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

Primary Care/Behavioral Health (PCBH) Social Worker would be responsible for case management and community referral and connections. Additional tasks assigned to Primary Care/Behavioral Health (PCBH) Social Worker by VACO, including tasks related to Intimate Partner Violence screening and case manage, opiate and pain management, etc. Social Worker will be tasked with developing and supporting a Complementary and Alternative Medicine program that would be connected with PCBH would require support. Supervise Social Work Fellows in the Interprofessional Education Fellowship. Duties may include, but are not limited to: Interviews veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the veteran's situation, presenting problems and their causes, and the impact of such problems on the veteran's functioning and health as part of a comprehensive psychosocial assessment. Reviews all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment identifying needs and strengths. Uses advanced clinical training, insight, and experience to interpret data and to identify viable treatment options. Assesses high risk factors, acuity, and need for services. Performs insightful assessment of serious and complicated cases involving psychiatric illness involving psychiatric, catastrophic medical conditions, dementia and other high-risk diagnoses. Develops psychosocial treatment plans in coordination with interdisciplinary team members, including goals for psychosocial clinical treatment. Provides independent consultation and makes recommendations to interdisciplinary team on course of treatment. Coordinates screening of patients for specific mental health programs, such as PCT, and provides ongoing treatment per mental health program guidelines. Evaluates his/her practice on an on-going basis through participation in professional peer review, case conferences, research studies, or other organized means. Makes adjustments to the psychosocial treatment plan and interventions based on changing needs and response to interventions. Initiates and effects changes in methods and interventions to promote efficient practice and improve patient outcomes. Communicates confidence in the veteran's ability and worth, helping the veteran address problems utilizing large support systems as appropriate. Provides individual and group counseling services, including psychotherapy in some settings. Establishes a continuing relationship with the veteran, evaluating progress towards goals and adjusting the treatment plan as appropriate. Monitors veteran's progress, maintains comprehensive documentation, ensures expert diagnosis and treatment of clinical disorders, and shows competent discretion in decision to adjust treatment. Directs/coordinates clinical and psychosocial services and is accountable for the overall effectiveness of the services provided. Conducts staff development programs for Social Workers and takes responsibility for providing opportunities to help staff update their Social Work practice skills and acquire new knowledge in contemporary treatment modalities. Provides clinical supervision for unlicensed Social Workers and for Social Work associates. Provides training to students, residents, interns, and fellows from other disciplines. VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU 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 #: F05456 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. 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). Grandfathering Provision: 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). 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: 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. 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. 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. 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/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. 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. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: (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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39 - Social Worker Qualification Standard. Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services.

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]