This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Duties

Major duties include but not limited to: The incumbent serves as a HCS point of contact for the National HUD/VASH Program, Office of Mental Health Services, VACO. The incumbent assists with data collection, administrative record keeping, and monitoring patient or program clinical indicators, thresholds, and performance measurements. Additionally, the incumbent develops working relationships and agreements with other organizations and directly coordinates with the designated PHA regarding the housing voucher application and award process for each veteran. The incumbent is responsible for reviewing the agreements between Section 8 landlords, PHAs, and the VA to establish appropriate referral sites for placements. The incumbent assists with the establishment, implementation, and maintenance of referral and screening procedures for potential HUD/VASH veteran participants that meet national policy as well as the needs of medical center mental health services and residential programs. Referral, screening and admission criteria recognizes program eligibility, prioritization of subsets of the homeless veteran population, requirements of the PHAs, and other policy, regulation, or law pertaining to program administration. The incumbent develops the screening procedures to involve a multidisciplinary team approach and is responsible for ensuring criteria and procedures are maintained. The incumbent provides input for program participant selection based on structured interviews and clinical assessments. The incumbent regularly conducts and participates in outreach activities including field interviews, assessments and referrals for homeless veterans contacted in the community, shelters, and "on the streets," as well as those who are referred by VA residential programs, medical centers or outpatient clinics. The incumbent maintains current and establishes new relationships with other community-based service providers for the homeless, and when appropriate, represents VA at community service provider meetings. The incumbent serves as a member of the VAPAHCS Outreach Initiative and attends monthly coordinator meetings. As a part of this role, the incumbent prepares and submits monthly reports on activities and data to the VAPAHCS Outreach Coordinator in a timely fashion. The incumbent evaluates the veteran's situation, abilities, and capabilities, and arrives at a reasoned conclusion including an assessment of vulnerability and prioritization for admission. The incumbent assesses at-risk factors and develops a preliminary plan, involving the veteran and family or significant others, and performs an insightful assessment of serious and complicated cases involving psychiatric illness which may also include, catastrophic medical condition, dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and other high risk diagnoses. As part of a comprehensive psychosocial assessment, the incumbent interviews the veteran and his/her family members or significant others to establish facts about the veteran's situation, presenting problems and their causes, and the impact of such problems on the veteran's functioning and health. The incumbent reviews all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment, identifying needs and strengths. Based on the psychosocial assessment, the incumbent uses professional judgment and advanced practice skills to make a psychosocial diagnosis. The incumbent provides referral to VA medical and mental health inpatient and outpatient treatment and to other VA services including VA benefits, as well as community-based social services and other nonVA entitlement programs. If appropriate, the incumbent provides referrals or consults, or in some cases direct admission of the veterans prior to HUD/VASH participation, for other VA programs including community-based residential treatment such as Grant and Per Diem (GPD) Programs, Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) contract residential treatment, Domiciliary or Psychiatric Residential Rehabilitation and Treatment Programs (PRRTP), or Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) and Compensated Work Therapy Transitional Residence (CWT/TR) Programs. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM. Telework: May be available at supervisory discretion. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 640-00939F Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be authorized to highly qualified candidates. EDRP Authorized: Contact [email protected], the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more 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. 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. English Language Proficiency: Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j, this part. 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-12Experience/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. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: (a) 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. (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. (c) 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. (d) 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. (e) 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 Part II Appendix G39 Physical Requirements: Physical demands of the work are generally minor. The work is primarily sedentary, although the stress involved in dealing continually with persons in emotional distress and who may be uncooperative makes this work notably more demanding than most sedentary jobs.

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 Palo Alto VA Medical Center 3801 Miranda Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94304 US
• Name: Tyler Jennings
• Phone: 775-486-3377
• Email: [email protected]