Job opening: Senior Social Worker - Homeless Continuum of Care (HUD-VASH)
Salary: $110 173 - 143 220 per year
Published at: Jul 30 2024
Employment Type: Full-time
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
If you are not a current, permanent VA employee or Federal employee from another agency, you should apply to Job Announcement Number CBST-12491123-24-MJH.
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
The Health Care for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) Program offers a wide array of special programs and initiatives specifically designed to help homeless veterans live in a self sufficient and independent manner. The program places special emphasis on helping the homeless, chronically mentally ill veteran and is administered under the Mental Health Care Line.
Major Duties for the position include (but are not limited to):
Performs case finding functions and outreach, identifying and screening patients for psychosocial needs. Incumbent must possess the knowledge and ability to independently implement treatment modalities, provide counseling or psychotherapy for individuals, families, and groups.
Administers information and analytical systems to evaluate and enhance the quality of service provided to patients. Develops and implements information systems to track service activities including visits, referrals, inpatient days, patient demographics, equipment utilization and patient satisfaction.
Coordinates community-based services, including information and referral for additional services from other VA programs, other government programs and community agency programs.
Identifies high-risk patients and provides case management services. Incumbent provides crisis intervention services, seeking to address the cause as well as the presenting complaint, coordinates family conferences and serves as liaison to family members.
Has knowledge and experience in use of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, and treatment procedures. This includes acute, chronic, and traumatic illnesses/injuries, common medications and their effects/side effects, and medical terminology.
Establishes and maintains effective therapeutic relationships with veterans and their families. Incumbent can independently work with patients and families who are experiencing a variety of psychiatric, medical, and social problems utilizing individual, group and family counseling and therapy skills.
Provides periodic, scheduled formal feedback to HCHV Director on employee performance of GS 11 HUDVASH case managers related to tracking of service activities. Incumbent can resolve informal complaints and grievances brought by clients in their caseload as well as those of their team. Responsible for key project activities related to the planning, development, and implementation of the project component for HUDVASH teams.
Demonstrates the ability to teach and mentor staff and students in the special area of practice and to provide supervision for licensure or specialty certifications.
Work Schedule: 8:00 am - 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday
EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact
[email protected], the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases.
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).
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: Available (ad-hoc)
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 580-00475-F
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
Qualifications
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. In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), no person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English.
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. Note: 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/.
Grade Determinations:
GS-12: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.
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:
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.
Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
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.
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.
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.
Preferred Experience:
Experience working with homeless.
Knowledge of housing and community resources
Experience transporting clients and conducting in home visits.
References: VA Regulations, specifically VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G-39 Social Worker Qualification Standard. This can be found in the local Human Resources Office.
Physical Requirements: Work is sedentary but also demands standing, walking, bending, twisting, and carrying light items.
Work Environment: Work is performed in an office/clinic setting with minimal risks that requires normal safety precautions; the area is adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated. However, the work environment requires someone with the ability to handle several tasks at once in sometimes stressful situations.
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 Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center
2002 Holcombe Boulevard
Houston, TX 77030
US
- Name: Marisa Havins
- Phone: (479) 287-3280
- Email: [email protected]
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