The Senior Social Worker of the Emergency Department for the Northern Arizona Healthcare System Social Work Services provides social work services in the Emergency Department (ED), and is assigned to provide support and assessment of psychosocial functioning and factors impacting Veteran overall health and functioning. ****Relocation/Recruitment Incentives May be Authorized for highly qualified candidates****

Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU The Emergency department Services Sr Social Worker must possess the knowledge and ability to independently assess and implement treatment modalities, identify level of functioning, degree of impairment in occupational, social, academic, interpersonal and family, evaluate and assess lethality, perform mental status exams (MSE), identify psychiatric manifestations of various medical conditions, possess knowledge of the criteria and state laws for legal commitment and involuntary hospitalizations, ability to assess and intervene with patients suspected of abuse or neglect. In addition, the Sr Social Work has working knowledge and experience in use of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, and treatment procedures in working with diverse populations and circumstances. This includes emergency department, chronic, and traumatic illnesses/injuries, psychiatric, medical, and social problems, common medications and their effects/side effects and medical terminology. The will have expertise as a subject matter expert in acute care services and a broad range of social work services that are required in times of crisis. Major duties include, but are not limited to: Assess for completion of suicide risk screening and assessments that include the assessment of suicidal/homicidal thoughts and behaviors. The incumbent will support the Veteran in completing a suicide safety plan and will engage in consultation with the Emergency Department and mental health providers. Senior Social Worker may also be consulted regarding allegations of abuse and neglect and will follow the established protocols including reporting and educating interdisciplinary team members on mandatory reporting to Elder and Child Protective Service agencies as necessary and clinically appropriate. Acts as the subject matter expert on VA and community resources and collaborates with other service providers to ensure Veterans receive appropriate services. Responsible for educating the Veteran and/or caregiver of available services and assisting them in establishing appropriate referrals based on the Veteran's preference or that of their surrogate decision-maker. Incumbent is responsible for providing a variety of services for Veterans referred from the Emergency Department including detox/residential treatment referrals, discharge planning, comprehensive psychosocial assessments, treatment planning, short-term solution focused counseling with individuals and families in crisis, provides education and referral for resources and benefits, case management, and post intervention follow-up. Provides appropriate warm hand off when transferring patient care to internal and external providers. Enters all Veteran/family contacts in the electronic record system using appropriate formats and templates and are to enter consults and make assessments based on their Advanced level of licensure. Attends all appropriate meetings (interdisciplinary treatment team meetings, Social Work Service staff meetings, other committees, or workgroups as appropriate, etc.) and perform other duties as required. Engages in program development needs to include the development and modification of existing, and new, Standard Operation of Care (SOP) policies and procedures to meet the needs of the department. Senior Social Worker has responsibility for fulfilling assigned interdisciplinary work assignments. The Sr social worker practices at the advanced level and has specialized knowledge of practice typically related to chronically ill, at risk, geriatric and/or elderly patients. Must be able to provide supervision for licensure and other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday: 7:00AM - 3:30PM Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be Authorized to highly qualified candidates Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: Citizenship: Be a citizen of the United States. 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/. Grade Determinations: GS-12 (1) 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. (2) 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. (3) 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. Preferred Experience: 1 year working with medically ill patients. 1 year working with medically ill patients in the ER. References: VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G39 - Social Worker Qualification Standard. Physical Requirements: Involve active listening, reading, observing, and evaluating verbal and nonverbal behavior, walking, speaking, writing reports, writing policies and procedures, writing clinical notes, using office equipment such as computers, telephones, fax machines, photocopy machines and travel throughout the Medical Center, into the community to meet community agencies and partners, Veterans, and caregivers. Must also be able to perform CPR and remain current in BLS certification.

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 Bob Stump VA Medical Center 500 Highway 89 North Prescott, AZ 86313 US
• Name: Queen Dimas
• Phone: 562-826-8000
• Email: [email protected]