West Palm Beach VA Medical Center is looking for Senior Social Worker (PCMHI). The Primary Care Mental Health Initiative (PCMHI) social worker is assigned to the Mental Health Service. The PCMHI program provides behavioral health consultation, assessment, intervention and triaging within the Primary Care clinics and serves as a primary point of access for patients in need of behavioral healthcare.

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 The Senior Social Worker is a professional assigned to the Mental Health Service in the Primary Care Mental Health Initiative (PCMHI) Clinic. They must use a high level of skill in assessing and treating the complicated psychosocial problems of Veterans referred to the PCMHI clinic. The Senior Social Worker completes thorough psychosocial assessments as part of the consult process when initially seeing Veterans referred to PCMHI. Other social work services include short-term, solution focused counseling with individuals and families who may be in crisis, supportive counseling, and referral for resources and benefits. Additional duties include but not limited to: Independently evaluating the Veteran's situation, including the Veteran's reaction and ability to deal with it, and arrives at a reasoned conclusion based on the psychosocial assessment, using professional judgment and advance practice skills to make psychosocial diagnoses. Assessing at-risk factors and developing a preliminary disposition plan involving the Veteran and family or significant others. Performing insightful assessment of serious and complicated cases involving psychiatric, medical conditions, dementia and other high-risk diagnoses. Makes independent professional decisions and recommendations for agency action. Performs specialized treatment of complex mental illness. Incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of Veterans including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Provides brief evidence based therapy, psychoeducation and case management, through individual, group, and/or family counseling, regarding symptoms including, but not limited to, depression, anxiety and alcohol misuse to patients. Provides consultation to Primary Care providers, other Behavioral Health clinicians and team members in the development of individual treatment plans. Is recognized as the leader in the delivery of social work services to most complex care. Ensures that social work practice is evidence-based and in keeping with recognized social work treatment methods. Learns identified software program for interviewing participants. Contacts patients through written correspondence and telephone calls, and conducts follow up interviews. Creates and maintains forms, surveys, instruments, and materials for proper coordination of the different treatment modalities. Develops community resources and coordinates these resources in the interest of the veteran and his/her family. Develops and implements methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in PCMHI, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes. Must possess and demonstrate ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing with people from varied backgrounds. Must provide oversight and clinical supervision to Social Work Trainees and/or GS-9 Social Workers for Licensure (if State license allows and per SW qualifications standards). Work Schedule: May be Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, with rotating tours of duty as needed. Recruitment/Relocation Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized 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: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement # 40947F; Senior Social Worker Primary Care Mental Health Initiative (PCMHI) 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. 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. 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/. 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: In addition to meeting the basic requirements stated above, the following qualifications criteria must be met in determining the appropriate grade assignment of candidates. GS-12 Senior Social Workercandidates must have the following: Experience/Education: The candidate must have at least two (2) years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which, one (1) 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. While we no longer require essay-style responses to our Knowledge's Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics (KSAOs), you must be able to demonstrate that you possess the (below) competencies which are necessary to perform the work of the position. Please ensure your resume/CV/application contains sufficient information to support the level of experience/education/training; otherwise, we will not be able to award you credit for the experience/education/training you claim. These are the KSA's for this subject position: 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. References: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. Physical Requirements: The physical demands of the work requires use of fingers; moderate walking and standing; near vision correctable at 13" to 16" to Jaeger 1 to 4; far vision correctable in on eye to 20/20 and to 20/40 in the other; hearing aid permitted; clear speech; emotional stability; moderate duty.

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.

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 West Palm Beach VA Medical Center 7305 North Military Trail West Palm Beach, FL 33410 US
• Name: Kathryn Miller
• Phone: 1-407-631-8452
• Email: [email protected]