BVAHCS Mental Health Services are organized around major clinical programs, with all programs supporting the integration of clinical service delivery and training. The Mental Health Consult Social Worker is assigned to the Mental Health Service Consult Team located at the Birmingham VAMC and is responsible for providing psychiatric consultation services in collaboration with the attending psychiatrist and interdisciplinary members of the mental health consult team during evening hours.

Duties

Functions The incumbent is responsible for these primary functions: a. Assess and recommend treatment for inpatient psychiatric consultations. b. Assess and recommend treatment for Emergency Department psychiatric consultations. c. Complete a Suicide Risk Evaluation-Comprehensive for each consultation and a safety plan when needed. d. Consult with on-call psychiatrist, when necessary, regarding treatment plan e. Carry the Mental Health Service consult phone and answer any calls. f. Represent the Mental Health Service on the Behavioral Rapid Response Team and carry the BRRT pager. g. Distribute resources for substance use disorder treatment, as necessary. h. Assist in referring Veterans to residential treatment programs. i. Complete documentation for consults in the electronic health record j. Collaborate with VA Police regarding duty to warn/duty to protect. k. Collaborate with the medical team regarding continuity of care. l. Assist, when necessary, with filing involuntary psychiatric commitment petition The social worker has full professional responsibility for the mental health treatment of the complex clinical cases. Specifically, the incumbent is responsible for providing evidence-based interventions in accordance with accepted standards of practice. The mental health services should be informed by science, recovery-oriented principles, and relevant professional experience. The social worker is also expected to deliver services from a culturally competent perspective. Work Schedule: Evenings, Sunday-Thursday 2:30pm-11:00pm Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 54308F Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

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 (MSW) 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. Please note: A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work. Licensure. Licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. English Language Proficiency. Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Regulations. 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). Must pass a background check. Grade Requirements: GS-12 Senior Social Worker 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. 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. 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. License. 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: 1. 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. 2. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. 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. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is a 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: 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 Birmingham VA Medical Center 700 South 19th Street Birmingham, AL 35233 US
• Name: Jenna McCarthy
• Email: [email protected]