The Bonham, Plano and Sherman Mental Health Teams are intensive case management, intensive and evidence-based psychotherapy programs for geriatric Veterans living with mental health illness, severe mental health illness and mental health dual diagnoses.

Duties

The Senior Social Worker supports the Bonham, Plano, and Sherman Psychiatric Outpatient Team by providing intensive case management, psychotherapy engagement and ensuring continuity of care. The Senior Social Worker provides on-going use of case management and psychotherapy interventions to promote sustained mental health stabilization. The Senior Social Worker is an expert at the community geriatric mental health resources and available to assist staff and Veterans who are receiving care from the Team by linking them to supportive resources found within Veterans Affairs and the community at large. The Senior Social Worker will function as the liaison between the Veteran and various needed resources to ensure appropriate coordination of care. The Senior Social Worker provides psychotherapy, including evidence-based psychotherapy in which the provider is certified to the Veteran in an individual or group setting. Duties to include but not limited to: Performs specialized treatment of complex physical or mental illness as it relates to substance use disorders. Incumbent incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of Veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved scope of practice. Expands clinical knowledge in the profession, demonstrating innovation in the creation of new models of psychosocial assessment or intervention to identify and address specialized clinical needs of substance use disorders. Ability to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the specialty population or specialty treatment program. Develops and implements methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services, utilizing outcome evaluations and use of evidence-based treatment modalities that are effective with Veterans who struggle with substance use disorders along with medically and psychiatrically complex conditions. Incumbent also provides specialized assessments, and treatment planning to other team members to provide interventions and strategies for engagement for difficult to engage clients. Using a recovery model framework, independently conducts comprehensive substance use assessments and develops treatment plans in collaboration with Veteran, family, and interdisciplinary treatment team. Monitor e-consults, complete assessments, and make recommendations to the program in addition to provide direct clinical care to Veterans. Assist linking Veterans to community services. The incumbent develops and maintains effective partnerships with VANTHCS programs and other VANTHCS teams and programs and follows leadership guidelines. Develops and provides ongoing training and in-services to multidisciplinary team members in area of expertise. 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 can expertly represent the program. Responsible for ensuring that program is compliant with all regulations, policies, and procedures relevant to the population served and monitors medical center performance related to population served. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Telework: May Be 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

Requirements

Qualifications

The Mental Health Service of the VA North Texas Health Care System values cultural diversity across our staff and training programs. Mental Health Service leaders are deeply committed to fostering an environment that is highly sensitive to and appreciative of all aspects of diversity. Our staff represent a variety of cultural backgrounds, competencies, interests, and theoretical orientations. We believe that increased self-awareness and appreciation for other viewpoints and cultures makes our service stronger and strengthens our ability to provide the highest quality of mental health care. 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: Case Management Psychosocial and Mental Health Assessment Treatment Plan Development Mental Health Provider Educational Counseling Supportive and Psychotherapy 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 and carrying under 15 pounds; straight pulling (up to 1 hour); pushing (2 hours); reaching above shoulder; use of fingers; walking (up to 3 hours); standing (up to 3 hours); repeated bending (up to 1 hour); Climbing, use of legs and arms; Both legs required ; 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); 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]