Job opening: Senior Social Worker
Salary: $90 239 - 117 311 per year
Published at: Nov 28 2023
Employment Type: Full-time
The Incumbent is responsible for helping ensure referred and current patients receive timely and appropriate Licensed Independent Provider attention to engage in the appropriate treatment services. Serves as a liaison between nurse triage and other services when needed, such as through ensuring consults are appropriately routed or assessing current risks. Participates on the Referral Coordination Initiative team handling consults coming into the clinic and also providing direct clinical care.
Duties
A relocation incentive may be approved for highly qualified applicants.
Major duties include, but are not limited to the following:
Intake Coordinator Responsibilities: 50% time - Provides intake management services to the Omaha outpatient MHC, which is a large specialty Mental Health Clinic
Receives hand-offs from nurse triage when LIP services are needed to manage flow into, or through, the MHC
Ensures consults to MH services are appropriately completed for new patients or those within the clinic requesting additional services Functional Statement Intake Coordinator
Conducts needed evaluations and suicide assessment activities as appropriate for Veterans
Participation in RCI team conducting clinical reviews of clinic consults to ensure appropriate disposition
The position will be expected to assess high acuity patients determined by the RN triage team to be in an urgent/emergent crisis
The incumbent attends and participates in organizational meetings, treatment planning meetings, and assigned committees or projects.
Requires advanced skill and experience with independent assessment, de-escalation techniques, and critical decision making in order to ensure urgent/emergent needs are met and that Veterans are routed to an appropriate level of care.
Requires extensive and wide breadth of knowledge regarding local resources, including internal and external resources and the referral processes.
Serves as a senior member of the clinical management team, expected to provide insight and direction, in support of clinic operations.
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.
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.
Clinical Responsibilities: 45% time - Provides a full range of mental health services, including:
Expert clinical consultation for various disciplines (primary care, mental health, specialty medicine) and levels of training (MD, RN, etc.)
Individual, group, couples, and family counseling and psychotherapy
Mental health case management and treatment coordination
Patient/family education, clinical supervision/teaching of treatment staff and trainees
Other Responsibilities
May be involved in the training of medical students, medical and psychiatric residents, nursing students, fellows, social work trainees, and psychology interns and externs, as appropriate.
Serves on Medical Center, VISN and National VA committees, as appropriate, and attends relevant meetings, which may include daily MH huddles.
Represents the Medical Center at professional community group/events and committees, in conferences/meetings with higher ranking managers, supervisors, and staff from other disciplines or work units, and/or with representatives of local public interest groups, congressional district offices and employees of State and local governments.
Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm
Telework: Ad-hoc
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 000000
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
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.
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.
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 the CSWE website to verify if that social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a master of social work.
Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-185 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 on the OHRM website 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:
GS-12, Senior Social Worker:
Experience and 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. Applicants must meet the requirements for providing supervision in the state where they are licensed at the advanced practice level and should list these qualifications within the assessment narrative and their resume. Documentation is required if part of your state's requirements for providing supervision for licensure is beyond your licensure only (example: certification of continuing education credits).
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs(a document with written demonstration of KSAs must be included with application, see required documents section).
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.
All qualifying experience you possess must be clearly described in your application package. We will not make assumptions when reviewing applications. Failure to demonstrate your experience in your resume may result in disqualification. It is strongly recommended that you write to each KSA in your application package.
The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.
References: VA Handbook 5005/23, Part II, Appendix G39
Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination.
Education
IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application.
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 VA Nebraska-Western Iowa HCS - Omaha
4101 Woolworth Avenue
Omaha, NE 68105
US
- Name: Kira Kuhn
- Phone: 3193380581 X636737
- Email: [email protected]
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