The Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (MHRRTP) Senior Social Worker is assigned to the VA Medical Center and provides services to Veterans admitted to the South Texas Veterans Health Care System residential rehabilitation treatment program. The MHRRTP Senior Social Worker provides primarily mental health services, related to substance abuse disorders and dual diagnosis disorders, to Veterans admitted to the STVHCS residential rehabilitation treatment program.

Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Duties May Include but are Not Limited To: The incumbent must employ many types of therapeutic interventions requiring various levels of sophistication and flexibility within the course of a normal workday. Day to day work activity requires the ability to organize and prioritize work. The incumbent is also able to provide psychosocial treatment to a wide variety of individuals from various socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, educational, and other diversified backgrounds; Incumbent supports same day access services provided by the MHRRTP team. Is able to evaluate risk of Veteran's in crisis for inpatient and outpatient Veterans; providing crisis management services, monitoring psychiatric status and stability, and initiate a safety plan as appropriate. Incumbent is able to rapidly assess and develop crisis management plans for admission to residential and dual disorder inpatient programs and detoxification services. In the event of a medical or psychiatric emergency, social worker will assess the veteran's needs, and the appropriate placement will be made in accordance with policy and procedure; Incumbent evaluates potential residents, conducts screenings, intakes, psychosocial assessments, groups, individual and family counseling, referrals, collateral contacts, recommending passes, discharge planning and completes required documentation from admission to discharge; Incumbent conducts groups for Veterans who are pending admission to residential care to support their psychosocial stability. Conducts psychotherapeutic and psychoeducational groups in the residential setting; The incumbent works as a team member on the client's treatment team. The interdisciplinary treatment team is responsible for participating in the assessment, treatment planning, and/or implementation of the Veteran's care; The incumbent has considerable knowledge and skill for independently assessing, intervening and treating the complexities of problems presented; Incumbent works as the case manager of the interdisciplinary treatment team and works to coordinate the Veteran's care while admitted to the program, from admission to discharge. Serves as the Veteran's primary point of contact in the interdisciplinary recovery team; Incumbent provides multiple causation diagnostic evaluations and psychotherapy to Veterans, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Social workers must practice within the bounds of their license or certification. The Social worker will review the progress notes from other providers to accurately determine the strengths and limitations of each Veteran being referred to the MHRRTP. The social worker will work with other disciplines to coordinate the most effective care that can be provided; Incumbent is able to identify behaviors or symptoms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and/or intimate partner violence and use clinical social work skills and knowledge to link Veteran to necessary support and resources; complete required reporting; The incumbent assesses high risk factors, acuity, and the need for services. The incumbent completes the C-SSRS, Comprehensive Suicide Risk Assessment, Suicide Behavior Overdose Report, and Suicide Prevention Safety Plan as per national and local policy. All documentation with use of appropriate template(s) is to be placed in CPRS on all patients with suicidal ideation and on any patient whose record is flagged "High Risk for Suicide."; Incumbent can independently work with patients and families who are experiencing a variety of psychiatric, medical, and social problems. Able to assess the psychosocial functioning and needs of patients and their family/caregiver; identifying the patient's problems, diagnosis, disability, treatment procedures, strengths, weaknesses, coping skills, and assistance needed. Is able to provide individual, group, and family counseling, as well as psycho-education; Incumbent will formulate and implement an appropriate treatment plan in collaboration with the Veteran and Veteran's interdisciplinary treatment team. Able to create treatment plans that include measurable and achievable goals identified by the Veteran. Work with more complex problems is done under close supervision, with guidance from the social work supervisor; Performs other duties as required. Work Schedule: Tuesday - Saturday, 7:30am - 4:00pm Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 000000 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

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/. Physical Requirements: See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services. English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f). 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). 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. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: Moderate lifting, 15-44 pounds; Moderate carrying, 15-44 pounds; Reaching above shoulder; Use of fingers; Both hands required; Walking (8 hours); Standing (8 hours); Kneeling (1 hours); Repeated bending (4 hours); Both legs required; Near vision correctable at 13" to 16" to Jaeger 1 to 4; Specific visual requirement (DVA correctable to 20/40); Both eyes required; Ability to distinguish basic colors; Hearing (aid may be permitted); Emotional/Mental Stability; Cognitive Stability; Ability to perform privileges; Independently able to perform physical exams as appropriate.

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/.

Note: If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application.

Contacts

• Address Audie L Murphy Memorial Veterans Hospital 7400 Merton Minter Boulevard San Antonio, TX 78229 US
• Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
• Email: [email protected]