Job opening: Senior Social Worker (SSVF)
Salary: $116 809 - 151 852 per year
Published at: Aug 09 2023
Employment Type: Full-time
The Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program rapidly re-houses homeless Veterans and their families to prevent homelessness for those at imminent risk due to a housing crisis. This position provides case management and intervention support in a team oriented, recovery-based methodology.
Duties
Duties to include but not limited to:
Provides direct SUD services for SSVF Grantees.
Provides Outreach services for SSVF Grantees.
Provides training for other members of the multidisciplinary treatment team in areas related to SUD assessment, anger management, and life skills and SUD with co-occurring disorders.
Independently conducts intake and needs assessment of homeless Veterans and their significant others.
Identifies symptoms leading to clinical diagnoses of SUD.
Provides all necessary assessment functions, e.g., interviewing, psychosocial histories, and SUD assessments to aid in the development of treatment plans.
Develops comprehensive treatment plans with the Veteran that address the factors that contributed to homelessness, including SUD and other co-occurring factors within a recovery model framework.
Works with the Veteran to realize the Veteran's treatment goals and reassesses and revises goals as indicated by the Veteran's engagement in treatment.
Organizes and conducts individual and group case management and SUD treatment, to include early interventions and supportive follow-up to ensure stability in home visits and facility-based contacts.
Provides SUD support to the SSVF Grantee as a functional member of this team, to include consultation, interventions, or accompanying other case managers on home visits, when indicated by suspicion of SSVF participant SUD use.
Serves as a member of a multidisciplinary homeless program treatment team.
develops partnerships with community agencies, especially those serving homeless and SUD Veterans, with regular contact and communication.
Provides liaison services with other programs referring homeless Veterans to SSVF to ensure continuity of care and promote successful transition of Veterans from one program to another.
Participates in policy making, goal setting, and treatment service planning discussions with SSVF Grantees and Homeless Programs.
Provides appropriate clinical documentation for all contacts with or about Veterans.
Responsible for the collection of statistical data and for reviewing the data to improve performance and delivery of services to homeless Veterans.
Provides recovery -oriented treatment with the goal of establishing the Veteran independently in the community at the Veteran's highest level of functioning and quality of life.
Conducts and participate in outreach activities including field interviews, assessments and referrals for homeless veterans contacted in the community, shelters, and "on the streets" with the SSVF Grantee.
Develops effective and strong relationships with community resources to ensure continuity of care and to promote successful transitions of services. Incumbent has advanced skills in community partnership building and is able to expertly represent the VANTHCS HUD/VASH Program.
Responsible for ensuring that SSVF is compliant with all regulations, policies, and procedures relevant to the population served and monitors medical center performance related to population served.
Develops and maintains treatment and documentation standards that meet the expectations and requirements of Joint Commission and CARF accreditation pertaining to Substance Use Disorder treatment.
Performs additional and special assignments that are related to program goals, and the needs of the SSVF Program and its clients.
Independently identifies high-risk patients and provides crisis intervention services.
Completes suicide risk screens and documents assessments as required by policy.
Completes comprehensive assessments and collaborative safety plans when clinically indicated and provides follow-up appointments for all Veterans upon initiation of the "High Risk for Potential Suicide List" in compliance with VA policy.
Provides follow up with Veterans who fail to attend appointments, per local procedures, and consults with Suicide Prevention Coordinator or member of Suicide Risk Reduction Committee or direct supervisor as needed to ensure the safety and welfare of all Veterans.
Provides wellness/prevention education and facility patient and family support groups as appropriate.
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Telework: Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 000000
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
Qualifications
Basic Requirements:
Citizenship: Be a citizen of the United States. (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).
Grade Determinations: 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:
(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.
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.
Preferred Experience:
Mental Health
Case Management
Homeless Services
Substance Use Disorder Services
Supportive Counseling
Assessments and treatment plan development
References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39, dated September 10, 2019.
The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.
Physical Requirements: Light lifting: under 15 pounds; straight pulling (up to 1 hour); pushing (1- 2 hours); reaching above shoulder; use of fingers; walking (up to 3 hours); standing (up to 3 hours); repeated bending (up to 1 hour); ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously; near vision and far vision correctable in one eye to 20/20 and to 20/40 in the other; both eyes required for depth perception; ability to distinguish basic colors, ability to distinguish shades of colors, hearing (aid permitted); climbing stairs; mentally alert; both legs required for operation of motor vehicle; and frequent keyboarding to operate a computer.
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.
Accreditation Information: Please site specific the accreditation information from the qualification standards or use the generic description for all others. Example - Sample for CSWE: The master's or doctoral degree must be fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Verification of accreditation may be made obtained from
http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation
NOTE: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.
NOTE: If your school was accredited by Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) at the time of graduation but is no longer listed on the
http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation website, you must provide documentation of accreditation with your application packet.
Contacts
- Address Dallas VA Medical Center
4500 South Lancaster Road
Dallas, TX 75216
US
- Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
- Email: [email protected]
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