Location: Manchester, New Hampshire, New Hampshire
Salary: Open
Internal Number: 797665700
The Social worker (PACT) position is located in Social Work Service at the Manchester VA Medical Center. This position is full time and 40 hours per week. The VHA's mission is to "Honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care to improve their health and well-being." VA New England leads the VHA's Primary Care initiative in employing the Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT) model to leverage evidence based standardized health care practices toward optimizing the unique contributions of each discipline on the PACT. The team aims to empower and equip patients to take charge of their health and well-being by offering complimentary and integrative health care approaches that enhance self-empowerment, self-healing, and self-care. Our smaller panel sizes, wide array of support services and virtual care options provide more flexibility for patients to engage in their own health care and with their team. To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/18/2024. 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. English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f). 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 Master 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/. May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria). Grade Determinations/Minimum Qualifications for 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: (a) 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. (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. (c) 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. (d) 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. (e) 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. Preferred Experience: Experience working in a medical setting or complex care. Prefer experience in administrative or program oversight or coordination. Prefer experience mentoring others References: VA Handbook 5005/120 PART II APPENDIX G39.The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12 .Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. ["VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU This Senior Social Worker position functions as an advanced practice mentor and the Clinical Lead for PACT Social Workers. This position is located at the Manchester VA Medical Center in the Social Work Service Line. Social Work Services are located at the Manchester VAMC and outlying Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCS) and in the communities surrounding each of these locations. The Social Worker provides advanced clinical social work services to Veterans and families in the outpatient clinic setting, as well as administrative duties. Social work services provided include psychosocial screening and assessment, psychosocial treatment and intervention, specialized case management and care coordination, discharge and/or after-care planning, health education and advanced health care planning, supportive counseling and caregiver support. Duties include but are not limited to: Independently completing thorough psychosocial assessments to determine the psychosocial functioning and needs of Veterans and/or their families. Providing case management services to Veterans and their families. Providing consultation to other treatment team and staff members regarding psychosocial needs of Veterans and/or their families and the impact of the identified psychosocial problems on the Veteran's health care planning and compliance with treatment Providing education and referrals to Veterans for community services, and arranges for coordination of these services as necessary. Managing all Manchester VAMC Social Work Consults and Digital Divide Consults, tracking timeliness of completion and working with Social Work Supervisor to create action plans to ensure compliance. Reviewing and supporting revisions of policy, procedures and practice guidelines pertaining to service delivery. Incumbent will report recommendations as identified; Leading all PACT Social Workers in reviewing and monitoring high risk veterans in need of case management utilizing high risk identifiers such as CANS scores and Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSC) and assign work based on these identifiers; Expanding clinical social work knowledge by providing consultation and guidance to colleagues and by role-modeling effective social work practice skills; Mentoring less-experienced social workers and collaborating with Social Work Supervisor and Senior Social Workers to facilitate the orientation of new employees in assigned area(s), acting as the clinical expert in case consultation; Keeping PACT SW onboarding document up to date as a resource; Leading weekly or bi-weekly case consultation and educational team meetings; Will coordinate PACT Social Worker coverage of Urgent Care during normal business hours for PACT Social Work. This includes providing training to PACT Social Workers related to Urgent Care coverage as well as education for Urgent Care staff in how to contact Social Work for assistance; Working in conjunction with the PACT Social Work Supervisor to develop best practices that ensure consistency and excellence in social work practice within assigned area(s); Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm. Compressed/Flexible: Not Available. Telework: Telework Ad-Hoc work can be performed as needed and determined by Service Line. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 608-F06236 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized EDRP Authorized: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required. NOTIFICATIONS: This position is in the Excepted Service. This position is a NAGE Bargaining Unit position. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. The incumbent may be required to travel to other VA campuses and CBOC's. Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment."]
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.