VA Eastern Kansas Health Care System is committed to Diversity and Inclusion. Together, we strive to create and maintain a working and learning environment that promotes professional growth and teamwork. We offer an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment where we celebrate our individual differences and unite as a team toward a common goal of providing outstanding service to our Nation's Veterans.

Duties

The Social Services Assistant is an active member of the Housing and Urban Development - VA Supported Housing Program (HUD-VASH) and provides task focused as opposed to psychotherapeutic services to Veterans in the House and Urban Development program under the day to day direction of the HUD-VASH clinicians and under the supervision of the Social Work Supervisor. Major Duties and Responsibilities: - Assist Veterans in working with their case manager or treatment team in determining the steps he/she needs to take in order to achieve housing and community living stabilization. - Assist Veterans with the provision and coordination of concrete services including housing search, financial planning, referrals to community agencies, transportation and supportive contact. - Assist the veteran in obtaining decent and affordable housing of his/her choice in the most integrated, independent, and least intrusive or restrictive environment by taking them out to view housing, either driving them or riding with them on public transportation. - With periodic assistance of higher graded treatment team members, utilizes and teaches problem solving techniques with individuals and groups; discussions will be utilized where Veterans will share common problems in daily living and methods they have employed to manage and cope with these problems. - Support Veterans' healthy housing, leisure, vocational and lifestyle choices and assist them in matching their strengths and preferences to overcoming anxiety surrounding these choices. - Assist Veterans in building social skills in the community that will enhance housing and community stabilization. - Serve as a recovery agent by providing and advocating for any effective services that will aid the Veteran in daily living. - Assist in obtaining services that suit that individual's community stabilization needs by providing names of staff, community resources and groups that may be useful. Inform veterans about community and natural supports and how to use these. Community resources may include but not limited to: social security office, Department of Family and Children services, local YMCA, Library, restaurants, veterans' service organizations, apartment complexes and other types of housing, etc. - In conjunction with the HUD-VASH case manager, the Social Services Assistant will work with the Veterans to develop a treatment plan based on each Veteran's identified strengths, needs, abilities and goals. Treatment Plans will be reviewed and signed by the HUD-VASH case manager. - The SSA will maintain a working knowledge of current trends and developments in the fields of substance abuse, mental health and homelessness by reading books, journals, and other relevant materials. The SSA will continue to share materials with others at continuing education seminars and other venues to be developed to support housing first oriented services; and attend continuing education seminars and other in-service training when offered. - Will document all client interventions in the computerized patient record system using electronic progress notes following JCHAO, CARF and local documentation standards. All notes will be co-signed by the appropriate HUD-VASH case manager or designee. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Not authorized Telework: Not authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Social Services Assistant/PD03490-0 Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 08/12/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-05 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-04. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Assisting customer/patient in conjunction with treatment team to complete steps to achieve housing and community living stabilization; Assisting Veterans in providing and coordination of concrete services including transportation, food, referrals to community agency, and financial planning; Assisting the Veteran in obtaining services by referral and connection to community resources or groups to support community stabilization; and in conjunction with the HUDVASH case manager, working with the Veterans to develop a treatment plan based on Veteran's strengths, needs, abilities and goals. OR, Education: Have successfully completed a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree that (a) included at least 24 semester hours in any combination of subjects directly related to the work of the position; (b) included a major in social behavior, human behavior, or health care or; (c) was supplemented by experience in activities that afforded the opportunity to acquire and demonstrate the skills required by the position. (The supplementary experience may have been gained, for example, in part-time or summer employment, in volunteer social welfare or recreation programs, or in community organizations.). OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond ??. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: CommunicationCustomer ServiceInterpersonal SkillsOrganizational Awareness Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: Traveling throughout the medical center and the community is required, as is performing activities involving sitting, walking, and prolonged standing, bending and carrying such items as books, papers, and files. In carrying out responsibilities it may be necessary for the incumbent to travel into the community where he/she conducts interviews with the Veterans, their families, representatives of community health and welfare agencies and law enforcement agencies. The incumbent must possess current driver's license and drive a government vehicle in carrying out professional duties when deemed necessary. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

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 Eastern Kansas Health Care System 2200 SW Gage Blvd Topeka, KS 66622 US
• Name: Christopher Jackson
• Phone: 785-350-3111 X53152
• Email: [email protected]