral Health Career Context

Of the 40 active Behavioral Health listings this role was benchmarked against, 3% are remote, 60% have no call, 48% require no weekends.

Behavioral Health pay on WeekdayDoc is down 5.0% vs. the prior quarter (through Sep 2026).

The cost-of-living index for Illinois is 100.0 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)), so the posted ~$62k midpoint carries the purchasing power of roughly $62k in an average-cost state. 62.6% of Illinois clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).

Top contract/1099 Behavioral Health Tech Jobs

22 matches · ranked by pay

Salary Distribution22 jobs · 16 employers

1
$40k
8
$40k-45k
7
$45k-50k
6
$50k+

Annual compensation range

Benefits & Perks19 jobs · 16 employers

401k / retirement match
100%
CME allowance
32%
Sign-on bonus
11%
Loan repayment
5%

Share of similar jobs offering each benefit

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$23.28-$34.63/hr
#2

Behavioral Health Technician - ED (Day/Evening/Night Shift)

Essentia Health · Duluth, Minnesota

$22.77-$33.86/hr
#3

Virtual Behavioral Health Technician

$28-$33/hr
#4

Behavioral Health Technician at Hill (83693)

$26.91-$28.58/hr
+ 20 more · ranked by pay

Work-life snapshot

median 1.5this job 1.5
Better work-life than 50% of Behavioral Health listings

Listing-based score, 0–10, across 1,319 comparable listings. Shaded area = the share scoring below this one.

  • Includes weekends

Living in Chicago

Typical 3-bedroom home value
$356k
Typical market rent
$2,342/mo
Residents’ average commute
33 min
State income tax
Up to 5%
Sources & methodology

Sources: Zillow home values (Aug 2026), Zillow market rents (Aug 2026), U.S. Census ACS 2024 five-year.

City-level figures. Not a cost-of-living guarantee.