This position is in the Mental Health Service Line servicing the Community Based Outpatient Clinics aligned under the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. The primary purpose of this position is to assist the Clinical Neuropsychologists by administering and scoring specialized neuropsychological, personality and behavioral measures. NOTE: ONE VACANCY AT JESSE BROWN AND ONE VACANCY AT CROWNPOINT CBOC.

Duties

Duties Include: -Responsible for administering and scoring specialized neuropsychological, psychological, personality and behavioral measures, cognitive screening tools, and assessment batteries. -Incumbent will spend approximately 2 to 3 hours in direct face to face testing time per patient and then an additional 2 to 3 hours scoring and providing comparison norms to support the interpreting assessment results. -Ability to provide service according to their experience and specialized skillset to a subset of patients who exhibit complex diagnoses, such as patients with severe neurological disorders, including traumatic brain injuries, vascular dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, seizure disorders, stroke, neurosyphilis, aphasia, and severe mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use/alcohol dependence and other conditions. -Using specialized training, conducts structured or semi-structured diagnostic clinical interviews, consistent with training and preparation, and conducts medical chart/documentation reviews from medical records relevant to referral questions. -Provides patient and/or significant others with rationale/explanation for specific testing procedures. -Ability to properly record and associate responses and observations to the correct respondent for accuracy and privacy. -Establishes and maintains effective, professional rapport with all types of patients, demonstrating sensitivity to and skills managing all forms of diversity, and provides an appropriate, nonthreatening setting for optimal test performance by patients. -Evaluates and responds to patient needs during evaluation; monitors patient behavior during assessment sessions and controls the testing environment to ensure validity of results. -Operates equipment, e.g., computers, tape recorders, or other specialized assessment equipment, and demonstrates computer sophistication for purposes of administration, data entry, scoring and analysis. -Demonstrates responsible caseload organization and scheduling of referrals in a manner that timely assessment and expeditious handling of priority referrals. -Documents details related to patient contact, including behavioral observations, interview, and test data results for the supervising psychologist, in accordance with Mental Health Service Line and facility policies. -Consults with staff or psychologist when necessary, regarding unusual patient needs and/or special accommodations during evaluation. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Telework: Limited Telework may beAuthorized. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Psychology Technician/PD000000Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/22/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Basic - Individual Occupational Requirement: Education GS-5 grade levels: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in any combination of subjects as shown above for GS-3. OR Experience - Positions above GS-5: Experience that involved the observation of and assistance in the application of techniques relating to behavior, capacities, traits, interests, and activities of either humans or, under laboratory conditions, animals. Experience may have been gained in connection with a program of research or direct services in psychology that gave a practical understanding of some of the principles, methods, and techniques of psychology needed to assist professional psychologists. In addition to the basic requirement as stated above the following is the experience, education, or combination requirement to qualify for this position at the GS-7 grade levels. Specialized Experience GS-7: one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-6) in the Federal Service that has given me the particular knowledge, skills necessary to complete the duties of the position. Such knowledge and skills are identified in the Competence Assessment Checklist of the position and include: Skill and ability to properly triage patients during the intake/interview process to assess the risk for suicidal/homicidal ideation, evaluate for crisis intervention, and/or evaluation for other mental health and medical concerns; Knowledge sufficient to detect and refer when clinical situations require direct intervention by the supervisor and/or higher-level clinical staff; Ability to properly record and associate responses and observations to the correct respondent for accuracy and privacy; and must be able to manage time and set priorities and objectives and be able to work independently and develop innovative strategies to exceed organizational goals and objectives ect. --OR-- Substitution of Education for Specialized Experience - GS-7: One full year of graduate education directly related to the work of the position. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours should be considered as satisfying the 1 year of full-time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. Transcripts must be submitted with application. Education cannot be credited without documentation. Note: Transcripts Required. --OR-- Combining Specialized Experience and Education - GS-7 - Equivalent combinations of experience and education are qualifying for this position. TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:Computer SkillsInterpersonal SkillsPsychological AssessmentPsychologyTeamworkTechnical CompetenceWriting Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is mostly sedentary. Occasionally, light physical effort may be required, such as that involved with walking, stair climbing, and carrying of light office items. Working Environment: The work is performed in an office setting which require normal safety precautions typical for offices and meeting rooms. The work area is adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 820 South Damen Avenue Chicago, IL 60612 US
• Name: Joyce Ruffin
• Phone: 414-384-2000 X40575
• Email: [email protected]