This position is for a Senior Psychologist Associate Chief of Mental Health for Clinical Operations in the Mental Health Service of VAAAHS. The Senior Program manager reports to the Chief, Mental Health Service. The VA Ann Arbor is a level 1B high complexity facility with a strong academic affiliate partner in the University of Michigan.

Duties

This position is expected to have demonstrated expertise in the area of administration. Must also be knowledgeable and current in their understanding and practice in the delivery of Evidence Based Practices in Mental Health. The incumbent must be able to teach and monitor other professionals in their administrative activities. He or she will develop and promote adherence to service standards regarding matters of timeliness, accuracy, and compliance with procedures and quantity of work produced. The incumbent will also maintain a faculty appointment in good standing with the University of Michigan Medical School. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES. Serves as Senior Program Manager, Mental Health Service Clinical Operations. Is responsible for the Mental Health Clinical portfolio including the following programs in 1) Acute Care Section: Inpatient (18 bed unit), Consult Liaison, and Emergency Psychiatric Services; 2) Outpatient Care: Mental Health Clinic, Substance Use Disorders Clinic, Posttraumatic Stress Clinical Team, Substance Use Disorders Intensive Outpatient Program, Primary Care Mental Health Integration, Telemental Health Clinic, Neuropsychology, and Health Psychology; 3)Community based programs: Psychosocial Rehab and Recovery, Mental Health Intensive Case Management, Therapeutic and Supported Employment Programs, Homeless Services, Home Based Mental Health Care, and Recovery Program; and 4) Outreach services including Suicide Prevention, OEF/OIF Outreach, Veterans Justice Outreach, Healthcare for reentering Veterans, and VITAL. Across all care delivery sites in VAAAHS, is responsible for: - Staff clinical assignments, utilization of staffing resources, and productivity. - Direct supervision of the Section Chiefs including Outpatient Section Chief, Acute Care Section Chief, Homeless Services Section Chief, and Community Section Chief. - Promotion of a healthy work environment for clinical staff and staff satisfaction. - Recruitment and retention of clinical staff. - Addressing/supporting supervisors with addressing personnel issues within the clinical operations reporting line. - Coverage of duties for the Chief of Mental Health and the Associate Chief of Mental Health for Quality as needed. - Responding to VISN/ VACO/ OIG/ White house/congressional inquiries and action items related to clinical operations for the mental health service. - Active implementation of initiatives, programs, policies, and procedures in the clinical service line in conjunction with the Associate Chief of Quality. - Oversight of Programmatic resources and program development - Preparation of reports and presentations related to clinical operations as needed - Compliance with all VACO/JC/OIG/CARF requirements. - Other duties as assigned by Chief of Mental Health - Serving as a point of contact for Mental Health in interactions with other hospital services. - Developing short and long term goals and action plans for all clinical endeavors. - Ensuring that resources necessary for clinical operations are planned and available. - Participating in decision making about resource utilization including space and human resource management. - Mentoring clinical leaders (especially new leaders) to improve effectiveness. This specifically will include close mentoring of the new SUDC and SUD IOP chiefs which will require no less than 5% time. - Providing clinical input into new and renovation projects ongoing in the service. Clinical Responsibilities - Evaluates and diagnoses mental disorders, conduct psychological and/or brief/basic psychological assessment - Treats mental health or behavioral health conditions through a variety of modalities with evidence-based rationales. - Is responsible for timely completion of all clinical charting and documentation - Consults with Hospital staff on a wide variety of patient care issues. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday (8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Telework: Yes - as determined by the agency policy. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 93185-0 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 doctoral degree in psychology from a graduate program in psychology accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS), or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) at the time the program was completed. The specialty area of the degree must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. For the purpose of meeting this requirement, the term "specialty area" refers to the specific specialty areas recognized by the accrediting body and not to specific job duties that might require special skills. Currently, APA accredits doctoral programs in the specialty areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, or combinations of two or more of those areas. PCSAS accredits doctoral programs in psychological clinical science. CPA accredits doctoral programs in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and school psychology. There are no job assignments in VHA that require the skills of a school psychologist; therefore, an applicant with a degree in the specialty area of school psychology is not eligible for appointment. Strictly for the purpose of determining eligibility for appointment as a psychologist in VHA, there is no distinction between the specialty areas (with the exception of school psychology). OR (2) Have a doctoral degree in any area of psychology and, in addition, successfully complete a re-specialization program (including documentation of an approved internship completed as part of the re-specialization program) meeting both of the following conditions: (a) the re-specialization program must be completed in an APA or a CPA accredited doctoral program; and (b) the specialty in which the applicant is retrained must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. NOTE: The applicant must provide an official transcript and/or certificate documenting the completion of the re-specialization program, which includes completion of an APA or CPA internship. [Psychologists who have successfully completed a re-specialization program as described above and who were employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs prior to the implementation of this standard are considered to have fully met the educational requirements of these qualification standards.] OR (3) Have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution, with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature.] AND Internships: (a) Have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program that was accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed and that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. OR (b) New VHA psychology internship programs that are in the process of applying for APA accreditation are acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement, provided that such programs were sanctioned by the VHA Central Office Program Director for Psychology and the VHA Office of Academic Affiliations at the time that the individual was an intern; OR (c) VHA facilities that offered full-time, one-year pre-doctoral internships prior to PL 96-151 (pre-1979) are considered to be acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement; OR (d) Applicants who completed an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. (NOTE: Once board certified, the employee is required to maintain board certification.) Licensure. Hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia. Board Certification. Persons hired to psychology positions in the VHA who completed an internship that was not accredited at the time the program was completed must be board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. The board certificate must be current and the applicant must abide by the certifying body's requirement for continuing education. English Language Proficiency. Psychologists must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j. 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: GS-15 Senior Psychologist Experience. At least 4 years of experience as a professional psychologist, with at least one year equivalent to the GS-14 level. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate the following KSAs: 1. Ability to supervise and manage a large group of professional staff effectively. 2. Skill in interpersonal relationships, including conflict resolution and ability to work collaboratively with supervisors from other units. 3. Ability to accurately apply the qualification standards, assesses the potential of current and prospective employees, and promotes their professional development. 4. Ability to develop appropriate productivity standards for professional staff, often across multiple program lines. 5. Knowledge of the goals and objectives of the medical center and VISN and ability to communicate these to subordinates. Preferred Experience: References: Physical Requirements: The work of the psychologist is largely office based and in a sedentary setting. No manual labor is required above ordinary situations. Incumbent must be capable of using a computer given that all clinical charting is electronic.

