The Senior Social Worker for VA Community Care oversees and is lead provider for all social work services within the Community Care program. This position requires an incumbent with a broad background of clinical experience with both social work case management and comfort practicing in a medical area of focus. The program provides services over a very wide geographic area, mandating a collaborative approach with both internal and external stakeholders as well providing direct patient services.

Duties

Duties include: Incumbent serves as the facility Dialysis Coordinator The position requires that the Senior Social Worker serves in a two-way subject matter expert role. First, the social worker serves as the subject matter expert regarding Community Care services for all of Social Work Service. Conversely, the incumbent provides social work expertise to the Community Care Service. The incumbent provides all aspects of Primary Care Social Work available to veterans with a VA-based Patient Aligned Care Team to veterans who need social work as part of Community Care Standard Episode of Care (SEOC). This includes both veterans who may have ongoing social work needs and have Community Care Primary Care and veteran's who may have short-term social work needs specific to a SEOC associated with other Community Care consults. The social worker will develop an assessment of the Veteran in collaboration with the interdisciplinary treatment team, the Veteran, family members and significant others, whenever possible. The goal of the assessment is to highlight the Veteran's strengths, limitations, and internal/external supports and service needs in order to optimize the Veteran's functional status and safely maintain the Veteran in his/her home. It is the responsibility of the social worker, working within the interdisciplinary treatment team, to develop a treatment plan with the Veteran based on this assessment. The social worker is responsible for developing the treatment plan, and setting achievable treatment goals with the Veteran/family in collaboration with the interdisciplinary treatment team members. The social worker will include psychosocial problems onto the interdisciplinary treatment plan, will attend weekly interdisciplinary care planning meetings; ongoing assessments and will update treatment plans when necessary or as health status changes. Social workers will address the unique needs of homebound, frail, disabling/chronic and/or dying Veterans. The social worker is responsible for developing a resource file of VA and community social service programs and will refer the Veteran to needed services. Social worker will provide the Veterans and their caregivers with ongoing supportive counseling. The purpose of such counseling is to deal with the psychosocial impact of coping with chronic/disabling illness (es), onset of a catastrophic illness and/or dying, need for non-institutional or institutional services as needed during the course of the Veteran's enrollment in the HBPC Program. Work Schedule: M-F 8:00 AM-4:30 PM Functional Statement #: 000000

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 tohttp://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/. 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: (1) 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. (2) 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. (3) 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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 dated September 10, 2019 The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: The work requires sitting, bending, stooping, and walking consistent with the delivery of services in the office, hospital and community. The position may entail lifting of no more than 25 pounds on an occasional basis. Whenever possible, carts and dollies will be utilized as an alternative to lifting.

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 Charles George VA Medical Center 1100 Tunnel Road Asheville, NC 28805 US
• Name: James Shehan
• Phone: 828-318-7370
• Email: [email protected]