This position is in the Mental Health Service located at the Bedford VA Healthcare System. This position is full-time at 40 hours per week.

Duties

The Psychology Program Manager of Inpatient Mental Health is located in Psychology Service within the Mental Health Service Line. Program Manager serves to develop, oversee, and manage clinical programming, education, training, and administrative operations related to Inpatient Mental Health services at VA Bedford Health Care System. Duties may include, but are not limited to: Collaborates with the VAMC Local Recovery Coordinator and other key stakeholders to develop and refine local SOPs to address the education, staff training and implementation of recovery-oriented care. Collaborates with the Inpatient Mental Health Nurse Manager and Patient Safety to ensure a safe and secure environment of care on the Inpatient Unit. Ensures that all interdisciplinary treatment team members meet regularly and work collaboratively with each Veteran in the development and implementation of a comprehensive inpatient mental health treatment plan. Works closely with leadership to ensure the unit has sufficient clinical coverage on weekends and holidays. Develops, implements, and oversees procedures to meet local and national goals and benchmarks related to provider productivity, Veterans' access to and engagement in services, satisfaction, quality, and other related measures that contribute to MHSL performance. Provides direction to front-line clinicians to ensure safe, efficient, and successful functioning of the unit. Initiates and supports multiple internal performance improvement projects and reports findings regularly to key stakeholders. Consults with and serves as resource for other professional staff concerning the need for the provision and development of services. Involves in the process of hiring staff and selecting trainees. Attends VISN and VACO calls related to the provision and management of inpatient mental health services. Plans, develops, promotes, and manages patient-centered, recovery-oriented psychological services on the unit, including consultation, assessment, and psychotherapy. Provides full range of psychodiagnostics services, including clinical assessment and uses evidence-based approaches to ensure quality care to Veterans. Provides a full range of patient-centered, recovery-oriented therapeutic interventions, with an emphasis on delivering efficient, evidence based therapeutic interventions to individuals, couples, family members, and groups. Engages in routine outcomes monitoring of patients assigned. Provides clinical care coordination and case management of patients assigned. Conducts structured clinical interviews, provide comprehensive intake assessments, crisis interventions, completes mental health and addiction screenings, clinical reminders, evaluates Veterans for suicidal and homicidal ideation plans, and/or behavior, provides diagnoses, consults with colleagues regarding Veteran care plans, and ensures that Veterans are linked to appropriate treatment. Involved in the Psychology Training Program and Training Committee and provides clinical supervision and didactics to psychology trainees at all levels of training. Serves on Medical Center or Healthcare System, VISN, and/or National VA committees or task forces as assigned. Represents psychology on decision-making committees at the Medical Center or Healthcare System as assigned. Performs other related professional duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-Time, Mon-Fri, 8:00am-4:30pm. Compressed/Flexible:Not Available. Telework: Available for Ad-hoc. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: F07660. EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required. Notifications: This position is in the Excepted Service. Veterans' preference does not apply for internal or other current permanent Federal agency employees. Current or formal Federal employees must submit copies of their most recent SF-50, (Notice of Personnel Action). The SF-50 must identify the position title, series, grade, step, tenure and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). In some cases, more than one SF-50 may be required to show a higher grade previously held. This position is in a bargaining unit position. This position is covered by a special rate. Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP) Authorized: This position is eligible for 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 your start date. 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. Contact VISN1 EDRP Support [email protected] for questions/assistance.

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. English Language Proficiency. Psychologists must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j. Licensure. Hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia. Education:(1) Have a doctoral degree in psychology from a graduate program in psychology accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS), or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) at the time the program was completed. The specialty area of the degree must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. For the purpose of meeting this requirement, the term "specialty area" refers to the specific specialty areas recognized by the accrediting body and not to specific job duties that might require special skills. Currently, APA accredits doctoral programs in the specialty areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, or combinations of two or more of those areas. PCSAS accredits doctoral programs in psychological clinical science. CPA accredits doctoral programs in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and school psychology. There are no job assignments in VHA that require the skills of a school psychologist; therefore, an applicant with a degree in the specialty area of school psychology is not eligible for appointment. Strictly for the purpose of determining eligibility for appointment as a psychologist in VHA, there is no distinction between the specialty areas (with the exception of school psychology). OR (2) Have a doctoral degree in any area of psychology and, in addition, successfully complete a re-specialization program (including documentation of an approved internship completed as part of the re-specialization program) meeting both of the following conditions: (a) The re-specialization program must be completed in an APA or a CPA accredited doctoral program; and, (b) the specialty in which the applicant is retrained must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. OR (3) Have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution, with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature.] AND Internships (a) Have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program that was accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed and that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. OR (b) New VHA psychology internship programs that are in the process of applying for APA accreditation are acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement, provided that such programs were sanctioned by the VHA Central Office Program Director for Psychology and the VHA Office of Academic Affiliations at the time that the individual was an intern; OR (c) VHA facilities that offered full-time, one-year pre-doctoral internships prior to PL 96-151 (pre1979) are considered to be acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement; OR (d) Applicants who completed an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. (NOTE: Once board certified, the employee is required to maintain board certification.) OR (e) Applicants who have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally accredited institution with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature may fulfill this internship requirement by having the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience in a site specifically acceptable to the candidate's doctoral program. If the internship experience is not noted on the applicant's official transcript, the applicant must provide a statement from the doctoral program verifying that the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience was completed in a site acceptable to the doctoral program. NOTE: The applicant must provide an official transcript and/or certificate documenting the completion of the re-specialization program, which includes completion of an APA or CPA internship. [Psychologists who have successfully completed a re-specialization program as described above and who were employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs prior to the implementation of this standard are considered to have fully met the educational requirements of these qualification standards.] 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: Psychology Program Manager, GS-14 Experience. At least three years of experience as a professional psychologist, with at least one year equivalent to the GS-13 grade level. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: 1. Ability to organize work, set priorities, delegate tasks, and meet multiple deadlines. 2. Knowledge of and ability to utilize evidence based practices and clinical practice guidelines appropriately and ability to guide staff in using these tools. 3. Ability to deal effectively with individuals or groups representing widely divergent backgrounds, interests, and points of view. 4. Skill in managing and directing the work of others to accomplish program goals and objectives. 5. Ability to translate management goals and objectives into well-coordinated and controlled work operations. 6. Ability to establish and monitor production and performance priorities and standards. 7. Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems and to develop and implement solutions that result in sound operation of the program. Preferred Experience: Experience utilizing evidence-based interventions for PTSD, Depression, and other mental health conditions. Experience implementing a recovery-­oriented, episodic model of care. References: VA Handbook 5005/103 Part II Appendix G18. Physical Requirements: Please see VA Handbook and Directive 5019, Employee Occupational Health.

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 Bedford Healthcare System 200 Springs Road Bedford, MA 01730 US
• Name: Molina Vantha
• Phone: 781 687 2000
• Email: [email protected]