The overall purpose of this position is to enable patients and their families to function at their fullest potential, and to enhance their quality of life through the development of personal, familial, social, medical and economic resources. Facilitate linkage between patient and family with VA and community support systems which allows patients to remain in their homes.

Duties

Major duties include but are not limited to: Develop psychosocial assessments of clients in order to identify emotional, social, physical, familial, economic and vocational/avocational needs and resources. Identify appropriate community and VA resources, and facilitate utilization of these resources by the veteran, families, and non-patients. Assists patients, families, and non-patients, by providing counseling and/or appropriate referrals, with problems that are tangible and overt in nature i.e., inability to meet mortgage payments, to difficulties, and employment problems. Assists patients, families, and non-patients, by counseling and/or making appropriate referrals, with problems that are intangible in nature i.e., marital conflict, family dysfunction, chronic mental illness, substance abuse, and dementia. Provide on-going supportive counseling to patients to maximize their coping and adjustment, to illness, injury, treatment, living demands, one by-product of which is to avoid or forestall readmission to the medical center. Assist our veteran patients in understanding medical protocol and VA benefits. Identify unmet needs within the community and assist in developing these needed resources. Autonomously manages a complicated caseload with a minimum need for direct supervision. Represent Service assigned and the Medical Continuum (as assigned) on committees/task forces which address program development and program maintenance, direct service, education, or matters of an administrative nature. Work Schedule: 8:00am - 4:30pm Monday-Friday Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Social Worker Associate/PD06222A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/11/2023. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-08 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. BASIC REQUIREMENTS: EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in major fields of study such as: social welfare, sociology, psychology, public administration, philosophy, education, anthropology, history, economics and/or English. IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application to meet the basic education requirement for this position. OR Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower level in the normal line of progression is qualifying for positions above the GS-5 level. Specialized experience is experience in a program of direct social welfare services that required the application of program policy and operations knowledge in providing social welfare services and/or assisting social workers. AND, GS-8 EXPERIENCE: Two years of experience as a social welfare worker or social work assistant in a voluntary, public, social, or health agency. One year of this experience must have been in a medical setting and equivalent to the next lower grade (GS-7) in Federal service. Examples of specialized experience include: providing assistance and service support as prescribed by social workers in conjunction with patients' treatment plans; interviewing patients; using general counseling techniques and crisis intervention techniques to assist clients; obtaining and compiling data; and organizing mental health and medical treatment needs. NOTE: Your experience must be fully documented in your resume and must include job title, duties, month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: CommunicationCustomer ServiceInformation ManagementInterpersonal Skills Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work involves sitting, standing, and walking and is carried out within the confines of the office/work space provided. Work Environment: Work will be done in Ambulatory Care/specialty care clinic locations and other areas of the medical center. Much of the work will be carried out in the integrated team work space. The incumbent works in proximity to Veterans and is therefore, occasionally exposed to communicable diseases. The incumbent may also be subjected to hostile behavior during an interview and defensive maneuvers to protect self may be necessary. Incumbent may be required to drive a government vehicle to other sites of care; community meetings; outreach events or other appropriate functions. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

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 James A Haley Veterans Hospital 13000 Bruce B. Downs Boulevard Tampa, FL 33612 US
• Name: Lori Brese
• Phone: 785-350-3932
• Email: [email protected]