This position is located within the Mental Health Service, at the Charles George VA Medical Center, located in Asheville, NC. The Marriage and Family Therapist is directly responsible for providing specialized consultation for complex cases involving individuals, families, and/or couples utilizing evidenced -based family systems theory/therapy.

Duties

The incumbent will have advanced knowledge of psychological diagnosis, intervention, and behavioral health to provide advice and consultation to professionals representing a variety of disciplines. The incumbent will work collaboratively with other clinical personnel to develop, evaluate, and maintain effective mental health services throughout the medical center and in the community-based settings. The incumbent will report directly to the Psychology Section Chief. Duties to include, but no limited to: Provides comprehensive, evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, couples, families, and psychoeducational groups in collaboration with multidisciplinary mental health staff to serve Veterans within the mental health service as needed and assigned. Develops comprehensive treatment plans in coordination with interdisciplinary team members, including goals, objectives, and interventions for psychosocial clinical treatment. Provides consultation to professional staff within the healthcare system and to community providers, concerning appropriate treatment plans for patients. Provides crisis intervention, stabilization, and follow-up for Veterans and significant others. This includes evaluation and management of suicidal/homicidal patients and other psychiatric emergencies. Reviews all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment, identifying needs and strengths. Provides ongoing assessments for Veterans as appropriate including suicide risk assessments. Develops, implements, and documents the psychotherapeutic treatment plan for an assigned caseload of outpatient Veterans, including prompt completion of clinical reminders. Adjusts treatment plans and interventions based on the changing needs, response to interventions and to improve outcomes. Assumes complete professional responsibility for his/her patient care decisions, and documentation. Complies with all CPRS documentation procedures, including timeliness standards for documentation and proper patient check out procedures (e.g., entering diagnostic and procedure codes). Ensures timely access to care of patients assigned to each team, in accordance with local and national policies. Works collaboratively with clinical and administrative support team members to identify appropriate services to connect veterans and their family members. Fully accountable for practice, including Veteran visits, measuring outcomes to interventions, and meeting productivity standards. Contributes to interdisciplinary care planning conferences, and team huddles/meetings. Will be sensitive to ethnic and cultural diversity and age-specific challenges of specialty populations and adjust interventions and treatment plans as appropriate. Involvement in the training of medical students, medical and psychiatric residents, nursing students and fellows, as appropriate. Participates in local, VISN, and national committees/community networking activities as requested by Mental Health Service or facility leadership. Functions independently as a member of the medical staff, with full clinical privileges. Assumes complete professional responsibility for his/her clinical assessment findings, patient care decisions, and documentation. Establishes and maintains appropriate patient treatment records in conformance with VA, medical center, service line, Joint Commission, GARF, and other applicable standards. Remains thoroughly cognizant of the latest professional techniques and developments in the assigned specialty area and is able to apply them, when suitable, to their work. Subscribes to and abides by ethical standards as appropriate. Advocacy - Understands the challenges of bureaucracy and will act as an advocate when it serves the best interest of the Veteran and/or family. When appropriate and feasible, the Marriage and Family Therapist will educate and encourage the Veteran and/or family to advocate on their own behalf, thus fostering a sense of independence and empowerment. Referral to Service Providers - Throughout the course of treatment the incumbent is the specialist on VA and/or community resources. The social Marriage and Family Therapist will collaborate with other service providers in reassessing the Veteran's needs. Resource Usage/Development - Responsible for using current resources and community social service programs and enhancing the content to the benefit of Veterans. The incumbent will refer the Veteran to needed services.Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00AM-4:30PM Telework: Ad-hoc; at discretion of Supervisor Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

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. English Language Proficiency: MFTs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, paragraph 3j. 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). Education: Candidates must meet one of the following: Hold a master's degree or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy from a program approved by COAMFTE, Hold a master's degree or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy from a MFT program from a regionally accredited institution, OR Hold a master's degree or doctoral degree in a comparable mental health degree (Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, Social Work, Psychiatric Nursing, Psychology, and Psychiatry) that meets the current VA qualification standard of that profession. Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to Marriage and Family Therapist positions in the GS-0182 series in VHA must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to independently practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist in a State. Grade Determination: Minimum Qualifications for GS-12, Marriage and Family Therapist (Advanced): In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must also meet the following requirements: Education, Experience and Licensure: Candidate must have successfully completed evidence based training in family therapy and must have graduated from a COAMFTE accredited program OR have passed the AMFTRE. Candidate must have at least five years of post-licensed clinical experience in delivery of family systems therapy including one-year equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. This experience must demonstrate the use of an evidence based family therapy model while exhibiting progressive professional competency and expertise. Assignments requiring responsibility for providing clinical supervision must have an AAMFT Approved Supervisor credential. In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the professional KSAs listed below. Demonstrated KSAs: Ability to provide specialized consultation for complex cases involving individuals, families and/or couples utilizing evidenced-based family systems theory/therapy. Ability to provide crisis intervention which includes assessment, safety planning and complex treatment planning using independent clinical judgment utilizing family systems theory/therapy. Ability to provide family systems therapy, which seeks to address Veterans and their family members on an individual level and deals with interpersonal interactions. Ability to provide unlicensed MFT staff/trainees with systemic clinical supervision towards licensure from a family systems theory/therapy perspective. 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. Advanced MFTs can be assigned as the sole licensed mental health provider in settings such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics or have responsibility and oversight for a MFT training program established under VA/VHA training policy as well as provide systemic clinical supervision to those MFT interns. The Advanced MFT who has responsibility for the training program provides family systemic clinical supervision to unlicensed MFTs and provides clinical consultation to less experienced staff. Advanced MFTs develop behavioral health related training curriculum and conduct trainings for clinical staff. Advanced MFTs meet routinely with inter-professional team members and leadership to communicate about program and veteran and family issues for in depth problem solving. Preferred Experience: Experience providing specialized consultation for complex cases involving individuals, families, and/or couples utilizing evidence-based family systems theory/therapy. Advanced knowledge of psychological diagnosis, intervention, behavioral health to provide advice and consultation to professionals representing a variety of disciplines. References: VA Handbook 5005/101 Part II Appendix G44 The full performance level of this vacancy is 11. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12 Physical Requirements: Duties performed require some physical effort such as sitting, standing, driving, walking, bending, typing, and carrying of light items such as papers, files, books, or reports that do not require special physical demands. The work requires typical safety precautions associated with working in the community and mental health care settings, such as, patient physical or verbal interactions, driving a Fleet vehicle, working with office equipment, and avoiding real or potential accidents. The work may also require occasional travel to local area satellite facilities and/or out of town/state for required/suggested training, conferences or meetings.

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 Charles George VA Medical Center 1100 Tunnel Road Asheville, NC 28805 US
• Name: Christina Trull
• Phone: 828-318-6521
• Email: [email protected]