Education

Assignment. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty), and range of variety, and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Senior Psychologist Service Chief at the GS-15 level generally manages programs in Complexity Level 1 (High Complexity) facilities or in facilities of lesser complexity levels that have large psychology or mental health programs. They are responsible for all professional, management, and administrative aspects of the service or organizational entity. Supervision and resource management involve major decisions, and work activities and supervision significantly affect the ability of staff to provide comprehensive services to Veterans. The service or organizational entity is a major component of the medical center and the services or programs supervised are highly professional, technical, and complex. Examples include but are not limited to discipline-specific programs (typically in the role of Psychology Service Chief), the overall system of mental health programs (typically in the role of Associate Chief of Staff for Mental Health), research programs (typically in the role of Associate Chief of Staff for Research), or education programs(typically in the role of Associate Chief of Staff for Education). Responsibilities include oversight of a large, complex organization that encompasses several component parts integral to the functioning of the medical center or, alternatively, one large service or organization. They have broad and overall responsibility for a service-level organizational unit and have full responsibility for clinical practice, program management, education, human resource management, and supervision for the service. They autonomously manage substantive parts of specialized, complex, professional services which significantly impact the care provided to Veterans. They provide leadership with objective, independent assessments and recommendations for policy, operational, and administrative issues and initiatives requiring decision and action. They monitor work performance to ensure that requirements are satisfied; interpret and process a wide variety of data related to program planning and specialized needs of the Veterans, the service, and the medical center; ensure policies or issues have been fully coordinated, vetted, and staffed; advise leadership on implications, key issues, and relationships to interest groups (both internal and external) and recommend courses of action. They coordinate and negotiate resolutions to complex problems. They assure compliance with accrediting agencies and regulatory requirements and assure corrective action is initiated as needed. They are responsible for professional and administrative management of an assigned area which may include budget execution. They maintain interdepartmental relations with other services to accomplish medical center goals. They may prepare special reports and responses, Congressional responses, briefing papers, issue briefs, and decision papers for the medical center leadership, which may be highly sensitive, confidential, and of a complex nature. They develop policies and procedures and may develop performance standards, position descriptions and functional statements. They monitor the clinical performance of staff, conduct performance appraisals, and perform other clinical and administrative responsibilities to ensure that the mission of the service and the medical center has been satisfied. They may set training objectives for staff and delegate responsibilities to subordinate sections.

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 Ann Arbor VA Medical Center 2215 Fuller Road Ann Arbor, MI 48105 US
• Name: Jeremiah Ferguson
• Phone: 734-882-3036
• Email: [email protected]