Senior Social Worker - Emergency Department Mental Health Clinician
What you'd do
This position is organizationally located at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the Mental Health division as an Emergency Department (ED) Mental Health Clinician. The Senior Social Worker provides a full range of psycho-diagnostic services, including crisis/risk assessment and management, psychological and decision-making capacity assessment, and utilization appropriate psychotherapeutic techniques in providing care for Veterans receiving care in the ED
Major duties
Major duties of the ED Senior Social Worker Mental Health Clinician include but are not limited to: Clinical Responsibilities Executes position responsibilities that demonstrate leadership, experience, and creative approaches to management of complex patient care. Provides a full-range of psycho-diagnostic services, including assessment, and uses the most appropriate psychotherapeutic techniques in providing quality care. Performs evaluations for the full range of mental health patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED), admitted to the Acute Mental Health Unit, and providing mental health consultation on the off-tours throughout the medical center. Essential to this is reviewing the patient's electronic medical record, especially Mental Health and recent Primary Care notes Provides a full range of therapeutic interventions including individual psychotherapy and psychoeducational approaches. Consults with medical center staff on a wide variety of patient care issues. Addresses mental health patients' concerns in collaboration with ED staff, including the ED psychologist and on-call psychiatrist. Completes mental health reminder screenings with an emphasis on assessment of suicidal and homicidal concerns. Manages situations involving emergency detentions and police holds for intoxicated and involuntary patients. Determines appropriateness of admission of patients to the MH Acute Unit in collaboration with ED physician, ED psychologist, and on-call psychiatrist as necessary for disposition/support/transportation for patients not appropriate for hospital admission. Competes mental health reminder screenings with an emphasis on suicidal and homicidal concerns. Collaborates with and provides assistance to the ED physician for patients with medical issues which would preclude admission to the MH Acute Unit. Provides support off-tour to the MH Acute Unit and assists in patient transfer requests to the MH Acute Unit. Addresses restraint and seclusion face-to-face needs including assessment and debriefing. Completes telephone call-backs to patients recently discharged from the MH Acute Unit. Consults with the charge nurse and on-call psychiatrist to address behavioral issues on the MH Acute Unit. Provides mental health consultation on the off-tours throughout the medical center. Other Significant Responsibilities Serves on Medical Center or Healthcare System committees or task forces as discussed with Program Manager. Actively participates in local, state and national professional organizations. Represents the Medical Center or Healthcare System at professional/program community group/events and committees. Performs other duties as assigned. VA Careers - Licensed Clinical Social Worker: https://youtube.com/embed/U_xC25QsN0w Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: Variable Tours to include nights, weekends, and holidays. Core hours to be performed during 1400 - 0200. Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (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: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 10109F Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
What you need to qualify
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. 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 masters of social work. Licensure: 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. Current state requirements may be found by going tohttp://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: Senior Social Worker, GS-12 Experience/Education: The candidate must have at least two years of experience one 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. 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: The physical and mental status of the Senior Social Worker should enable them to perform all their duties under normal and emergent conditions. The evaluation of an individual's ability to perform efficiently and without hazard to self or others will encompass a composite consideration of physical, mental and emotional ability as related to realistic requirements for the duties and responsibilities to be assumed.
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