This Senior Social Worker is part of the Mental Health Service, located at the White River Junction VA Healthcare Center. This position acts in the role of senior social worker to an interdisciplinary team of professionals and trainees working with Veterans. Provides supervision and consultation as appropriate, provides educational opportunities, provides direct patient care via individual and groups, and provides administrative duties and reports, as assigned by leadership.

Duties

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. VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU This position is responsible for both clinical and administrative oversight of our Residential Recovery Treatment Program (RRTP) at the White River Junction VA Medical Center within the Mental Health Service Line. The responsibilities of the Program Manager are broad and complex and requires and oversees a 14-bed residential recovery treatment program on the medical center campus. This program provides residential substance use services to Veterans which includes wrap around programming that includes assessment and screening, consultation, evidence-based group and individual therapies, case management, psychopharmacology for psychiatric symptoms, and medication-assisted therapies for substance use disorders. The Program Manager has a great deal of latitude in daily decision making related to clinical care and the development and implementation of clinical programming. The daily decisions made by the Program Manager have an impact on the lives of highly vulnerable and at-risk veterans receiving care in the RRTP. The Program Manager has multiple types of managerial responsibilities including: Overseeing and coordinating the work of the clinical team made up over an interdisciplinary staff to ensures they are working cohesively to deliver high quality care. Advocating for resources that are needed to deliver high quality care in this program. Ensuring the residential program meets all accreditation requirements of Joint Commission and CARF which includes maintaining a database, and completing a yearly program evaluation and quality improvement project. Completing a yearly accessibility review, business plan, and SWOT analysis as well as contribute to a strategic plan for residential care. Designing and implementing processes to ensure that the RRTP meets new and changing national and local VA performance measures for the Mental Health Service. Coordinating with numerous services in the hospital to ensure that the residential treatment program's physical environment meets all safety requirements and is responsible for ensuring that all deficiencies noted in accreditation visits, safety reviews, or environmental rounds are corrected. Participating in local and national committees to support the Mental Health Service and the medical center and representing the program on local accreditation and regulatory calls focused on residential care. Providing clinical supervision for trainees in social work and other health-related disciplines Providing consultation to other services in the hospital and direct clinical care in the RRTP including consultation and assessment, as well as group and individual therapies. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 6071 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required Notification: -This position is in the Excepted Service. -Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. -This position is a AFGE Bargaining Unit position. -This position is covered by locality-based comparability pay. -Selectee may be required to work at any VA White River Junction Healthcare System campus, as needed. -The incumbent may be required to travel to other VA campuses and CBOC's.-Narrative responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) may be required from the selectee in order to proceed with the appointment. -Current and former Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held.

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/. Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f). GRADE DETERMINATIONS. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. 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: 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. 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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39, Dated September 10, 2019. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: The physical demands of this position involve primarily walking, sitting, talking, driving, use of the telephone, etc. Light lifting, under 15 pounds, Light carrying, under 15 pounds, Hearing (aid permitted). Valid driver's license is required.

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 White River Junction VA Medical Center 215 North Main St. White River Jct., VT 05009 US
• Name: Dennis Lloyd
• Phone: (207) - 252 - 3523
• Email: [email protected]