This position leads a team comprised of Peer Specialists, to provide services, integrate processes, and meet goals of peer support service programming. The position facilitates, coordinates, coaches, and problem solves with the members of the peer support provider team. The position also acts as the liaison to and from the peer support provider team and the supervisor. The work of the position enables the team as a whole to deliver improved quality, quantity, and timely services to Veterans.

Duties

The duties of the the position includes, but are not limited to: Provides guidance to peer support providers and coordinates peer support activities. Serves as the operational peer specialist Subject Matter Expert (SME) and liaison to Medical Center/Healthcare System leadership. Establishes and/or partners with a resource network of community mental health organizations. Ensures that the organization's strategic plan, mission, vision, and values are communicated to the peer support providers they lead and integrated into the team's strategies, goals, objectives, work plans, products, and services. Articulates and communicates to the peer support providers they lead the assignments, projects, problems to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review as well as the deadlines and time frames for completion. Coaches the peer support providers they lead in the selection and application of appropriate problem-solving methods and techniques, provides advice on work methods, practices and procedures, and assists the team and/or individual members in identifying the parameters of viable solutions. Leads the team in identifying, distributing, and balancing workload and tasks in accordance with established work flow, skill level and/or occupational specialization; makes adjustments to accomplish the workload in accordance with established priorities to ensure timely accomplishment of assigned team tasks; and ensures that each team member has an integral role in developing the final team products and services. Identifies training needs and assists in the development of training for peer specialists and Veterans seeking to become peer specialists. Mentors peer support providers by providing guidance on professional and job related duties, methods and techniques of team building, and how to work in a team to accomplish tasks or projects. Maintains program and administrative reference materials, project files, and relevant background documents and makes available policies, procedures, and written instructions from the supervisor; maintains current knowledge to answer questions from team members on procedures, policies, directives, etc. Serves as a recovery agent by providing and advocating for effective wellness and holistic recovery-based services that aid veterans in daily living. The position orients new Veterans to the programs' services, hours, locations, staff and other pertinent information necessary for the Veterans to understand how to utilize the program. Veterans to articulate personal goals for recovery through the use of individual and group meetings. The position collaborates with Veterans to develop and implement a personal wellness and recovery plan in determining the steps needed to achieve their goals and self-directed recovery and wellness. The position observes behaviors that might indicate difficulty adapting or responding to treatment (e.g., missed assessment appointments, failure to attend or maintain abstinence, risk to self or others, disruptive behavior), completes appropriate documentation, and reports concerns to the treatment team in a timely manner. Uses ongoing individual and group meetings to teach Veterans how to identify and combat negative self-talk and overcome fears by providing a forum that allows Veteran to share their experiences. Assist Veterans in building social skills in the community that enhance community re-integration using techniques such as role playing and social skills training. Additional Information on Hiring Path Clarification: This position is covered by AFGE bargaining unit. Per the AFGE Master Agreement, the Area of Consideration will be: 1st Area of Consideration - Current Facility and CBOC employees; 2nd Area of Consideration - VA Nationwide applicants; 3rd Area of Consideration - Other Status candidates Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am-4:30pm (Subject to change based on the needs of the agency). Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Lead Peer Specialist/PD99756S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. PCS Incentives: 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, 09/29/2023. 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-10 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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 as described below: BASIC REQUIREMENTS Citizenship - Must be a citizen of the United States Statutory Requirements. To be eligible to receive appointment to a Peer Specialist position, a person must: (1) be a veteran who has recovered or is recovering from a mental health condition; and (2) be certified by a not-for-profit entity engaged in peer specialist training as having met such criteria as the Secretary shall establish for a peer specialist position; or a State as having satisfied relevant State requirements for a peer specialist position. NOTE: You MUST provide copies of your DD-214 and Peer Specialist Certification, with your application package. Length of Experience as a Consumer of Mental Health Recovery Services. Veterans must have spent a minimum of 1 year in personal recovery from a mental health condition. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENT In addition to the basic requirements: Candidates must have specialized experience in order to qualify. Specialized experience is one full year of progressively responsible experience equivalent to the GS-09 level in the Federal service, that equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) needed to successfully perform the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to this Lead Peer Specialist position to be filled? Specialized experience includes: Progressively responsible, post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing counseling to support peers in mental health and/or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, a psychiatric therapy aide, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery. This experience must be supported by your resume to be creditable. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: 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 primarily sedentary. Typically, the position sits to do the work. However, there may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items (such as books, papers), accessing transportation, and/or driving a government vehicle. The work requires patience and control of emotions. The work may require occasional use of appropriate techniques with Veterans who present a danger to them self or others. 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

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 Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center 2002 Holcombe Boulevard Houston, TX 77030 US
• Name: Johnette Weber-Sadofsky
• Phone: 6156177665
• Email: [email protected]