This position will cover both Adams and York counties. This position is responsible for assessment, planning, and case management services in the HBPC and CNH Programs coordinating a variety of activities including outreach, interdisciplinary activities, psychosocial, behavioral health, and suicide risk assessments, safety and treatment planning, consultation/education to Medical Center and community based service providers, collection of statistical data and program evaluation.

Duties

Duties: The social worker will collaborate with the other members of the Home Based Primary Care (HBPC) and Community Nursing Home (CNH) teams in the provision of comprehensive health care services to HBPC and CNH veterans, will ensure equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, and collect, develop and analyze data from this program, using appropriate clinical indicators and monitoring activities to assure that the care provided is of the highest quality. The social worker will conduct training for staff, students and community providers regarding HBPC and CNH issues, will provide education, information and liaison with resources for veterans in the community, and will provide technical assistance and educational sessions to community organizations as needed. The social worker is responsible for the implementation of written treatment program policies and procedures developed by Social Work Service that are based on coherent empirical and theoretical rationale and are consistent with patient rights and the maintenance of comprehensive written patient progress notes, outcomes and discharge planning services in collaboration with the unit treatment team. The incumbent will be responsible for the following duties: a. The incumbent will conduct psychosocial assessments to determine needs of veterans and family members. b. If a mental health need is identified, the incumbent will complete assessment of mental health needs, including suicide risk assessments and provide psychotherapeutic interventions and safety planning. c. The incumbent is an active participant in the treatment planning process with other disciplines. d. The incumbent will participate in discharge planning with other disciplines and will be responsible for ensuring that discharge plans are executed in a manner that is timely and appropriate. e. The incumbent will utilize evidence-based practice to provide individual, family and group therapy as appropriate. f. The incumbent will provide consultation/education to veterans and families on community resources, advance directives and VA benefits. g. The incumbent will act as a consultant to other team/staff members. h. The incumbent will provide consultation/education to medical residents on social work practice and VA policy and procedure. i. The incumbent will act as liaison between VA and community resources, to include marketing and public relation duties as needed. j. The incumbent will provide case management to veterans and families, as needed, throughout the continuum of care. k. The incumbent will provide a full range of social work services within commonly accepted standards of social work practice which includes case work, individual, family and group therapy, discharge planning, case management and other services as appropriate. l. The incumbent will address Advance Directives and Organ Donation in accordance with the standards of their work area. m. The incumbent will provide wellness/prevention education and facilitate Patient/family support groups as appropriate. n. The incumbent will as appropriate, supervise the practice of social work students, or a less experienced social worker. o. The incumbent will coordinate treatment and communicate with the care lines to facilitate continuity of care for veterans. p. The incumbent will participate in committee assignments, as deemed necessary by the service manager. q. The incumbent will maintain data and statistical compilations to comply with JCAHO, VA and medical center policy and procedures. r. The incumbent will assist patients and their significant others with coping and dealing with the loss and grief experiences in disability, terminal illness and death through grief counseling and other evidenced based practices. s. The incumbent will document social work interventions and activities in patient's clinical record utilizing CPRS and ensure appropriate hand off when transferring of patient care. t. The incumbent will participate in a rotation of on-call social workers, including modification of tour of duty to accommodate patient care needs on weekends. u. All Lebanon VA Social Workers may be required to drive patients in a government vehicle and as such will be required to meet driver physical requirements as detailed in Medical Center Memorandum 138-18. Position Title: Senior Social Worker Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Available. 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: a. Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA regulations and policy). b. 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. c. Licensure. Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/. (1) Exception. VHA may waive the licensure or certification requirement for persons who are otherwise qualified, pending completion of state prerequisites for licensure/certification examinations. This exception only applies at the GS-9 grade level. For the GS-11 grade level and above, the candidate must be licensed or certified. (2) Failure to Obtain License or Certification. In all cases, social workers must actively pursue meeting state prerequisites for licensure or certification starting from the date of their appointment. Failure to become licensed or certified within the prescribed amount of time will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment. (3) 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. d. Grandfathering Provision. The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation. (1) All persons employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply: (2) Such employees in an occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions. (3) Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard. (4) Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation. (5) If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. 7401(3) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation. NOTE: If social workers covered under the grandfathering provision of the 1991 Federal law regarding licensure or certification of VHA social workers leave the GS-0185 social work series, they lose the grandfathering protection. If they choose to return at a later date to the GS-0185 series, they must be licensed or certified to qualify for employment as a social worker. e. English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 USC 7403(f). GRADE DETERMINATIONS. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. Senior Social Worker, GS-12 (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 (KSAs). 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. Reference. VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 (Social Worker Qualification Standard) dated September 10, 2019. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

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 Lebanon VA Medical Center 1700 South Lincoln Avenue Lebanon, PA 17042 US
• Name: Tamara Sneed
• Phone: 404-626-7179
• Email: [email protected]