This Full-time, permanent Social Work position is located at the Boise VA Medical Center (BVAMC) within the Geriatric and Extended Care (GEC) Service Line of Nursing Service. This Social Worker position is for the STAR-VA/BRO Team.

Duties

Duties: 1) Exhibit a high level of skill and expertise in the work with patients and families who are experiencing a wide range of complicated mental, emotional, behavioral, physical, psychosocial, and environmental problems. 2) Possess knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses commonly associated with geriatric patients and dementia diagnosis as well as insight into the needs of and services required for individuals with these conditions and the skills to implement treatment modalities. 3) Use the social work process (psychosocial assessment, diagnosis, and treatment) in collaboration with interprofessional team members to develop holistic case management care plan to implement appropriate psychosocial treatment interventions and behavioral management strategies. 4) Demonstrate advanced level of clinical independence and serve as an active participant in the treatment planning process with the STAR-VA/BRO Team and other interdisciplinary team members. 5) Must be sensitive to the ethnic and cultural diversity and age-specific challenges of the population and adjusts intervention and treatment plans as appropriate. 6) As a member of the health care team, participates fully in developing, planning, implementing and evaluating and following up on the needs of the veteran. 7) Coordinate care with the interprofessional team and community contacts to promote successful disposition plans and continuity of care. 8) Coordinate discharge plans with other disciplines and is responsible for ensuring that discharge plans are executed in a manner that is timely and appropriate. 9) Provide consultation and education to veterans and families on community resources, advance directives, guardianships, commitments, VA benefits and other elements that may be specific to the care of the individual veteran. 10) Acts as a consultant to other team/staff members and to staff members of Community Nursing Home Program. 11) Provide case management to those veterans served by the BRO team throughout the continuum of care. 12) Participate 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. 13) Provide mentorship and education to community stakeholders regarding VA services and Veterans specific care plans. Effectively communicates with internal and external teams. 14) Provide a full range of social work services within commonly accepted standards of social work practice which includes case work, individual, family and group counseling, discharge planning, case management and other services as appropriate. 15) Coordinate treatment and communicates with the care lines to facilitate continuity of care for veterans during times of transition. 16) Participate in committee assignments, as deemed necessary by the STAR-VA/BRO Team Coordinator. (e.g.). 17) Assist patients and their significant others with coping and dealing with the loss and grief experiences in disability, terminal illness and death. 18) Document social work interventions and activities in patient's clinical record utilizing CPRS and ensure appropriate hand off when transitioning patient care. 19) Mentor and guides less experienced staff and may supervise the practice of social work students. 20) Seek consultation from the STAR-VA/BRO Team Coordinator and GEC Supervisor and other program leaders as appropriate. 21) Serve as a partner to CLC social work staff. 22) Participate in quarterly social work meetings and trainings related to social work practice. 23) Other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday to Friday 0730-1630 Telework: Position is eligible for Telework. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

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: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with 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). Grade Determinations: Senior Social Worker, GS-12 (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: (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. (4) Assignments. 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. Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level. Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site; a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center, or a national VHA referral center, such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center, or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity. The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for 9 clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics. The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, ensures the care provided is of the highest quality. The senior social worker provides leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff. They serve on committees, work groups, and task forces at the facility, VISN and national level, or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor, Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services. This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management. This assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation. Preferred Experience: Experience with dementia patients, skilled nursing, and/or rehab preferred. References: FORMER VA HANDBOOK REFERENCE: PART II APPENDIX G39 EFFECTIVE DATE: September 10, 2019 SOCIAL WORKER QUALIFICATION STANDARD GS-0185 Veterans Health Administration 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 Boise VA Medical Center 500 West Fort Street Boise, ID 83702 US
• Name: Yolanda Gallegos
• Phone: (208) 422-1000 X7376
• Email: [email protected]