This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Duties

The COMPACT ACT Senior Social Worker serves as the COMPACT Act case manager and has responsibility as the primary navigator for Veterans receiving care under COMPACT Act. This includes coordinating transitions in care for Veterans receiving acute suicide care under COMPACT Act between varying venues of care, types of care (medical and mental health) and location of care (direct care and community care) in collaboration with assigned care coordinators at each step of the Veteran journey. The incumbent will be instrumental in providing connection and referral to assist with proper evaluation for eligibility in other programs and is the facility subject matter expert on the COMPACT Act. Duties include but are not limited to: - Utilize program coordination skills to develop and monitor administrative and clinical plans for Veterans receiving COMPACT Act services. - Collaborates with Suicide Prevention Program Manager oversees daily duties of the program and provides reports and metrics to Suicide Prevention. - Captures and analyses local data trends to inform program development and improvement. - Collaborate with local facility revenue and finance departments. - Advocate for Veteran, ensuring they do not receive bills for COMPACT related care. - Provide education and training on COMPACT Act to internal and external stakeholders as the facility subject matter expert. - With collaboration with Suicide Prevention Program Manager reviews and develops policies, standard operating procedures, practice guidelines for the program. - Coordination between health care providers and care managers in direct care and community care. - Collaborate with inter professional teams within the VA healthcare system and community to navigate complex care coordination. - Consultation and negotiation across program areas to ensure appropriate resources are secure in a clinically relevant and timely manner. - Coordinates with local facility Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) Care Coordinators. - Provides training, education, orientation, and guidance on clinical program area. - Provides clinical social work assessment, intervention, treatment, and follow-up, using a social determinant of health framework. - Assists with navigation between varying levels of care and conducts comprehensive transition planning. - Utilizes designated COMPACT Act templates and coding requirements when documenting in the medical record. - Skill in organizing work, setting priorities, meeting multiple deadlines, and evaluating assigned program area. In addition the COMPACT ACT Senior Social Worker Specialist is also required to perform the general social worker duties in the Mental Health Division listed below: Advocacy: The COMPACT ACT Senior Social Worker acts as an advocate when it serves the best interest of the Veteran/family. When appropriate and feasible, conducts education and encourages the Veteran/family to advocate on own behalf, thus fostering a sense of independence and empowerment. Patient Education: The COMPACT ACT Senior Social Worker provides education related to the Veteran's VA entitlements, eligibility, services, and programs, as well as community resources for substance use disorders, medical, and mental health needs. Administrative Responsibilities The incumbent documents in the Veteran's medical record effectively, timely, and in accordance with Service standards, medical center policies, the requirements of accreditation agencies. Progress notes are timely. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am to 4:30 p.m. Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized EDRP Authorized: Contact [email protected], the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more 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. 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/. Grandfathering Provision. 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). English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). Preferred Experience: Social Work Experience Case Management Navigating Systems to Assist Clients Brief Therapy Interventions Grade Determinations: Senior Social Worker GS-12 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: (a) 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. (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. (c) 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. (d) 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. (e) 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. Assignments. For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Senior SW are licensed/certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level. Senior SWs typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center, or a national VHA referral center, such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center, or other program areas of equivalent scope/complexity. May be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness/modification of service patterns. Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision; collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, ensures the care provided is of the highest quality. Provides leadership, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff. Serves on committees, work groups and task forces at the facility, VISN and national level or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor, Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services. Assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management. Assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation. References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39 Social Worker, dated September 10, 2019. The full performance level of this vacancy is 12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is the GS-12. Physical Requirements: Light lifting & light carrying (under 15 pounds), straight pulling (1 hour), pushing (2 hours), reaching above shoulder, use of fingers, walking & standing (3 hours), repeated bending (1 hour), climbing, use of legs and arms, both legs required, ability for rapid mental & muscular coordination simultaneously, near vision correctable to 13" to 16" to Jaeger 1 to 4, far vision correctable in one eye to 20/20 and to 20/40 in the other, both eyes required, depth perception, ability to distinguish basic colors, ability to distinguish shades of colors, hearing (aid may be permitted), and frequent keyboarding.

Education

IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Accreditation Information: The master's or doctoral degree must be fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).Verification of accreditation may be obtained from http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation

Note: If your school was accredited by CSWE at the time of graduation, but is no longer listed on the CSWE website, you must provide documentation of accreditation with your application packet.

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 Dallas VA Medical Center 4500 South Lancaster Road Dallas, TX 75216 US
• Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
• Email: [email protected]