The Senior Social Worker practices in the mental health clinic, and serves a patient population with highly complex mental health and health problems. The Senior Social Worker may be assigned to administrative responsibilities for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns.

Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Major Duties: The incumbent performs specialized treatment of complex mental illness for patients seen in the mental health clinic. The incumbent incorporates 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. Specific tasks may include: screening of consults for mental health services from medical center or Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC), biopsychosocial assessments, treatment planning/goal setting, referral(s) to service providers and specialty treatment clinics, resource utilization and development, advocacy, crisis intervention, education and prevention, case management and care coordination, supportive counseling, and administrative responsibilities to their assigned clinic. The Senior Social Worker is able to provide individual, group, and family psychotherapy and advanced level case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans with serious medical and psychiatric disorders. The Social Worker provides services that access the continuum of care. The Social Worker provides services on an outpatient basis, but may interact and coordinate with inpatient treatment team members. The incumbent participates in future program planning for the mental health clinic, and collaborates with other clinic staff and the medical center mental health clinic(s) as appropriate. The Senior Social Worker develops and implements methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the mental health clinic, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services. The incumbent is able to demonstrate the ability to design changes based on empirical findings. The Senior Social Worker offers consultation to colleagues and students of all disciplines and of various clinics on the psychosocial treatment of patients treated in specialty areas, rendering professional opinions based on experience and expertise and role modeling effective social work practice skills. The incumbent demonstrates the ability to teach and mentor staff and students in the special area of practice and to provide supervision for licensure or specialty certifications. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 0730-1600 Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Telework: Ad-Hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized 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. 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. 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/. 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 0185, GS-12 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. 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, Preferred Experience: A minimum of two (2) years professional experience with experience in program administration, supervision of staff, performance improvement, and the delivery of mental health services Dependability and the ability to function independently Ability to direct health care benefits in a managed care setting across a health care system Demonstrated leadership abilities by increasing health awareness, measuring outcomes, and involving others in improving care Clinical and administrative leadership experience in complex, interdisciplinary health care systems Knowledge, skills, and abilities to gain the trust and respect of a highly diverse staff of peers and subordinates in order to achieve the mission of honoring and serving Veterans through excellence in healthcare Ability to organize work, set priorities, delegate tasks, and meet multiple deadlines Ability to establish and monitor production and performance priorities and standards References: VA Handbook 5005/120, PART II, APPENDIX G39 dated September 10, 2019 This position is above the Full Performance Level for this series. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: This work is primarily sedentary but also requires some standing, walking, bending, lifting and carrying of items. Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.

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 San Diego VA Medical Center 3350 La Jolla Village Drive San Diego, CA 92161 US
• Name: Ricky Clark
• Phone: 319-509-6482
• Email: [email protected]