The Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor will be a member of the Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Program (BHIP), an outpatient general mental health clinic in Mental Health Service. The LPMHC will provide a full array of mental health assessment and treatment services, particularly for patients struggling with substance use.

Duties

The incumbent will be assigned to the Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Program (BHIP) within Mental Health Service. He/She functions as a member of the BHIP interdisciplinary team, provides care to Veterans with a variety of mental health concerns, including with substance use disorders (SUD). The psychologist attends substance abuse trainings and works with the BHIP supervisory staff to ensure clinical coverage when the psychologist is on leave. Duties are but not limited to: Provides a full range of psychological assessment services and diagnoses mental disorders, particularly for Veterans with substance use disorders. Provides recovery-oriented education to patients, family members, and significant others. Provides comprehensive, evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions, including individual, family, and group psychotherapy appropriate to patient needs and desires, including individual, family, and group psychotherapy (e.g., Motivational Interviewing (Ml), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness training, stress reduction, contingency management therapies, and health behavior management groups, etc.) as indicated Provides consultation to professional staff within VA Medical Center at Memphis and to community providers concerning clinical assessment findings and appropriate treatment plans for Veterans with SUD diagnoses. Develops, implements, and documents the psychotherapeutic treatment plan for an assigned caseload of patients, including prompt completion of clinical reminders. Assumes complete professional responsibility for his/her clinical assessment findings, patient care decisions, and documentation. Assists the team coordinators in the design, development, and implementation of clinical programs addressing the needs of Veterans with SUD diagnoses and other mental health concerns. Provides teaching on selected mental health topics to community organizations. Adheres to operational policies and procedures for the BHIP program as established by the Chief of Mental Health Service. Assists the team in the execution of ongoing program evaluation and data-driven quality improvement projects to monitor the effectiveness of the clinical program. Work Schedule: Primarily Monday-Friday, 8-4:30, but may have occasional evening and weekend hours, based on operational needs. Telework: Part time telework may be available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized for highly qualified candidate(s). Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. 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. Hold a master's or doctoral degree in: Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; or a related field, from a program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Examples of related mental health counseling fields include, but are not limited to Addiction Counseling; Community Counseling; Gerontology Counseling; Marital, Couple, and Family Counseling. CACREP defines the date when graduates are considered to have graduated from a CACREP accredited program. Additional information may be obtained from http://www.cacrep.org/directory/. NOTE: Traditional Rehabilitation counseling programs that are accredited by CACREP do not meet the LPMHC qualification standards as Traditional Rehabilitation counseling differs from Clinical Rehabilitation counseling. Licensure. Persons hired or reassigned to LPMHC positions in the GS-0101 series in VHA must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to independently practice as a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, which includes diagnosis and treatment. English Language Proficiency. LPMHCs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3.j. Experience, Education, and Licensure. In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one year of progressively complex LPMHC experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Senior LPMHCs must have five years of post-licensed experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressive professional competency and expertise and be licensed to provide clinical supervision to trainees or unlicensed LPMHCs. Assignments. Senior LPMHCs provide treatment to patients with complex needs including multiple mental health diagnoses, and numerous psychosocial issues, using independent judgment. LPMHCs at this level provide clinical consultation to less experienced staff which may include coordinating crisis situations. Senior LPMHCs will provide clinical supervision to LPMHC staff and/or LPMHC trainees, and may serve as the subject matter expert for the discipline. Senior LPMHCs develop behavioral health related training curriculum and often conduct trainings for clinical staff. LPMHCs model ethical and professional behaviors and standards to include multicultural awareness. Senior LPMHCs meet routinely with inter- professional team members and leadership to communicate about program and patient issues for in depth problem solving. Senior LPMHCs collaborate with internal and external stakeholders and frequently serve as a liaison. 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. 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). Grade Determinations: Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, GS-12 Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to meeting the KSAs for the GS-11 grade level, the candidate must demonstrate all of the KSAs below: 1. Advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex mental illness. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Ability to determine priority of services needed and provide specialized treatment. 2. Advanced and expert skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities for Veterans with complex needs. This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling, or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial, and/or case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans. 3. Ability to coordinate the delivery of specialized psychosocial services and programs. Ability to design system changes based on data. 4. Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and trainees on the psychosocial treatment of patients, rendering professional opinions based on experience, expertise and role modeling effective clinical skills. 5. Ability to teach, mentor staff and trainees, and provide supervision for licensure or for specialty certifications. 6. Ability to engage in written and oral communication with leadership/staff and community stakeholders regarding policies, procedures, practice guidelines, and issues pertaining to the practice of the profession. References: VA Handbook 5005/106 Part II Appendix G43 Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019.

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 Memphis VA Medical Center 1030 Jefferson Avenue Memphis, TN 38104 US
• Name: Priscilla Bolding
• Phone: 407-463-5211
• Email: [email protected]