Albany Stratton VA Medical Center is currently recruiting for a Senior Social Worker in the Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI) Program for the Kingston, NY (CBOC) Location. The incumbent must be experienced and demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills and sound clinical judgement. Provides clinical and program activities for a special population of mental health patients in primary care who require expert levels of psychosocial intervention.

Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU The Senior Social Worker applies strategies to a full range of patient problems and has knowledge of culturally sensitive psychological assessment techniques, diagnosis, intervention, and outreach that qualifies them to provide consultation to professionals representing a variety of disciplines. The incumbent is also required to exercise judgment in the selection of or adaptation of standard and accepted psychological theories, techniques, and practices in treating patients and clinical populations. The primary job functions of the PC-MHI Senior Social Worker include the provision of direct psychological patient care, consultation services on difficult or complex cases, education of staff and trainee supervision as appropriate. It is expected that the incumbent will successfully coordinate service delivery with the Patient Aligned Care Team to which they are assigned as well as other medical services within the facility. CLINICAL FUNCTIONS Provides psychological assessment and diagnoses of mental disorders. Provides education with recovery-oriented core principles to patients, family members and significant others. Provides targeted Evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for individuals, groups, families and eligible caregivers in the outpatient treatment and prevention-oriented domains. Provides consultation to professional VA staff and to community providers, concerning clinical assessment findings and appropriate treatment plans for patients. Documents results of assessments, consultations and interventions and develops, implements, and documents the recommended plan of care for patients. Provides clinical services through the use of Telehealth and TeleHealth/Home services when applicable. Provides consultation to other staff professionals to promote and preserve a therapeutic environment for individual patients. Promotes communication and interactions among medical, nursing, psychology and social work team members, patients and their families and caregivers to facilitate the treatment process. Devises programs that employ new or unique, evidence-based treatment modalities to medical and mental health problems. May provide supervision of trainees conducting direct clinical care. Consults with medical center staff on a wide variety of patient care issues. Performs case finding and outreach to identify and screen Primary Care patients for psychosocial needs. Demonstrates the ability to evaluate their own practice through professional peer review, case conferences, supervision, and other organizational means. Is responsible for assessment, management and follow up on psychiatric emergencies in the primary care setting to which they are aligned. ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS Keeps supervisor apprised of problems and recommends solutions to problems encountered in the incumbent's area of responsibility. Provides coverage for colleagues during staff absences within the PC-MHI program. Maintains work productivity and quality consistent with facility and discipline specific standards and the complexity of the assignment. Represents PC-MHI in interdisciplinary team meetings, discipline specific meetings and facility meetings as appropriate. Including sharing knowledge and expertise gained from clinical practice and education relevant to the field of Social Work. Demonstrates the ability to evaluate their own practice through professional peer review, case conferences, supervision, and other organizational means. Responsible for timely and accurate completion of all clinical documentation required by VA and oversight agencies. Completes administrative duties such as facilitating appointment scheduling according to policy and procedure. Including but not limited to timely response to stakeholder contacts, writing reports, issue briefs, incident reports or reports of contact. Participate in the design, development and implementation of program or Social Work initiatives. Adheres to operational policies and procedures relevant to the treatment team, program, and SW Service. Participates in ongoing program evaluation and data-driven quality improvement projects to monitor the effectiveness of the service delivery. Incorporates Measurement Based Care in Social Work practice. Facilitates connections with other programs and departments in order to effectively coordinate care. Attends and participates in administrative and informational meetings as directed by supervisor or Social Work Service Chief Performs other related duties as otherwise assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: F9178 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. 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. Licensure/Certification. 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/. English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed for this vacancy. 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 Social Worker, GS-12 Creditable Experience: The candidate must have knowledge of current professional social work practices. To be creditable, the experience must have required the use of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics associated with current professional social work practice. The experience or education must be post-Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. Experience and education satisfying this requirement must be active professional practice, which is paid/non-paid employment as a professional social worker, as defined by the appropriate state licensing board. Quality of Experience: Experience is only creditable if it is obtained following graduation with a master's degree in social work and if it includes work as a professional social worker directly related to the position to be filled. Qualifying experience must also be at a level comparable to social work experience at the next lower level. 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. 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. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Senior Social Work candidates must demonstrate all of the following Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA's). Note: Please show evidence in your resume of how you meet these KSA's. 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. 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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, part II, Appendix G39 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12. 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 Samuel S Stratton VA Medical Center - Albany 113 Holland Ave Albany, NY 12208 US
• Name: Yviana Martinez
• Email: [email protected]