The incumbent in this position functions as the Senior Social Worker on the Inpatient Mental Health Unit at the Rocky Mountain Regional VAMC, within VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, Department of Veterans Affairs. The incumbent provides programmatic, compliance, and clinical services for the inpatient social work team, involving direct patient services and representation of the Inpatient Mental Health Unit within the VA and the community.

Duties

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 Case manager for Veterans admitted to the Inpatient Mental Health Unit(H2-IPU) and performs complex and independent services including evaluation of needs, connection to resources, disposition & discharge planning, recovery-based treatment planning, advanced safety planning for suicide prevention, facilitating unit recovery programming, gathering collateral data from families, & assisting with regulatory compliance aspects of quality assurance for care provided. Skilled in working on & with an interdisciplinary team, for the purpose of patient care & program development. Compliance includes but is not limited to Joint Commission and Office of Behavioral Health for the inpatient unit. Provides programmatic coordination & clinical leadership to social workers within a complex inpatient setting. Provides clinical psychosocial treatment and case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible veterans and their family members. Able to provide supervision for subordinate staff needing to qualify for licensure. Assists in planning, establishing, & implementing policies & procedures for staff operations; developing individual or group goals & objectives. Responsible for disseminating policies & procedures to the social work team; to aid adherence to all current directives of VHA, current Joint Commission standards, State licensure standards, & VA-OIG standards set by governing bodies. Assists the Acute Programs Coordinator in planning, establishing, & implementing policies & procedures, as needed. Tracks & adheres to all current directives of VHA & meets current Joint Commission as well as Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities standards, state licensure standards, & VA-OIG expectations. Assist with ongoing intensive reviews & appraisals to ensure the accomplishment of objectives & adherence to standards set by governing bodies. Assist with compliance audits. Develop individual, group & program goals & objectives. Manage and control the use of data related to the program regarding day to day functioning for the purpose of process improvement. Plan, organize & directs program operations, clinical practice, & patient activities for the program. Assist in the identification of qualified MSW candidates for vacant positions & ongoing clinical support & consultation to social work staff on the Inpatient Mental Health Unit. Develop policies & procedures for in the Inpatient Mental Health Unit. Collect & report data related to staffing & resource allocation. Trained to cover the Psychiatric Emergency Services clinic in the Rocky Mountain Regional Emergency Department & may be deployed as needed to that area to complete crisis evaluations and admission assessments if H2-IPU capacity allows doing so safely & there is a critical staffing gap in PES. Demonstrates an ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, provide consultation & guidance to colleagues, role model effective social work practice skills, teach or provide orientation to less experienced Social Workers, develop innovations in practice interventions, and provide clinical supervision for social work licensure. Adheres to the NASW Code of Ethics. Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 7:30am-4pm Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): May be authorized for highly qualified candidate Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of existing pay, higher or unique qualifications, or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). 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). Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. 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: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 55304-0 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. Education. Possess 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. Licensure. Possess a full and unrestricted license or certification by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. English Language Proficiency. Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English. Grade Determinations: Senior Social Worker, GS-12 Experience and 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, the candidate 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. Preferred Experience: Experience working on psychiatric inpatient units and assessing for crisis evaluations. 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. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12. Physical Requirements: The incumbent must be able to engage in personal safety skills and therapeutic containment methods from the Prevention and Management of Disruptive Behavior (PMDB) curriculum.

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]