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 Provide professional, independent, specialized mental health treatment to veterans who are diagnosed with Substance Use Disorders and who are experiencing a wide range of complex medical, psychiatric, emotional, behavioral, and psychosocial problems. Provides individual, group and family psychotherapy interventions used in the treatment of veterans with substance use disorders and comorbid mental health needs, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and serious mental health disorders. Implement Measurement Based Care for measuring effectiveness of clinical practice and services in specialty areas, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services. Use subjective and objective data in making clinical assessment of the veteran's needs. Develop treatment plans in coordination with RRTP Team Members, including goals for treatment. Establish effective working relationships with VA staff and community-based agencies. Develop and maintain a current and productive network of referral resources. Make referrals to other services in the VA, as well as to other agencies, community resources, and other Governmental agencies. Act as a community and family liaison by initiating and maintaining necessary contact with the patient, his/her family, VA Healthcare System service programs and personnel, mental health agencies, and other related resource agencies. Assesses the psychosocial functioning and needs of Veterans and family members, identifying the Veteran's strengths, weaknesses, coping skills, and psychosocial acuity. Interview Veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the Veteran's situation, presenting problems and their causes, and the impact of such problems on the Veteran's functioning and health as part of a comprehensive psychosocial assessment. Review all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment identifying strengths, needs, abilities, and preferences. Use clinical training, insight, and experience to interpret data and identify viable treatment options. Assess high risk factors, acuity, and need for services. Assess and document identified behaviors or symptoms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and/or intimate partner violence. Conclude the appropriate action, even in instances where actions can have serious impact on the life of the veteran. Utilize increased depth and breadth of practice skills. Expertise in the professional development of colleagues through mentorship and teaching. Demonstrate leadership in developing and expanding professional interventions strategies. Demonstrate leadership in defining and attending to professional practice issues. Expand the conceptual knowledge of the profession. Make independent professional decisions and recommendation for agency action. Establish and maintain ongoing education programs for Veterans, community agencies, students, and staff to facilitate understanding of social work interventions specific to the Veteran/Military population. Advocate on behalf of the veteran to ensure that services and benefits are obtained in a timely manner and in keeping with the VA's goal for excellence in customer service. Receive and complete requests for services (consults) from interdisciplinary team members and from other social workers on complex, difficult cases, using advanced practice skills and expertise. Utilize crisis intervention techniques with Veterans who are in an acute crisis by implementing the Suicide Prevention and Management of Suicidal Behavior policy. Utilize advanced skill in working with individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management interventions used in the treatment of veterans with multiple co-occurring conditions. Utilize advanced and expert skill in a range of specialized evidence-based interventions and treatment modalities used for treatment of Substance Use Disorders and other co-morbid mental health conditions. Employ Social Work methods and techniques to maintain a therapeutic relationship that will help the Veteran work toward the best way of achieving their goals. Develop psychosocial treatment plans in coordination with interdisciplinary team members, including goals for psychosocial clinical treatment. Tailor treatment plans to individual Veterans needs to include but not limited to differential diagnoses, maladaptive coping skills, available or lack of resources/support, and/or on-going need for psychological support. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm Telework: AD-HOC Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 592170 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: May be Authorized EDRP Authorized: Contact Jillana [email protected], the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may 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. GS-12, Senior Social Worker 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. 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, candidates 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. Preferred Experience: Substance Use Disorder experience. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 Physical Requirements: 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. Social Worker must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation, if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the social worker or others. This position also requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading; and repetitive motions of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

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.

Contacts

• Address VA Western Colorado Health Care System 2121 North Avenue Grand Junction, CO 81501 US
• Name: Aaron Lavoie
• Phone: 207-450-2817
• Email: [email protected]