This position is located within Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The person in this position is organizationally aligned under Social Work Service and serves as a Senior Social Worker in the Emergency Department.

Duties

Total-Rewards-of-an-Allied-Health-VA-Career-Brochure.pdf The Emergency Department Senior Social Worker will provide a full range of advance practice psychological assessment services and diagnose mental disorders, particularly for complex patients experiencing mental health crises. The incumbent will serve as the assigned MH provider in the ED. This person will also serve as a member of the ED SW On-call team. Incumbent must be able to work independently and serve as a subject matter expert for patients experiencing medical crisis, homelessness, serious mental illness. Incumbent will provide education to patients, family members, and significant others. The ED Senior Social Worker will must be able to effectively utilize VA and community resources. The incumbent must be able to make clinical determinations for patients requiring voluntary and involuntary psychiatric admissions. Incumbent will function independently as a member of Charlies Norwood VAMC Medical Staff with clinical privileges. Other duties include but are not limited to: Independently able to screen and assess for suicidal risk, plan or intent utilizing the Suicide Risk Stratification Process. Individual will facilitate discharge planning from the Emergency Department for patients not requiring inpatient admission. Individual must have knowledge of mental health diagnoses, mental health treatment planning and crisis intervention. Provide supportive counseling and appropriate case management services to reduce the Veteran's stress throughout various phases of treatment. Interviews Veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the Veteran's clinical situation. Reviews all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment identifying needs and strengths. Develops collaborative mental health treatment plans and completes Safety Plans for all patients seen for suicidal concerns. Serves as a member of the ED Treatment team. Facilitates admissions to appropriate levels of care in collaboration with ED treatment team. Completes MH Assessments and makes clinical recommendations as appropriate. Completes SW Assessments for patients requiring general social work treatment to include homelessness, transportation, food, shelter and clothing. ncumbent will complete programmatic consults as needed. Individuals will complete Advance Directive Education and facilitate the completion of Advance Directives with patients and families. Performs other duties as assigned by management. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 08:00 am-04:30pm. Tour of duty subject to change based on agency needs. Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #:PDF00417 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

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 master's degree in 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/. English Language Proficiency. In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), no person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English. 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. Resume must clearly state/document at least two years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure. 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. References: VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G39 Social Worker Qualification Standard The full performance level of this vacancy is G-12. Physical Requirements: Extended periods of standing, bending and carrying light items such as books, medical records and paper is required. Walking long distance throughout the medical center, on units, between divisions, and traveling to CBOC's may be required. Conducting patient encounters in a community setting or in the patient's home environment may be required. This position often places the incumbent in a situation of stress. Due to the nature of the work, the incumbent may come in contact with veteran patients who are hostile, irritated, confused, intoxicated or have a contagious condition. Ability to drive a car and have a valid state license may be required. Exposure to dangerous situation in the community, from traffic accidents to crime is also possible.

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 Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center One Freedom Way Augusta, GA 30901 US
• Name: Kari Murani
• Phone: (302) 598-1365
• Email: [email protected]