This position provides clinical case management and intervention support to Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) Program in a shared, team oriented, recovery-based program. The Social Worker independently provides clinical psychosocial treatment and ongoing-case management services at an advanced practice level in the Veteran's home and/or community.

Duties

The primary goal of the HUD-VASH Social Worker is to move Veterans and their families out of chronic homelessness through intensive case management services. The Social Worker must be able to manage a fast pace, high stress environment while maintaining the ability to multi-task and track program deadlines. The Social Worker must also be able to adhere to documentation requirements in several databases and support other HUD-VASH team members in providing clinical case management services, which improve Veteran's physical health and mental health, and enhance their ability to remain steady housed, and integrated in their communities. The Social Worker establishes, implements, and maintains referral, screening, and admission procedures for HUD-VASH participants to meet national standards as well as the requirements of the HUD-VASH Program. The Social Worker understands the establish Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) within the HUD-VASH Program and adheres to these SOPs in all their interactions with Veterans. The Social Worker incorporates screening and admission criteria based on established guidelines for program eligibility, prioritization of subsets of the homeless veteran population, Public Housing Authority (PHA) requirements, and other policies, regulations, or laws pertaining to program administration. The Social Worker is responsible to ensure screening criteria and procedures are maintained and adhered to. Intensive- The Social Worker works with the Veteran to obtain clinical stability. At a minimum, weekly face-to-face home visits are required, but even more frequent interactions may be needed. Stabilization - The Social Worker supports the Veteran in managing their housing responsibilities and their physical, mental health, and substance use disorders. The Social Worker assists the Veteran on addressing those issues that are most likely to lead to housing instability. At least twice a month face to­ face home visits are required, with additional interactions as needed. Maintenance -The Social Worker ensures that needed treatment, support, and mentoring assistance is provided to the Veteran and continues after placement in housing. Face-to-Face home visits need to occur at least once every month. Once the Veteran demonstrates stability, independence, and improved coping skill use and recovery other interactions, such as phone calls, may be included. Preparation for Discharge - The Social Worker provides case management services to the Veteran in their home, community, or at the medical center. During this phase, face-to-face contacts occur at least quarterly and the focus of case management address steps towards graduation from case management, and/or discharge planning. Graduation/Discharge - Veterans who no longer need the case management services of a Social Worker and are no longer required to participate in case management. The Social Worker provides annual contact to the Veteran to ensure they are housed and no longer need to participate in case management. The Social Worker is also responsible to provide groups based on need or specific areas of focus, such as understanding the Public Housing Authority (PHA), the housing search process, tenancy rights and responsibilities, developing interpersonal skills, budgeting, substance abuse and maintaining sobriety, mental health process, and/or harm reduction strategies. The Social Worker provides direct mental health and substance abuse services for Veterans and family members or significant others in support of the Veteran's treatment. The Social Worker provides advice, guidance, emotional support, and other assistance, and provides individual and group counseling services as well as crisis management services needed to maintain the Veteran safely in their residence. The Social Worker provides direct mental health and substance abuse services for Veterans and family members or significant others in support of the Veteran's treatment. The Social Worker provides advice, guidance, emotional support, and other assistance, and provides individual and group counseling services as well as crisis management services needed to maintain the Veteran safely in their residence. The Social Worker adjusts the psychosocial treatment plan and interventions based on changing needs and response to interventions. Meets the needs of customers while supporting the medical center and service missions. Consistently communicates and treats customers (patients, visitors, volunteers, and all medical center staff) in a courteous, tactful, and respectful manner. The Social Worker practices independently, using professional judgment and expertise to make decisions about services and treatment provided to Veterans and their significant others/family members. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 4:00pm Telework: Not Authorized Travel: 50% may be required. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). 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 or Certified. Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must belicensed 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/. 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: 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. The full performance level of this vacancy is 12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is a GS-12. 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 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. Reference: VA Handbook 5005/120, Part II, Appendix G39, Social Worker Qualification Standard, GS-0185, Veterans Health Administration, dated September 10, 2019. Physical Requirements: Must be in overall good health, able to sit at a desk working at a computer, engage in light to moderate physical activity including sitting, walking, bending, and carrying supplies. Social Worker must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation, if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the Social Worker or others. Position requires walking throughout the clinic and/or Medical Center, standing for extended periods of time, and involves sitting at a computer and in counsel and consultation with Veterans and interdisciplinary teams. This position also requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading; and repetitive motions of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

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 Las Vegas VA Medical Center 6900 North Pecos Road North Las Vegas, NV 89086 US
• Name: Lorraine Johnson
• Phone: 918-351-9697
• Email: [email protected]