The Palliative Care Coordinator Social Worker provides psychosocial and case-management services to eligible veterans and their family members to meet biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs throughout the VA Medical Center. Veterans treated come from a wide geographic area. Their health care and psychosocial challenges and needs are complex and require a high degree of clinical oversight and creative problem-solving.

Duties

Functions of Position: A. Clinical 1. The Hospice and Palliative Care Program Coordinator participates as an active member of the Palliative Care Consult Team and serves as the Social Work coordinator for inpatient and/or outpatient services for the Hospice and Palliative Care Programs. 2. Provides psychosocial assessment and treatment to a wide variety of individuals from various socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, educational, and other diversified backgrounds. This requires knowledge of human development and behavior (physical and psychological), and the differential influences of the environment, society, and culture. 3. The incumbent will independently conduct psychosocial assessments and provide psychosocial recommendations and/or treatment to a wide variety of individuals from various socio-economic, cultural, ethnic, educational, and other diverse backgrounds. This requires knowledge of human development and behavior (physical and psychological) and the differential influences of the environment, society, and cultural conduct. 4. The incumbent will participate in discharge planning with other disciplines and will be responsible for assisting that the identified discharge plans are executed in a manner that is timely, safe, and appropriate. 5. The incumbent will work with patients and families who are experiencing a variety of psychiatric, medical, and social challenges utilizing individual, group, and family counseling skills. The incumbent will assess the psychosocial functioning and needs of veterans and their family members and will assist in formulating and implementing a treatment plan, identifying the veterans' problems, strengths, growth opportunities, and coping skills. The incumbent will provide to veteran and family recommendations for psychosocial interventions. 6. Advanced knowledge of various psychosocial treatment modalities and ability to implement treatment modalities in working with individuals, families, and groups to achieve treatment goals. This requires clinical judgment and skill in using supportive, problem solving, or crisis intervention techniques. 7. Knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, and treatment procedures. This includes acute, chronic, and traumatic illnesses/injuries; common medications and their effects/side effects; and medical terminology. 8. The incumbent will provide a full range of Social Work services within commonly accepted standards of Social Work practice which includes assessment, individual, family and group counseling, discharge planning, case management and other services as appropriate. 9. Ability to provide consultation services to other staff about the psychosocial needs of patients and the impact of psychosocial challenges on health care and compliance with treatment. Ability to provide orientation and coaching to new social workers and Social Work graduate students. Ability to serve as a field instructor for Social Work graduate students who are completing Veterans Health Administration field placements. 10. Ability to independently provide counseling and/or psychotherapy services to individuals, groups, and families using a patient-centered approach. 11. The incumbent will assist patients and their significant others with coping and dealing with the anticipatory and actual loss and grief experiences in disability, terminal illness and death and will be highly skilled in end-of-life services, psychosocial treatment, and bereavement services. 12. The incumbent will act as liaison between VA and community resources, to include marketing and public relation duties as needed. B. Administrative 1. The incumbent will use computer software applications for drafting documents, data management, and tracking, especially those programs in use by VHA. 2. The incumbent will document initial assessments, treatment plans, and response to treatment electronically using CPRS medical chart timely, thoroughly, and accurately. 3. The incumbent has a basic awareness of eligibility requirements for service at federal, state, and local organizations. 4. Participates in interdisciplinary team conferences in person, by telephone, or through electronic mail exchanges. C. Professional Development 1. Participates in peer competency and documentation evaluations of other social workers, including collaboratively determining appropriate educational needs to strengthen competence. 2. Participates in policy and procedure development for PCCT services. 3. Attends continuing education programs and reads professional literature for the purpose of maintaining or improving knowledge, skills, and attitudes in work performance. 4. Applies new material learned towards the revision of procedures to reflect current methodology. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm Telework: Not available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 54453F Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. 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 (MSW) 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. Please note: A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work. Licensure. Licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. English Language Proficiency. Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Regulations. 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). Must pass a background check. Grade Requirements: GS-12 Social Worker (Program Coordinator) 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. Program coordinators at the GS12 grade level are administratively responsible for a clinical program providing treatment to Veterans in a major specialty area, such as but not limited to: Spinal Cord Injury, Homeless Continuum Veteran Program, Hospice and Palliative Care Program, Suicide Prevention Program, Veterans Justice Outreach, Caregiver Support Program and Community Nursing Home Program. The program coordinator may be the sole practitioner in this specialty at the facility and typically provide direct patient care services in the program area. The program coordinator oversees the daily operation of the program, develop policies and procedures for program operation, and prepare reports and statistics for facility, VISN, and national use. They may be responsible for the program's budget, developing and monitoring staff compliance with practice, standards and guidelines on documentation, workload, data entry, ethical practice and service delivery. The program coordinator provides analysis and evaluation of clinical program data and computerized programs to identify system-wide trends and needs to enhance the quality of service. They may be responsible for, or contribute to, the program's resource and fiscal management, monitoring control points developing the annual budget, operating within that budget, and accounting for appropriated funds. The program coordinator is administratively responsible for the clinical programming and prepares reports and statistics for facility, VISN, and national use. They provide leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned staff. They initiate and conduct a variety of program or service audits and complete designated clinical practice audits and reports, including productivity assessments. They oversee program operations and evaluations, identifying areas for improvement, gathering relevant data, assessing the data, developing and implementing ideas for improvement and evaluating efficacy of improvement efforts.] Experience/ Education. One year of experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressively more professional competency. Candidate may have certification or other post-master's degree training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship, or equivalent supervised professional experience. License. Individuals assigned as social worker program coordinator 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, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: 1. Knowledge of program coordination and administration which includes consultation, negotiation, and monitoring. 2. Knowledge and ability to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines for the program. 3. Ability to supervise multidisciplinary staff assigned to the program. 4. Skill in organizing work, setting priorities, meeting multiple deadlines, and evaluating assigned program area(s). 5. Ability to provide training, orientation, and guidance within clinical practice. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39, Social Worker Qualification Standard. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-11. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is a GS-12. Physical Requirements: Physical demands of the work are generally minor. The work is primarily sedentary. There is some walking, standing, bending, and carrying of light items such as papers, files, manuals and records. For additional information on Physical Standards please see VA Directive and Handbook 5019. http://www.va.gov/vapubs/

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 Carl Vinson VA Medical Center 1826 Veterans Boulevard Dublin, GA 31021 US
• Name: Jenna McCarthy
• Email: [email protected]