Senior Social Worker
What you'd do
This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.
Major duties
VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional The Suicide Prevention mission is to identify, engage, and track those veterans who are at high risk for suicide. The Suicide Prevention Program (SPP) utilizes a Public Health approach to suicide by increasing public awareness by educating and informing communty partnerships. Additionally, the SPP collects data as well as trending data about suicide attempts and death by suicides. The Suicide Prevention Coordinator (SPC) facilitates the implementation of suicide prevention strategies at the local level through education, monitoring, and case management activites. The SPC functions as a coordinator of care of veterans at suicide risk and an advisor to facility leadership, program managers and staff concerning suicide prevention strategies for individual patients, for the facility and the veteran community as a whole. Duties include but are not limited to: The SPC collaborates with mental health providers, acts as an advisor to the ACOS, Mental Health Service, facility leadership, program managers, and staff in the care of veterans at risk for suicide. The SPC acts as part of the Suicide Prevention team to meet local and national goals of the Suicide Prevention Program. This is accomplished through: A. Brief Screening and Psychotherapy Intervention Provides psychosocial assessments and evaluation of environmental needs exacerbating the psychiatric problem. Performs crisis intervention, safety planning, and case management as well as conducting suicide prevention psychoeducational groups. Triages Veteran's Crisis Line consults from the Sales Force system in a timely manner to assure timely access to care and follow-up for Veterans in crisis. Requires screening, assessment, crisis intervention, and evaluation skills. B. Case Management Assessing patients at regular intervals by means of chart reviews and in collaboration with providers on continued need for suicide prevention services. Each SPC will maintain a caseload of high risk flagged Veterans and provide brief case management support in connecting Veterans to access to care as needed. C. Administrative and Consultative Roles Tracking all suicide attempts and ensuring that information is entered and updated in the Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) or the Suicide Prevention Application Network (SPAN) database. Collecting and analyzing data from death by suicide and attempted suicides to facilitate root cause analysis annually or as indicated. Advising mental health providers of veterans on the facility high risk list who will be followed closely by the appropriate provider and making recommendations as clinically indicated. D. Education and Outreach Providing education throughout the Pacific Island Health Care System (PIHCS) and in the community on risk factors, warning signs, suicide prevention services, Veteran's Crisis Line, and treatment options for at risk veterans. E. Social Work and Professional Skills Professional knowledge of the principles and theoretical concepts of social work as well as the administrative mechanisms appropriate to the assignment. Utilizes professional knowledge of principles and practices of clinical case management, discharge planning, medical services, managed care, utilization, review, resource allocation, organizational structure and function, and health care benefit/ financial system administration, to develop plans to solve patient, provider, and system problems, inefficiencies, or duplication. Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-Time; Tuesday through Saturday - 7:30am - 4:00pm Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact [email protected], the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more 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) 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: Ad-Hoc - May be approved at supervisor discretion Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 10203F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
What you need to qualify
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 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). 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: 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 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. 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.
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