The Primary Care Senior Social Worker position is in Social Work service at the VA Boston Healthcare System. This position is located at the Causeway Street CBOC and the Brockton, MA campus, full-time at 40 hours per week. There are currently two vacancies for this position.

Duties

The Primary Care Social Worker is a fully licensed clinical social worker assigned to VHABHS outpatient primary care clinics, including women's health, CBOC's and telehealth. The incumbent's primary focus is to provide independent, advanced practice social work services and interventions to eligible veterans with highly complex health and mental health problems. Veterans in this clinic tend to have a wide range of serious, and sometimes severe, crises with a lack of community or familial support. They are often unable to comply with treatment and have major deficits in coping skills. Clinical social work and case management interventions are provided as a means of assisting veterans in order to meet their biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs. The Primary Care Senior Social Worker is also assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. Duties include, but are not limited to: The incumbent will utilize evidence-based tools and information to support the health and wellbeing of patients. The social worker will work with veterans to create unique personalized health plans built upon the veteran's goals, beliefs, medical conditions, and life circumstances. The incumbent will collaborate with Veterans to find proactive opportunities that support the innate healing response through nutrition, stress management, movement, and mindful awareness. The social worker will help veterans identify what really matters in their life, so the decisions made are patient-driven and engage veterans to adopt a holistic view of healthcare. The incumbent will support the patients by providing them with the appropriate skillset to manage their chronic medical conditions and to maintain optimal health. Whole health concepts will be shared in group and individual coaching sessions. The social worker will also act as a mentor/trainer to assist other employees in the PACT team to develop whole health skills in their practice. The social worker will also incorporate whole health practices throughout VA Boston Primary Care clinics. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Not authorized Telework: May be authorized at Supervisory discretion. 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/Remote Work: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required NOTIFICATIONS: This position is in the Excepted Service. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Current 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. This is an AFGE Bargaining Unit position. This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. The incumbent may be required to travel to other VA campuses and CBOC's. Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) will be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/17/2023. 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 the CSWE website to verify if that social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a master of social work. Licensure: Individuals assigned as Social Work must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level, and must be able to provide supervision for licensure. English Language Proficiency: Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j Grade Determinations: GS-12 Senior Social Worker (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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 - Social Worker Qualification Standard Physical Requirements: The incumbent must be able in overall good health, able to sit at a desk working at a computer, engage in light to moderate physical activity including sitting, walking, bending, and carrying supplies. Applicants must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the applicant or others.

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 Boston Healthcare System 940 Belmont Street Brockton, MA 02301 US
• Name: Karina Santos
• Phone: 401-752-6750
• Email: [email protected]