The Geriatric Patient Aligned Care Team (Geri-PACT) is a comprehensive team which delivers primary care to Geriatric Veteran patients in a longitudinal rather than episodic fashion and focuses on prevention, health promotion, coordination, and chronic disease management. The GeriPACT team serves as a specialty primary care team with a focus on high acuity Veterans older than 70 years old and with multiple comorbidities and/or psychosocial needs.

Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU 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 Duties & skills needed to be successful in this position include, but are not limited to: Establishes & maintains effective therapeutic relationships with Veterans in the Geriatric Clinic &/or their families. The incumbent will independently work with Veterans & their families who are experiencing a wide range of complicated medical, psychiatric, emotional, behavioral, financial, legal & psychosocial problems. Effective social work in the Patient Centered Medical Home context often occurs over a series of several visits & may involve the need of the social worker to visit the veteran in their home. Independently completes thorough psychosocial assessments to determine the psychosocial functioning & needs of Veterans &/or their families. The incumbent will utilize this assessment in facilitating the Veterans' maximum use of treatment for attainment of the highest level of independence that is possible & practicable. Participates as a member of the interdisciplinary treatment team through collaboration with Veterans & family as well as interdisciplinary treatment team members in the development & implementation of treatment goals & interventions. Facilitates action for community placements through collaboration with Veterans & their families as well as interdisciplinary treatment team members to ensure that appropriate community placements are completed in a timely manner. Community placements can involve but are not limited to referrals to group & family care homes, assisted living facilities, adult day health care programs, contract nursing homes, Community Living Centers, Medical Foster Homes, residential care homes, inpatient & outpatient hospice services. Serves as a liaison between Veterans &/or their families & VA & community resources in order to ensure thorough delivery of services. Independently implements treatment modalities, provides educational classes, &/or facilitates supportive groups for Veterans & families, including shared medical appointments. The social worker will engage Veterans using various virtual methods, especially the internet for Veterans who choose this modality to communicate with the team. Provides consultation & education to Veterans & their families regarding community resources, VA benefits & specialty programs, & advance directives. This includes referring, accessing, &/or coordinating community-based services, including information & referral for additional services from other VA programs, other government programs, & community programs. Develops & implements methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice & services in specialty areas, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services. The incumbent designs changes based on empirical findings. Provides case management services to Veterans & their families throughout the continuum of care with a specialized knowledge & focus on the geriatric population. The incumbent will appropriately utilize principles of human growth & development over the life span & will assist Veterans in coping with the loss & grief experiences from disability & terminal illness. Provides education & training to staff from other disciplines, students, & volunteers as assigned. Serves as a mentor to other social workers, particularly those at the entry level. Provides clinical supervision for unlicensed social workers & for social work associates. Is viewed by social workers & interdisciplinary team members as a senior clinician with advanced practice skills & expertise. As a field instructor or preceptor, supervises Social Work graduate students & provides a training experience for them in Social Work. Serves on committees, work groups, and task forces at the facility as deemed appropriate by the supervisor and Chief of Social Work Service. May be expected to travel to other clinics within VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System if there are identified short-term or urgent needs for geriatric clinics located outside of RMR VA Medical Center. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm Telework: Ad-hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 554-60068-0

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. English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken & 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. 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 SW Licensure Summary by State. Grandfathering Provision: The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation & meet the criteria). All persons employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series & grade held, including positive education & licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements of the occupation. For employees who do not meet all of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply: Such employees in an occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to & including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions. Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on a temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard. Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation. If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C. § 7401(3) under this provision leaves that occupation, the employee loses protected status & must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation. If social workers covered under the grandfathering provision of the 1991 Federal law regarding licensure or certification of VHA social workers leave the GS- 0185 social work series, they lose the grandfathering protection. If they choose to return at a later date to the GS-0185 series, they must be licensed or certified to qualify for employment as a social worker. 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: 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 Geriatric populations Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is 12. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is 12. Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary. Typically, the employee sits comfortably while working. However, there may be some light exertion required when walking, standing, bending, or climbing stairs, carrying of light items such as papers, books, small objects, or driving an automobile. No special physical demands are required to perform the work.

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 VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System 1700 N Wheeling St Aurora, CO 80045 US
• Name: VISN 19 HR Contact Center
• Phone: 719-227-4600
• Email: [email protected]