Job opening: Senior Social Worker - Substance Use Disorder
Salary: $89 329 - 116 124 per year
Published at: Feb 08 2024
Employment Type: Full-time
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
The Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Services Intensive Outpatient Clinic Provider, is aligned under the STARS Program Coordinator under Mental Health Product Line (MHPL). The incumbent functions as part of a multidisciplinary mental health team, conducts psychological and cognitive assessments, and diagnoses and treats veterans with a SUD through use of evidence-based practices. The provider in this position is expected to be trained in and use evidenced based psychotherapies for the treatment of substance use disorders and co-occurring conditions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Substance Use Disorders (CBT-SUD), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure (COPE). The core of the incumbent's duties is assessment of SUD and outpatient service delivery including group, individual, and family formats. This position includes programming and services both within the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) as well as lower levels of outpatient care. Duties includes but are not limited to:
Knowledge of substance use disorders (SUD) and co-occurring disorders including assessment, prevention, treatment planning, and evidence-based treatments.
Incumbent must possess knowledge of specialized issues such as impact on relationships, the detoxification process for various substances, relapse prevention, and aftercare.
Determines appropriate treatment or rehabilitation for individual patients.
Recommends and assists the patient in setting standards of behavior and goals for evaluation of progress.
Independently treats SUDs and co-occurring mental disorders through a variety of modalities and provides adjunctive interventions for treatment of mental disorders.
Among the modalities provided are time limited, evidence based individual, family, and group psychotherapies
Providing direct, concurrent, clinical care using established evidence- based practices for Veterans with SUD diagnoses.
The specialist will provide a range of psychological interventions (individual, family, couples and group therapy) consistent with training and expertise, with special emphasis on evidenced-based treatments for SUDs.
Evidence-based treatments to be provided to Veterans individually or in group format with appropriate documentation and measurement of effectiveness and Veteran response using clinical judgment and standardized assessment instruments.
Develops, implements, and documents the psychotherapeutic treatment plan for an assigned caseload of patients, including prompt completion of clinical reminders.
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm
Telework: Not Available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 502-00409-F
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
EDRP Authorized: Contact
[email protected], the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
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/.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: Social Worker (Senior Social Worker), GS-12 In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates
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. 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, the candidate 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.
Reference: VA HANDBOOK 5005/120 September 10, 2019 PART II APPENDIX G39
Preferred Experience:
Treatment of veterans and/or VA experience
2+ years experience providing psychotherapy and services related to alcohol and/or substance use
Experience with couples and family therapy
Physical Requirements: Work is primarily sedentary but also demands use of fingers, walking, standing, hearing, light lifting, and carrying light items.
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 Alexandria VA Medical Center
2495 Shreveport Highway
Pineville, LA 71360
US
- Name: Rena Hairston
- Phone: 504-521-9608
- Email: [email protected]
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