The VISN 16 Overton Brooks VA Medical Center provides comprehensive outpatient mental health and primary care services to Veterans throughout the Texarkana, Arkansas area including multiple parishes in northern Louisiana and East Texas. Services are targeted to Veterans in rural Texarkana, Arkansas areas in which many of the clinics are experiencing access challenges or gaps in clinical services. Services are conducted via multiple modalities, including telehealth and in-person care.

Duties

Incumbent is stationed at the Texarkana Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) in Texarkana, Arkansas. Their primary responsibilities involve the provision of Clinical Social Work Interventions via VA Video Connect (WC), in-person face to face, and telephone visits to Veterans receiving services at the Texarkana CBOC. The Senior Social Worker/PACT Social Worker (SW) Case Manager (CM) has practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressively more professional competency. Services include, psychoeducation, crisis intervention, advocacy, high quality case management services, outreach activities, and coordination of linkages to other appropriate VA or community service providers / agencies as needed. Provides expert consultation and guidance to colleagues, expands clinical knowledge in the profession, role models effective social work practice skills, teaches or provides orientation to less experienced social workers, develops innovations in practice interventions, and provides clinical supervision for less experienced social workers who are pursuing independent licensure or certification. Conducts a full bio-psychosocial/ assessment of the Veteran with specific examination of current coping skills, emotion regulation, and support networks in place. Prior history of mental treatment is also considered, in addition to the assessment of complexity of treatment (number of traumas, current life stressors, severity of mental health symptoms). Previous and current substance abuse is evaluated in addition to past and current suicidal ideation. Assists Veterans, their families and caregiver in resolving psychosocial, emotional and economic barriers to health and well-being while building on their strength and their abilities. Develops a standard for the measurement of social work case management outcomes. Utilizes outcome evaluations to further treatment and designs system changes based on empirical findings and in consultation with other specialty team members. Provides consultation to students and colleagues regarding training opportunities and procedures. Is an active participant in the treatment planning process with other disciplines. Participates in discharge planning with other disciplines and will be responsible for ensuring that discharge plans are executed in a manner that is timely and appropriate. Provides individual, family and group counseling as appropriate. Provides consultation/education to medical residents on social work practice and VA policy and procedure. Acts as liaison between VA and community resources, to include marketing and public relation duties as needed. Work Schedule: Monday- Friday 8:00am- 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 667-00371-F Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

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. Education. Must 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: Social Worker (Program Coordinator), GS-12 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. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: 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. Reference: VA HANDBOOK 5005/120 September 10, 2019 PART II APPENDIX G39 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: Must be in overall good health, able to sit at a desk working at a computer, engage in light to moderate physical activity including sitting, walking, bending, and carrying supplies. Social Worker must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation, if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the social worker or others. Position requires walking throughout the clinic and/or Medical Center, standing for extended periods of time, and involves sitting at a computer and in counsel and consultation with Veterans and interdisciplinary teams. This position also requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading; and repetitive motions of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

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 Overton Brooks VA Medical Center 510 East Stoner Avenue Shreveport, LA 71101 US
• Name: Heather Caudill
• Phone: (217) 274-5442
• Email: [email protected]