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

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU VA Careers - Licensed Clinical Social Worker: https://youtube.com/embed/U_xC25QsN0w Total-Rewards-of-an-Allied-Health-VA-Career-Brochure.pdf Social Work: vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Total-Rewards-of-a-Social-Worker-Career-Flyer.pdf The Senior Social Worker must be sensitive to the ethnic and cultural diversity and age-specific challenges across the spectrum of Veterans served and facilitate efficient and appropriate delivery of behavioral health services across episodes of Veteran care, both within the main VA clinic and surrounding Community Based Outpatient Clinics. The Senior Social Worker works both independently and collaboratively with other treatment team members, professionals, and non-professionals both at VA facilities and other community agencies to assist Veterans in managing their mental health issues, psychosocial needs, and barriers to treatment in order to mitigate risk factors related to suicide. The Senior Social Worker assesses psychosocial and environmental needs secondary to, or exacerbating the psychiatric issues which might contribute to the risk of suicide. The Senior Social Worker establishes and maintains an intensive therapeutic relationship with the Veteran, family, and/or significant others, if appropriate, and assists in identifying needs, stressors and problems. The Senior Social Worker provides ongoing continuity of care to Veterans, in conjunction with the Veteran's care providers, and assists in the development of a structured continuum of care for each case assigned. The work of this position is highly complex, involving a combination of mental health administrative skills and intensive clinical services and carries full professional responsibility for cases presenting with complex and varied psychosocial issues. The Senior Social Worker serves in conjunction with Suicide Prevention Program and other facility staff to provide individualized comprehensive care coordination, clinical services and crisis intervention to Veterans identified as high risk for suicide. The Senior Social Worker must use a high level of skill in assessing and managing the complicated psychosocial problems of identified high-risk Veterans who are experiencing a wide range of complicated mental, emotional, behavioral, physical, psychosocial, and environmental issues to include but not limited to acute and chronic illness, combat stress, the residuals of traumatic brain injury (TBI), community adjustment, and addictions. Duties are continued in the Education Section of this announcement. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8 AM - 4:30 PM Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Authorized Recruitment Incentives. Recruitment incentives may be authorized to full-time, part time[,] or intermittent individuals in their first appointment as a Federal employee or to a newly appointed former Federal employee with at least a 90-day break in service

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. Moderate lifting/carrying (15-44 lbs), Use of fingers, Walking 5 hours, Standing 3 hours, Operation of a crane, truck, tractor, or motor vehicle, Ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously, Near vision correctable at 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, Hearing (aid permitted) English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). May meet this requirement through the Grandfathering Provision Preferred Experience: Experience working with or providing case management for patients with complex needs experience working with veterans in crisis and conducting risk assessments at least one year of experience with developing and implementing large scale outreach events experience with providing education and consultation to multidisciplinary teams experience with completing safety plans Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade level. Senior Social Worker, GS-12 Experience and 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. Individuals assigned Senior Social Worker must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level and must be able to provide supervision for licensure. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate 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 Physical Requirements: There are no set physical requirements for this position. Use of eyes, hands, walking/standing and hearing may be needed to perform some functions. Mental, emotional, and cognitive stability are required. References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39, September 10, 2019 The grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12.

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.

Note: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.

Note: If your school was accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (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. 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.

Duties Continued: Case management responsibilities include but are not limited to:

- Personal contact with all high-risk Veterans assigned to the incumbent's
caseload
- Data collection, administrative record keeping, monitoring of patient program clinical indicators, and performance measurements
- In conjunction with the treatment team, ensuring a Safety Plan has been completed and is routinely updated;
- In conjunction with the treatment team, ensuring ongoing suicide risk assessments are completed;
- In conjunction with the treatment team, ensure that all high-risk Veterans receive comprehensive behavioral health care;
- Participation in treatment team meetings/staffings and staff consultation to assist treatment team members with management of high risk Veterans;
- Completion of specialized training and/or certification in evidenced-based treatment for high-risk behavior as needed;
- Review/provision of comprehensive discharge planning and social service referrals to high- risk Veterans and families;
- No show and appointment cancellation follow-up - consulting with treatment team members regarding follow up contact attempts for Veterans on the high risk list who have no showed or cancelled appointments when the care team has been unable to contact them
- Ensuring that identified high-risk Veterans have been provided with the Veterans Crisis Line 24-hour resource number to call and/or other strategies for receiving assistance if an immediate crisis should occur;
- Obtaining relevant release of information documentation in compliance with HIPAA and other federal mandates to allow transmittal of facility data on suicide attempts and individuals at risk and transmitting the data following cyber security requirements as applicable for this sensitive data;
- Participation and assistance with facilitating high risk for suicide staffings to determine initial, continuation, or removal of high risk status;
- Respond to new referrals from staff members, VCL, or other touch points for determination of high risk status;
- Provide consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial and psychiatric treatment of Veterans at high risk for suicide, rendering professional opinions based on experience and expertise and role modeling effective social work practice skills.

Facilitation of suicide prevention strategies to internal and external stakeholders:
The incumbent is responsible for the education of providers, Veterans,
families and community stakeholders on the risk factors and warning signs for
suicide, suicide risk assessment and safety planning, lethal means counseling, self-directed violence behavior classification system, and treatment strategies for Veterans at risk for suicide. In addition to education and training, the incumbent is also responsible for assisting with data collection for all suicides and suicidal behavior as required by local, VISN, and VACO suicide prevention requirements and participation and facilitation of performance improvement activities.
Suicide prevention responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Provision of Operation VA SAVE (warning signs and risk factors of suicide as well as intervention) training to employees, including new employees during New Employee Orientation as well as to community stakeholders including Veterans, family members, Veterans service organizations, and any other agencies that interact with Veterans;
- Provision of training for clinical staff to include topics such as suicide risk assessment, safety planning, lethal means counseling, and the self-directed violence classification system;
- Provision of training to non-clinical staff to manage suicidal callers;
- Monthly outreach activities to community stakeholders on suicide prevention in the assigned catchment area
- Ongoing data tracking using national, VISN, and other local level data collection applications as needed to include suicides, suicide attempts, other serious suicidal behavior and ideation, Veterans identified as high risk, and outreach activities in the ELPVA catchment area;
- Completion of Behavioral Health Autopsy Program (BHAP) and Family Interview Tool - Contact (FIT-C) forms for suicides as assigned;
- Participation in administrative committees associated with tracking and monitoring of high-risk Veterans and serving as back-up to other Suicide Prevention Program staff as needed;
- Assistance with maintaining and implementing the facility suicide prevention mail program;

Duties are continued in the Additional Information Section of the announcement.

Contacts

• Address El Paso VA Clinic 5001 North Piedras Street El Paso, TX 79930 US
• Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
• Email: [email protected]