Incumbent is assigned to the Mental Health Service, Addiction Recovery Treatment Services (ARTS) Program and functions as a part of an outpatient addiction interdisciplinary team. Services are carried out in full accordance with specific program goals and broad objectives of the VA health care system. The incumbent will act as a liaison between addiction specialty care and general mental health and/or primary care. Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. 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 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 tohttp://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/. Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. 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: Senior Social Worker, GS-12 Experience/Education. The candidate must have at least two years of experience 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. 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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 dated September 10, 2019The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: The work requires sitting, bending, stooping, and walking consistent with the delivery of services in the office, hospital and community. Hearing required (aids permitted). ["Clinical services Specific Duties and Responsibilities include: a. Serves as primary liaison between Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Program/Primary Care Mental Health Integration and ARTS staff on referrals and transitions of care. b. Facilitates treatment planning for Veterans who have newly established care or are not yet enrolled in Behavioral Health but require addiction treatment.' Independently provides Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) appropriate to the primary care setting. c. Independently provides specialized care at all levels of complexity for patients, with service delivery to include intake evaluation, diagnostic assessments, psychotherapy and patient education. d. Provides a range of advanced interventions consistent with training and expertise, with special emphasis on brief and evidenced-based interventions for addiction found to be effective in primary care settings; e. Facilitates patient and family education appropriate to the primary care setting and the presenting addiction concern. f. Provides consultation services for primary care providers to maximize the effectiveness of their interventions in reducing risky substance use behaviors and enhancing health-promoting behaviors, with a significant emphasis on a prevention-oriented model of care; g. Supports primary care provider (PCP) decision-making, building on PCP interventions and improving PCP-patient working relationships; h. Provides clinical care management when appropriate directly to an assigned cohort of patients; i. Participates in development of a treatment plan for each patient with whom major contact is expected, with measurable goals outlined, based on relevant psychological, medical and psychiatric information and principles of treatment matching. j. Complies with national and local performance measures, including timely health care screening and completion of clinical reminders for all patients. k. The incumbent may supervise and participate in the training of Social Workers, Social Work Associates, volunteers, and students; participates as required and requested in orientation, training and staff development programs involving Mental Health and VANCHCS. The incumbent assumes responsibility and shows initiative for own learning and professional development, demonstrating the ability to teach and mentor staff and students in the special area of practice and provide supervision for licensure or specialty certification. Administrative duties: a. Assist patients in the preparation of materials needed for applications to various agencies for entitlements. b. Serve as the clinical consultant for information on negotiating the complex processes patients encounter when interacting with government and community agencies. c. Ensures timely completion of all clinical charting and documentation required by the Medical Center or healthcare system as appropriate. d. Responds to Veterans request for release of records, return phone calls, linking of services and appropriate referrals as needed in a timely fashion. e. Attends regularly scheduled treatment team meetings to ensure efficiency and continuity of service delivery to a specialized patient population. f. Collaborates with community, health, welfare and service agencies. g. Uses diagnostic knowledge of the patient's need(s) to make referrals to a variety of VA and non VA resources in support of the treatment objective of the patient. h. Submits statistical information as required. i. Completes assigned Performance Improvement activities at the program, service line and medical center level. j. Performs other duties as assigned. VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Work Schedule: M-Friday 0800-4:30pm Telework: Ad-hoc Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized EDRP Authorized: Contact V21CCOEEDRP@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required"]
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 VA Medical Centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics) to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of our medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision care. Some medical centers also offer advanced services such as organ transplants and plastic surgery.
