The Senior Social Worker manages daily operations of the Mental Health Intensive Case Management (MHICM) Rural Access Network for Growth Enhancement (RANGE) Program at the Toledo Community Based Outpatient Clinic. The MHICM RANGE Senior Social Worker provides advanced case management and direct clinical care to Veterans diagnosed with Serious Mental Illness (SMI).

Duties

The Mental Health Intensive Case Management (MHICM) Team is comprised of interdisciplinary staffing which includes nursing, social work, psychiatry, and program support in a program designed to decrease inpatient psychiatric admissions for Veterans living with SMI, as well as to enhance quality of community involvement and personal recovery through intensive case management and wrap-around services. Case Management services include monitoring medical appointments, driving Veterans in government vehicles to and from appointments or recovery oriented activities, negotiating housing or psychosocial barriers in partnership with the Veteran and/or their family, assisting with resource or benefit allocation, and patient education. The Social Worker may provide supportive therapies or Evidenced Based Treatments such as Social Skills Training, Motivational Interviewing or Illness Recovery Management to Veterans who would benefit from such treatments. The Senior Social Worker is capable of psychiatric assessment and diagnosis, specifically as it relates to Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder, although Veterans in the MHICM program may have other mental health diagnoses that significantly impair functioning and result in psychiatric admission. Has broad program management responsibilities of MHICM programming at the Toledo CBOC, which may include the operation and management of key clinical, training, or administrative activities. Responsibilities include knowledge, development, and implementation of programs, policies, and procedures for the program, as well as oversight of administrative and programmatic resources at the Toledo CBOC. The Senior Social Worker is assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. The Senior Social Worker collaborates with other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to the MHICM patient population, and ensures the care provided is on the highest quality. Further, responsibilities include monitoring of outcomes using a data-driven quality assurance process for a program that delivers specialized, complex, highly professional services that are important components of the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and significantly affect the health care provided to veterans at the Toledo CBOC. The incumbent has 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. Has the ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved scope of practice. The knowledge in developing specialized consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients in the service delivery area, as well as role model effective social work practice skills. 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 representing VAAAHS Mental Health Service as needed. Provides clinical consultation to various disciplines and levels of training (psychology practicum students, psychology interns, psychology postdoctoral residents, psychiatry residents, nursing, medical residents, medical students, social work trainees) VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Work Schedule: Monday-Friday (8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 93197-0 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to a background/security investigation
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements either by the closing date of this announcement or the issue of the hiring referral certificate(s) as requested by management, whichever is sooner. BASIC REQUIREMENTS a. Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. b. 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. c. 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/. Loss of Licensure or Certification. Once licensed or certified, social workers must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted independent license or certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of licensure or certification will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment. d. English Language Proficiency. Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English. 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 (difficulty), and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time. Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level. Senior social workers 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 and complexity. The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics. The senior social worker 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. The senior social worker provides leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff. They serve 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. This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management. This 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. Reference: VA HANDBOOK 5005/50, Part II, APPENDIX G39. SOCIAL WORKER QUALIFICATION STANDARD dated September 10, 2019 Physical Demands: The work of the social worker is community based with moderate physical activity. The incumbent must be able to operate a government vehicle several hours each day, walk up to a mile at a time, climb 2 to 3 flights of stairs at a time, and lift small objects . The incumbent must be capable of using a computer given all clinical charting is electronic.

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 Ann Arbor VA Medical Center 2215 Fuller Road Ann Arbor, MI 48105 US
• Name: Jeremiah Ferguson
• Phone: 734-882-3036
• Email: [email protected]