This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Duties

This incumbent works in the Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment program (MH-RRTP) located at the Marion VA Healthcare System (MVAHCS). MH-RRTPs utilize therapeutic communities that enhance the provision of residential rehabilitation and treatment services based on therapeutic communities utilizing both peer and professional support services in a structured, residential environment that fosters personal growth leading to personal accountability. The therapeutic community emphasizes the integration of a resident within the community and views the community as the model for change. This mutual self-help model requires residents to actively participate in their own treatment and the treatment of others using the community as the model. The MH-RRTP provides a residential level of care for a general Veteran population including medical, psychiatric, addiction, PTSD, and homelessness in a 24/7 structured and supportive residential environment as a part of the rehabilitative treatment regimen. The incumbent is involved in screenings, psychosocial assessments, individual and group counseling, treatment plan development and maintenance, discharge planning, case management/treatment coordination, advocacy, education and coordinating linkages with the appropriate VA and community service providers and agencies as needed by current residents participating in the MH RRTP Programs. The incumbent independently provides clinical psychosocial and case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible Veterans, the Veteran's family, caregiver and/or significant other to meet biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs. Veterans receiving care from the MH RRTP program traditionally have complex health care and psychosocial problems and needs, requiring a high degree of clinical oversight and creative problem solving. The incumbent accomplishes these tasks in collaboration with other members of the MH RRTP Interdisciplinary Team members as appropriate within the MH RRTP. The incumbent independently interviews Veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the Veteran's situation, presenting problems and their causes, and the impact of such problems on the Veteran's functioning and health as part of a comprehensive psychosocial assessment. The incumbent interprets and explains VA's treatment and benefit programs. The incumbent reviews all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment identifying needs and strengths. The incumbent effectively uses professional skill, objectivity, and insight. The incumbent uses advanced clinical training, insight, and experience to interpret data and to identify viable treatment options. The incumbent assesses high risk factors, acuity, and need for services. The incumbent has the ability to serve the Veteran, who tends to have frequent and severe crises, lack family or an adequate community support network, be poor at self-monitoring, and frequently fail to comply with instructions and treatment, or have significant deficits in coping skills and require continuing professional psychosocial support. The Incumbent is responsible for clinical social work practice in the Marion Domiciliary program including promotion of social work services as a key component of treatment. The incumbent evaluates her/his practice on an on- going basis through participation in professional peer review, case conferences, research studies, or other organized means. The incumbent is active in and accepts responsibility for the development and maintenance of professional standards of treatment. The Incumbent will provide Case Management of up to 20 Veterans requiring substantial communication skills, organizational skills, problem solving and time management. The incumbent utilizes various counseling approaches to include conflict resolution, anger management and effective/healthy coping skills. Incumbent provides psycho- education and interventions regarding a variety of mental health problems to include depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use and TBI. The incumbent will capture caseload activity and workload via electronic encounters in the timeline set by the Service Chief or The incumbent consults with other specialists in planning treatment for Veterans and with co- morbidities. The Incumbent provides clinical services to Veterans and family members/significant others in support of the Veteran's treatment utilizing only evidenced based modalities. Work Schedule: 08:00 AM - 4:30 PM, Mon-Fri with participation in the Behavioral Medicine On Call Program Telework: Not 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

Preferred Qualifications: Minimum 1 year of experience working in a residential or inpatient environment. Minimum 3 years of experience utilizing evidence-based practice with a complex patient population. ??????? To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within by the closing date of this announcement. 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. 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. Loss of Licensure or Certification: Once licensed or certified, social workers must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted independent license or certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of licensure or certification will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment. English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. ? 7403(f). 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 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: 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. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. 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. 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. 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. Assignment: 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 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: Physical demands of the work are generally minor. The work is primarily sedentary. There is some walking, standing, bending, and carrying of light items such as papers, files, manuals and records. For additional information on Physical Standards please see VA Directive and Handbook 5019. http://www.va.gov/vapubs/

Education

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

Note: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application. If your school was accredited by CSWE at the time of graduation, but is no longer listed on the CSWE website, you must provide documentation of accreditation with your application packet.

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 Marion VA Medical Center 2401 West Main Street Marion, IL 62959 US
• Name: Alexis Briggs
• Phone: 816-714-4587
• Email: [email protected]