The Senior Social Worker serves on the inpatient and outpatient Hospice and Palliative Care Team. In this role, the Senior Social Worker works closely with the Hospice and Palliative Care Team for coordination of Hospice and Palliative Care services for Veterans who live throughout the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System service area.

Duties

The Senior Social Worker serves on the inpatient and outpatient Hospice and Palliative Care Team. In this role, the Senior social worker works closely with the Hospice and Palliative Care Team for coordination of Hospice and Palliative Care services for Veterans who live throughout the service area. This works includes consultation, collaboration, and serving as a subject matter expert regarding Hospice, Palliative Care, and Bereavement Services. The Senior Social Worker is a champion for advancing conversations on these matters, as well as Advance Directives and Goals of Care Conversations to support Life Sustaining Treatment Decisions initiatives for improved patient care. The Senior Social Worker independently performs case finding functions in identifying and screening patients for psychosocial/behavioral health/mental health needs. They must possess the knowledge and ability to independently implement treatment modalities, and provide counseling or psychotherapy for individuals, families/caregivers, and groups, appropriate to level of licensure. Throughout the course of treatment, the Senior Social Worker is the subject matter expert on VA and/or community resources, collaborating with other service providers in reassessing the Veteran's needs throughout episodes of care and during changes in conditions. They will coordinate community-based services, including information and referral for additional services from VA, other government entities, and community agency programs, with the goal to promote independence in the home setting for the Veteran as long as possible. The Senior Social Worker requires advanced level knowledge and understanding of the biopsychosocial, behavioral health and mental health needs of Veterans and their family members/caregivers. The Senior Social Worker is primarily responsible for providing psychosocial and mental health assessment, diagnosis, treatment planning/execution, care management, case management, crisis intervention and evidence-based psychotherapy services to Veterans, their family members and caregivers in assigned clinical position. This position may include weekends and evening hours and requires the ability to make decisions and complete work assignments within the program area, with very limited or no direct supervision. In addition, the Senior Social Worker may be required to travel on a regular basis to other locations of care within the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System to carry out job duties/assignments which requires driving and/or travel using personal vehicle or government vehicle to other sites of care within the NF/SG VHS, as well as, to community partners, as necessary to accomplish work assigned. Travel will be for long periods of time, up to three hours each way. Travel is expected at least 10% of work week. VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 08:00 AM - 04:30 PM Telework: Available - As determined by facility/agency 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. English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). 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: In addition to meeting the basic requirements stated above, the following qualifications criteria must be met in determining the appropriate grade assignment of candidates. GS-12 Senior Social Workercandidates must have the following: Experience/Education: The candidate must have at least two (2) years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which, one (1) 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. While we no longer require essay-style responses to our Knowledge's Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics (KSAOs), you must be able to demonstrate that you possess the (below) competencies which are necessary to perform the work of the position. Please ensure your resume/CV/application contains sufficient information to support the level of experience/education/training; otherwise, we will not be able to award you credit for the experience/education/training you claim. These are the KSA's for this subject position: 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. References: VA Regulations, specifically VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39, Social Worker Qualification Standard. Preferred Experience: 3-5 years with hospice and/or palliative care to include experience with advance directives, goals of care, conversations to support life sustaining treatment decisions initiatives. Physical Requirements: The physical demands of the work requires use of fingers; moderate walking and standing; near vision correctable at 13" to 16" to Jaeger 1 to 4; far vision correctable in on eye to 20/20 and to 20/40 in the other; hearing aid permitted; clear speech; emotional stability; moderate duty.

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 Malcom Randall Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 1601 Southwest Archer Road Gainesville, FL 32608 US
• Name: Danny Quitano
• Phone: (407) 405-5795
• Email: [email protected]