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. Program 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

NOTE: This position is multi-disciplinary and can be filled by: Social Worker, Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, Marriage & Family Therapist, and Psychologist. Applicants must apply to the appropriate vacancy announcement. Major duties include but is not limited to: Conducts interviews and counseling with clients and provides social/psychological assessment and treatment to clients; crisis intervention and both short and long term services. Provides guidance and consultation to other team members conducting interviews, counseling, and therapy. Refers cases requiring outpatient or inpatient treatment to the VA Medical Center or Outpatient Clinic or appropriate referral services. Responsible for establishing, maintaining and conducting outreach activities with veterans, community and service organizations, business and industry, professionals and the public. Provides psychodiagnostic testing and psychological assessment to those clients who display clinically severe or unusual psychological disturbances. Develops and coordinates procedures and programs to facilitate optimum use of these resources and services by the hospital, by other agencies and by the individual members of the target group. Provides direct social work intervention involving serious and complicated problems frequently encountered by veterans and their families or significant others. Provides indirect services to target groups through advocacy work and negotiations with other service agencies. Possesses and effectively implements specialized knowledge and skill in working with veterans, with their families and with their potential resources in the community. Independently providing highly skilled readjustment counseling services to clients with difficult and complex problems of social, emotional and vocational adjustment. Organizing counseling groups and functions as facilitator or therapist for counseling groups. Assists clients with applications for veteran's benefits and helping clients complete and channel VA documents and forms. Develops and maintains appropriate referral sources. Serves as the Contracting Officer Technical Representative for the fee/contracts program. Responsible for planning, implementation, evaluation and improvement of outreach, readjustment counseling and other clinical, therapeutic and treatment services delivered by the Vet Center. Responsible for program development, budget development and fiscal management, personnel management and resource utilization. Maintains timely and accurate computerized records of client interactions, assessments, treatment plans, and other information pertinent to client treatment, as well as personal daily work activity. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:30pm; Some evenings and weekends may be required to meet the Veteran's needs Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases when setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of existing pay, higher or unique qualifications, or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). 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) Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. 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 #: 687330 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU VA Careers - Licensed Clinical Social Worker: https://youtube.com/embed/U_xC25QsN0w Total-Rewards-of-an-Allied-Health-VA-Career-Brochure.pdf Social Work: vacareers.va.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/Total-Rewards-of-a-Social-Worker-Career-Flyer.pdf

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. The basic requirements for employment as a VHA social worker are prescribed by statute in 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(9), as amended by section 205 of Public Law 106-419, enacted November 1, 2000. To qualify for appointment as a social worker in VHA, all applicants must meet the following: 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 (chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g this part). 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/. 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). Experience and Education: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills in a specialty area or in administration demonstrating progressively more professional competency and judgment. 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. Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates. Licensure/Certification: Individuals assigned as Supervisory Social Workers 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, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: Ability to independently organize work, set priorities, and meet multiple deadlines Knowledge of supervisory duties which includes clinical supervision, consultation, negotiation with other departments and quality improvement. Ability to ensure provision of clinical social work services. Ability to provide staff training and development. Skill in interpersonal relationships in dealing with employees, team leaders, and managers. Assignment. 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. At the GS-12 grade level, supervisory social workers typically have significant personnel management responsibilities for a small to moderate sized professional and non-professional staff, including support staff and professional staff at the GS-12 grade level and below. The supervisory social worker is responsible for the professional and administrative management of an area in a social work service, in a care/product line, or multiple facilities. They provide direct clinical services with or without program coordination responsibilities. Preferred Experience: Working with combat veterans in providing family counseling services; working with veterans who were sexually traumatized/harassed while in the military; conducting psycho-social assessments and the provision of processing psychotherapy for trauma related conditions; and implementing treatment plans for combat Veterans/and their families References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39, Social Worker Qualification Standard GS-0185/12 Veterans Health Administration The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary. It may require some lifting (10-20 lbs) occasionally. Reaching above shoulder; Frequent keyboarding (4-7 hours per day); Sitting (4-7 hours per day); Walking up to 6 hours per day); Standing (up to 8 hours per day); Infrequent climbing/descending of stairs; Some bending; Ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously. Environmental factors: outside and inside, electrical energy, working closely with others, protracted or irregular hours of work, and repetitive computer use.

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 Readjustment Counseling Service 120 SE 6th Avenue, Ste. 102 Topeka, KS 66603 US
• Name: VHA National Recruitment Center
• Phone: (844)456-5208
• Email: [email protected]