The Senior Social Worker practices in the Emergency Department to provide psychiatric emergency services as a licensed mental health provider. The Senior Social Worker also provides social work services in the Emergency Department setting for Veterans, and at times, humanitarians. The Social Worker is required to work non-traditional shifts which could include weekends and holidays as required. The employee may also be required to completely alter their work tour when coverage is required.

Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU The incumbent covers social work needs for Veterans admitted to the medical acute care/critical care and inpatient mental health units during the evening and weekend hours. Coverage includes completing social work psychosocial assessments and offering assistance with any emergent issues that arise after hours. The incumbent serves a patient population with highly complex medical and mental health issues. The Senior Social Worker is assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. As a Senior Social Worker, the incumbent has experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment and at least two years in an area of specialized social work practice. The incumbent must be licensed at the advanced practice level. The incumbent requires specialized knowledge of psychiatric emergency diagnosis, intervention, and treatment. She/He must also be skilled in the areas of post-traumatic stress disorder, interpersonal violence, sexual assault, child, elder, and dependent abuse, substance abuse, grief and bereavement, and end of life issues. The advanced practice Social Worker demonstrates an ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, provide consultation and guidance to colleagues, role model effective social work practice skills, teach or provide orientation to less experienced Social Workers, develop innovations in practice interventions, and provide clinical supervision for social work licensure or certification. The incumbent performs specialized treatment of complex physical and mental illness for patients in the emergency department with psychiatric emergencies. Services are primarily provided in the emergency department with very little supervisory control. The incumbent is typically the only Social Worker on duty after normal business hours, during weekends and on holidays.. He/She must demonstrate significantly advanced clinical skills and be able to function independently. The number of patients served is considerable. The incumbent incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnoses and treatment of Veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Specific tasks may include: evaluation, DSM diagnosis, and intervention for psychiatric emergencies in the emergency department; psychosocial assessment, treatment planning, and coordination of care for patients that require inpatient mental health placement; consultation with other emergency services; and the end of life counseling. The Senior Social Worker is able to provide individual, group, and family psychotherapy and advanced level case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans with serious medical and psychiatric disorders. The Social Worker provides services that access the continuum of care. The Social Worker provides services on an outpatient basis. The Social Worker develops and implements methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the emergency psychiatric care and crisis intervention specialty areas, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services. The incumbent is able to demonstrate the ability to design changes based on empirical findings. The Senior Social Worker offers consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients treated in specialty areas, rendering professional opinions based on experience and expertise and role modeling effective social work practice skills. The incumbent demonstrates the ability to teach and mentor staff and students in the special area of practice and to provide supervision for licensure or specialty certifications. The Social Worker performs other related deuties as assigned. Work Schedule: Week1: Thursday 6:30am - 7:00pm, Friday 6:30am - 7:00pm, Saturday 6:30am - 7:00pm Week 2: Wednesday 6:30am - 7:00pm, Thursday 06:30am - 7:00pm, Friday 6:30am - 3:00pm, Saturday 6:30am - 7:00pm Telework: Not available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 544-54167F Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. 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. Applicants must pass a pre-employment physical exam/screening. 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 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). Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. GS-12, Senior Social Worker: 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. AND Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as Senior Social Worker 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. AND 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. 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: The Senior Social Worker practices in the Emergency Department to provide psychiatric emergency services as a licensed mental health provider. The Social Worker also provides traditional social work services in the Emergency Department setting for Veterans. Previous experience working in an emergency department is preferred. Mental Health experience would be ideal. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 dated September 10, 2019. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: The incumbent must be in overall good health, able to sit at a desk working at a computer, engage in light to moderate physical activity including sitting, walking, bending, and carrying supplies. The incumbent must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands with reasonable accommodation, if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the Social Worker or others.

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 Columbia VA Health Care System 6439 Garners Ferry Road Columbia, SC 29209 US
• Name: Leslie Hawkins
• Phone: 210-439-6422
• Email: [email protected]