Senior Social Workers have experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment. At least two years should be in an area of specialized social work practice. Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included a clinical examination.

Duties

The advanced practice social worker can be further differentiated from the independent practice social worker by the incumbent's ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, provide consultation and guidance to colleagues, role model effective social work practice skills, teach or provide orientation to less experienced social workers, and develop innovations in practice interventions. The Senior Social Worker contributes to the administrative functions of the clinical program assigned and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. The Senior Social Worker may be assigned to work with special patient populations with highly complex health or mental health problems. The incumbent performs specialized treatment of complex mental illness, requiring outpatient mental health services. The incumbent incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved scope of practice. The incumbent is dedicated to the comprehensive outpatient dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program. The incumbent facilitates the growth, quality, and outcomes of DBT services on campus by: providing initial program screenings and assessments; conducting weekly individual DBT sessions and co-leading DBT skills training groups; offering patient phone coaching and case management; facilitating measurement-based care, program evaluation, and program improvement efforts; participating in a weekly DBT consultation team; and providing education and consultation to other programs and disciplines. Clinical services are provided in-person and through tele-health technologies, when appropriate. The incumbent develops, implements, and maintains methods for accessing internal and external resources for veterans and his or her family members. Gathering information from internal and external colleagues and insuring accessibility to staff. The incumbent provides clinical leadership and offers consultation to colleagues on the psychosocial treatment of patients receiving outpatient mental health treatment. The Senior Social Worker renders his or her professional opinions based on experience and expertise and role modeling effective social work practice skills. The incumbent demonstrates the ability to teach and mentor staff and students in mental health treatment modalities. The Outpatient Senior Social Worker may act as a Field Work Instructor or Preceptor for students accepted within the Student Training Program. He or she is an active member or chairperson of a Social Work Service committee. The incumbent provides support to the Supervisory Social Worker, through consultation and mentoring to assure that data is accurately reported and entered for Decision Support System (DSS) purposes. The incumbent also provides support to the data management processes by training and consulting with inpatient social workers on accurate data entry. The incumbent willingly accepts additional and special assignments that are necessary to meet program goals or customer needs. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm. Telework: Limited telework may be authorized Compressed/Flexible: Yes, based on clinic needs Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required.

Requirements

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: The basic requirements for employment as a VHA social worker are prescribed by statute in 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(9), as amended by section 205 of Public Law 106-419, enacted November 1, 2000. To qualify for appointment as a social worker in VHA, all applicants must meet the following: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g this part). 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 Master 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/. Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. Experience/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, candidates 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 References: September 10, 2019, VA HANDBOOK 5005/120 PART II APPENDIX G39 The full performance level of this vacancy is a GS-12. Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application. Please provide such documentation on your application or resume. Also, please provide work experience information such as hours per week and starting/ending dates of employment (month and year format) to establish one (1) full year of experience. The requirement for this proof is specified in the "How to Apply" section of this announcement. To be credible, experience must be documented in the application and verifiable through employment references and/or other means.

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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 820 South Damen Avenue Chicago, IL 60612 US
• Name: Joyce Ruffin
• Phone: 414-384-2000 X40575
• Email: [email protected]