Job opening: Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor
Salary: $88 621 - 115 213 per year
Published at: Jan 24 2025
Employment Type: Full-time
The Behavioral Health Interdisciplinary Program (BHIP) Team Lead is part of the Hershel "Woody" Williams VAMC Outpatient Mental Health Clinic and serves as the Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor (LPMHC) in BHIP at the medical center and its Community Based Outpatient Clinics. This position serves as the senior clinician on the team and helps to manage consults, admissions and care assignments.
Duties
Duties include but not limited to:
The incumbent leads the multidisciplinary team (comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, nurse practitioners, clerical staff, program support assistants, etc.) and provides administrative, technical and clinical supervision necessary & appropriate for accomplishing the work of the teams utilizing discipline appropriate consultation as needed.
Prepares for and leads interdisciplinary team meetings to review new or complex cases for treatment recommendations.
Receives, reviews and completes BHIP consults utilizing consult toolbox.
Makes team assignments based on clinical needs and preferences of the patient.
Assumes responsibility for ensuring that the BHIP services comply with VHA and Medical Center policy: Federal, State and Local regulations and meets Joint Commission requirements.
Tracks and collects data on utilization of behavioral treatments and develops performance improvement initiatives.
Provides training, orientation and guidance to other health professionals regarding the parameters of BHIP services.
"Whole Health is an approach to health care that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being and live their life to the fullest. The VA is committed to Whole Health and values Veteran and Employee health and wellbeing. As a VA employee, you will practice Whole Health in an environment that supports personalized and proactive care."
Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8am-4:30pm
Compressed/Flexible: No
Telework: Ad-HOC
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 0000
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: No
EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact VHA.ELRSProgramSupport@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): No
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: Hold a master's or doctoral degree in: Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; or a related field, from a program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Examples of related mental health counseling fields include, but are not limited to Addiction Counseling; Community Counseling; Gerontology Counseling; Marital, Couple, and Family Counseling. CACREP defines the date when graduates are considered to have graduated from a CACREP accredited program. Additional information may be obtained from http://www.cacrep.org/directory/. NOTE: Traditional Rehabilitation counseling programs that are accredited by CACREP do not meet the LPMHC qualification standards as Traditional Rehabilitation counseling differs from Clinical Rehabilitation counseling.
Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to LPMHC positions in the GS-0183 series in VHA must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to independently practice as a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, which includes diagnosis and treatment.
English Language Proficiency: LPMHCs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3.j.
Grade Determinations: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.
Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, GS-12 Requirements:
Experience, Education, and Licensure: In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one year of progressively complex LPMHC experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Senior LPMHCs must have five years of post-licensed experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressive professional competency and expertise and be licensed to provide clinical supervision to trainees or unlicensed LPMHCs.
Assignments: Senior LPMHCs provide treatment to patients with complex needs including multiple mental health diagnoses, and numerous psychosocial issues, using independent judgment. LPMHCs at this level provide clinical consultation to less experienced staff which may include coordinating crisis situations. Senior LPMHCs will provide clinical supervision to LPMHC staff and/or LPMHC trainees, and may serve as the subject matter expert for the discipline. Senior LPMHCs develop behavioral health related training curriculum and often conduct trainings for clinical staff. LPMHCs model ethical and professional behaviors and standards to include multicultural awareness. Senior LPMHCs meet routinely with interprofessional team members and leadership to communicate about program and patient issues for in depth problem solving. Senior LPMHCs collaborate with internal and external stakeholders and frequently serve as a liaison. 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.
Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to meeting the KSAs for the GS-11 grade level, the candidate must demonstrate all of the KSAs below:
1.Advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex mental illness. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Ability to determine priority of services needed and provide specialized treatment.
2. Advanced and expert skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities for Veterans with complex needs. This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling, or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial, and/or case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans.
3. Ability to coordinate the delivery of specialized psychosocial services and programs. Ability to design system changes based on data.
4. Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and trainees on the psychosocial treatment of patients, rendering professional opinions based on experience, expertise and role modeling effective clinical skills.
5. Ability to teach, mentor staff and trainees, and provide supervision for licensure or for specialty certifications.
6. Ability to engage in written and oral communication with leadership/staff and community stakeholders regarding policies, procedures, practice guidelines, and issues pertaining to the practice of the profession.
Preferred Experience: Advanced practice skill in Social Work Practice. Team Lead will have at least one year of experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Must be licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level and is able to provide supervision for licensure.
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 11. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12.
Physical Requirements: Majority of work is completed in an office setting. The work of this position of primarily sedentary with occasional walking of short distances. No heavy lifting required. The incumbent must be a mature, flexible, sensible individual capable of working effectively in stressful situations, able to shift priorities based on patient needs.
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 Huntington VA Medical Center
1540 Spring Valley Drive
Huntington, WV 25704
US
- Name: Nikki Watson
- Phone: 410-605-7000
- Email: Nikki.Watson@va.gov
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