The Senior Social Worker position is in the Social Work service at the Bedford VA Medical Center, located at the Bedford, Massachusetts location. This position is full time at 40 hours per week. The Senior Social Worker services the MH RRTP, Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program and the DOM-SUD program, performing evidence based clinical interventions with a variety of evidence-based practice models on both an individual and group level.

Duties

The incumbent conducts assessments to provide individualized and recovery-oriented care to the Veterans admitted to our MH RRTP programs. Duties include but are not limited to: Provides support and case assignments to clinicians within the MH RRTP programs; Ensures appropriate clinical assignment for individual psychotherapy to staff psychologists, social worker and both psychology and social work trainees; Works with the clinical team to consider evidence base trainings, high risk for suicide status, high utilization of inpatient services, behavioral flags and individualized treatment goals; Ensures the clinical team is in compliance with VHA directives, facility policies, operating procedures and bulletins, Joint Commission and other accrediting body standards; Supports the mission, policies, and procedures of the VA, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the appropriate Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN), and the facility; Serves on committees, work groups and task forces at the facility, VISN, and/or VA Central Office levels; Provides clinical care and intervention including screening, assessment, treatment planning and intervention, discharge planning and referrals to appropriate VA and community resources; Conducts a comprehensive suicide assessment and initiates the treatment planning process through a clinical interview and record review; Initiates an interdisciplinary treatment plan that incorporates the Veterans goals for treatment, objectives and interventions to ultimately help the Veteran meet their treatment goals; Documents the treatment plans in the medical record; Updates the treatment plan at set intervals as outlined in the standard operating procedures and as needed based on treatment progress and clinical judgment; Provides individualized and evidence based individual psychotherapy and group psychotherapy to help the Veteran meet their treatment goals; and Performs other related duties as assigned. VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Work Schedule: Monday-Friday; 8:00am-4:30pm. Telework: Available; Telework Ad-Hoc work can be performed on an as needed basis anywhere other than a VA facility or using VA-leased space (example: home) Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #:518-F06231 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Notifications This position is a NAGE Bargaining Unit position. This position is in the Excepted Service. Due to a critical staffing shortage, 38 U.S.C. 7412 waives the requirement to apply Veterans' preference for this job announcement. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment. 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.

Requirements

Qualifications

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: The basic requirements for employment as a VHA social worker are prescribed by statute in 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(9), as amended by section 205 of Public Law 106-419, enacted November 1, 2000. To qualify for appointment as a social worker in VHA, all applicants must meet the following: a. Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g this part). 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). b. 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. c. 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/. d. Grandfathering Provision.The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation. e. Physical Requirements.See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. f. 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 (1) 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. (2) 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. (3) 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. (4) 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, Part II Appendix G39, Social Worker Qualification Standard GS-185 Veterans Health Administration. Physical Requirements: The incumbent must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands with reasonable accommodation if necessary. Position requires movement throughout the clinic and/or Medical Center. Position requires travel to the community, patient homes and other sites. Demonstrates awareness of and follows all home visit safety guidelines.

Education

IMPORTANT: 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 VA Bedford Healthcare System 200 Springs Road Bedford, MA 01730 US
• Name: Jessenia Plaza
• Phone: (321) 666-1792
• Email: [email protected]