This Social Worker position is in Social Service at the VA Boston Healthcare System, located at the Jamaica Plains, MA campus. This position is full time at 40 hours per week. This position is a temporary appointment not to exceed 09/30/2024.

Duties

The VA Regional Community Coordinator serves as the VA Boston Healthcare Systems'(VABHS) VRCC Social Worker, the facility representative for all activities related to community partnership, outreach, and external coordination that support successful military-to-civilian transition. As a member of the VABHS Post-9/11 Military 2 VA (M2VA) Case Management Program, the incumbent serves as the regional primary point of contact for the Veterans Sponsor Partnership Network (VSPN) initiative and regional VA community partner Veteran serving organizations. Community partners aligned with VSPN assist service members and Veterans in transition to civilian life and the post-military community of their choice, connect Veterans with peer sponsors trained by VA, and refer Veterans to VA at the Veteran's request for healthcare services and other benefits. The VRCC Social Worker supports regional sponsor training, facilitated the development and implementation of public-private partnerships (P3), and may also provide direct support to Transitioning Servicemembers/Veterans (TSM/Vs) as directed or requested. The VRCC Social Worker works closely with the facility Suicide Prevention coordinator and the Outreach program coordinator to accomplish mutually shared goals and tasks. As a Social Worker in the M2VA Program at VABHS, the incumbent may provide psychosocial and mental health assessments, treatment planning and coordination, psychosocial interventions, counseling, referral, and education services to program participants with consultation and collaboration on an interdisciplinary team and with affiliated agencies. As the VRCC Social Worker within VISN 1, the incumbent works with M2VA staff and programs serving OEF/OIF/OND Veterans throughout VISN 1. The Incumbent in this position requires advanced knowledge and understanding of the services and benefits available for Veterans from Federal, State, and private sector resources and how to make appropriate referrals. As an advanced practice level clinical social worker, the Incumbent is assigned to work with multiple VA healthcare services and with community agencies, leaders, and organizations where they may have limited access to social work clinical supervision. The Incumbent will support the M2VA Program's case management services focused on optimizing Veteran functioning by facilitating the achievement of Veteran wellness and autonomy through advocacy and access, assessment, planning, communication, education, and resource management. The incumbent provides clinical evidence-based services, including comprehensive record review, biopsychosocial assessment, and intervention; Veteran, family, Caregiver, and staff education on program services; community outreach; resource development; continuous quality improvement activities; and evaluation/consultation. The Incumbent accomplishes this by completing a thorough independent biopsychosocial assessment, utilizing knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses to formalize a treatment/intervention plan based on measurable, achievable goals and identifying the Veteran's strengths, weaknesses, coping skills, and biopsychosocial acuity. The Incumbent will also possess knowledge of acute, chronic, and traumatic illnesses and understand common medications and their potential side effects. The Incumbent will have skills in implementing different treatment modalities throughout the formulation of a treatment plan while working with Veterans, families, and groups experiencing psychiatric, medical, behavioral health, financial, legal, and social problems to achieve these set treatment goals. The Incumbent may also provide a range of interventions, including individual, group, and family counseling or psychotherapy. They will formulate and implement a comprehensive treatment plan to include measurable and achievable goals identifying the Veteran's strengths, weaknesses, needs, coping skills, and biopsychosocial acuity. The Incumbent is practicing at the advanced level and has specialized knowledge of practice that can be differentiated from the independent practice social worker by their ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, administer a facility program, provide consultation and guidance to colleagues, role model effective social work practice skills, teach or provide orientation to less experienced social workers, develop innovations in practice interventions, and provide clinical supervision for social work licensure or certification. The Incumbent will serve as the primary VA point of contact for state/regional community partners, including organizations in the VSPN and supporting Veteran sponsor initiatives (VSI). Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Maybe authorized at supervisor's discretion. Telework: Maybe authorized Functional Statement:PDF07327 Virtual/Remote Work: Not Authorized Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 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). Grandfathering Provision. The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation. 1). All persons employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply: 2) Such employees in an occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions. 3) Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard. 4) Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation. 5) If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. 7401(3) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation. NOTE: If social workers covered under the grandfathering provision of the 1991 Federal law regarding licensure or certification of VHA social workers leave the GS 0185 social work series, they lose the grandfathering protection. If they choose to return at a later date to the GS-0185 series, they must be licensed or certified to qualify for employment as a social worker. Grade Determinations: Senior Social Worker, GS-12 Experience 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 and 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. and Demonstrate the following Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (a) 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. (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. (c) 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. (d) 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. (e) 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: 1. LICSW 2. Community-based/Home-based care experience 3. Experience working with VA and community-based programs 4. Case Management experience 5. Experience working with a clinical multi-disciplinary team 6. Experience working with Veterans and their families 7. Experienced with Program Evaluation/Design/Development/Process improvement and data collection 8. Networking, outreach, and public speaking/presentation experience 9. Experience working with High-risk clients 10. Experience collaborating with leadership 11. Experience with budget/resource management VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU References: VA Handbook 5005 Part II Appendix G39-Social Worker Qualification Standard The full performance level of this vacancy is GS 12. Physical Requirements: Position requires participation in the delivery of care in community settings including travel and visits to residential facilities, community nursing homes, groups homes, medical foster homes and other appropriate settings. Traveling throughout the Medical Center and CBOCs is required. 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. Applicants 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 applicant or others.

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 VA Boston Healthcare System 940 Belmont Street Brockton, MA 02301 US
• Name: Diane McClure
• Phone: 774-826-4912
• Email: [email protected]