Senior Social Worker

Full Job Description

The Senior Social Worker may be assigned to one of multiple programs (including, but not limited to, the Trauma Recovery Program (TRP), Suicide Prevention, Substance Abuse Treatment Program (SATP), Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI), General Mental Health (GMH)) within the Mental Health Service Line and serves in combined clinical and senior roles.

Basic Requirements: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States.

(Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g this part). Education.

Have a master's degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

Graduates of schools of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the School of Social Work is fully accredited.

A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work.

Verification of the degree can be made by going to http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation to verify that the social work degree meets the 4 accreditation standards for a masters of social work. Licensure.

Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level.

Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/ English Language Proficiency.

Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C.

§ 7403(f) Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

Senior Social Worker, GS-12 Experience/Education.

The candidate must have at least two years of experience 9 post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which, one year must be equivalent to the GS-11 grade level.

Senior social workers have experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment. Senior social workers are experts in their specialized area of practice.

Senior social workers may have certification or other post-masters training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship or equivalent supervised professional experience in a specialty.

Licensure/Certification.

Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination, unless they are grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.

In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: Skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations.

This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management.

Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.

Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty area, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes.

Ability to provide specialized consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients in the service delivery area, as well as role modeling effective social work practice skills.

Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the social work profession, and to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the service delivery area. Assignments. Assignments.

For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty), and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level.

Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site; a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center, or a national VHA referral center, such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center, or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity.

The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns.

Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics.

The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, ensures the care provided is of the highest quality.

The senior social worker provides leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff.

They serve on committees, work groups, and task forces at the facility, VISN and national level, or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor, Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services.

This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management.

This assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.''The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. Major Duties:

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional VA Careers - Social Work: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU The social worker in this position functions as the Medical Center's Grant and Per Diem Liaison/Case Manager for VA's Health Care for Homeless Veterans Programs, Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem (GPO) Program.

The social worker is responsible for monitoring and coordination of services provided by community-based programs funded under VA's Homeless Providers Grant and Per Diem Program.

The social worker provides case management at GPD funded sites as described in the GPD program rules, regulations, and directives.

The social worker utilizes various treatment modalities of individual and group work, casework, community organization, and community outreach activities to alleviate or remove problems that interfere with the Veteran participants' ability to achieve independence.

The social worker coordinates care including serving as an advocate on behalf of the Veterans to ensure comprehensive service delivery, and linking and referring Veterans to the VA Medical Center, VA Regional Offices and/or community agencies.

The social worker monitors the clinical care and assesses the compliance of the programs receiving per diem as described in the grant recipient's original grant application.

When necessary, the social worker intervenes to facilitate compliance or corrective actions and, when appropriate, develops, facilitates and monitors plans of correction.

The social worker provides services and oversight of the GPO funded programs as defined in the GPO rules, regulations, and directives including verification of Veteran status and eligibility for participation in the GPO Program, maintaining admission and discharge dates of participants for billing purposes, reviewing and approving/disapproving readmissions to and extensions of care, and collecting and submitting participant information as outlined by NEPEC and HOMES evaluations procedures.

The social worker coordinates and participates in program site inspections in accordance with the GPO Program rules, regulations, and directives as guidance and forwards completed inspection packages to the appropriate offices.

When necessary, the social worker notes inspection deficiencies and establishes methods to monitor corrective actions.

The social worker recommends a response to the Medical Center Director as a result of inaction or insufficient actions related to the correction of deficiencies in accordance with the GPO Handbook.

Develops an extensive psychosocial assessment of the Veteran in collaboration with the interdisciplinary team, the Veteran, family members and significant others.

The social worker demonstrates an understanding of the range of treatment and skills needed for all adult patients, including those with chronic mental illness, or unexpected physical limitations and psychological needs, as well as prolonged and/or repeated exposure to battlefield trauma and operational stress sustained during military duty.

All other duties assigned Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).

Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.

Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.

Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Available; 3 or more days per pay period Functional Statement #: 544-59628F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized