This job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/job/464556800. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.
As a VA professional, your opportunities are endless. Not only is it the largest, most technologically advanced integrated health care system in the Nation, but we also provide many other services to Veterans through the Benefits Administration and National Cemeteries. VA professionals feel good about their careers and their ability to balance work and home life. VA offers generous paid time off and a variety of predictable and flexible scheduling opportunities. For more information on the Department of Veterans Affairs, go to http://www.vacareers.va.gov/
VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.
02/23/2017 to 03/15/2017
$77,926 - $101,307 per year
GS 12
1 vacancy in the following location:
Not required
No
Permanent - Excepted Service Permanent
Full-time - Full Time
12
No
17-H38-ALH-1908869-MHS-BU
464556800
The social worker serves as a Senior Social Worker for the Veterans Intensive PTSD (VIP) program at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. The Senior Social Worker's primary duties involve performing specialized treatment of complex mental illness and/or substance use disorders. Incumbent 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. The Social Worker also serves as the Coordinator for Northeast Program Evaluation Center (NEPEC). This position ensures that nationally directed program evaluation data is collected on Veterans at time of admission, discharge and at four months. The NEPEC Coordinator also serves as primary consultant to provider surveys required for this national office. The NEPEC Coordinator regularly communicates with the VIP Program Manager, MSA who facilitates data entry, and the National NEPEC office.
Duties include, but are not limited to:
-Provides comprehensive mental health and psychosocial assessment and diagnostic services for Veterans with a broad range of mental health issues receiving care within the PTSD (VIP) Team, including services for patients with complex psychopathology and psychosocial needs requiring advanced diagnostic and intervention skills.
-Demonstrates expertise in using and contemporary interview and psychometric assessment methods for mental disorders and/or behavioral health conditions
-Provides evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions as indicated and appropriate for the specific job setting and duties of the social worker, which may include individual, family, and group psychotherapy and psychoeducation.
-Provides consultation to health care providers about assessment findings and treatment plan for patients to ensure that care is coordinated, collaborative, and integrated within the Medical Center.
-Develops, implements, and documents the mental health treatment plan for an assigned caseload of patients, as indicated and appropriate for the specific job setting and duties of the social worker.
-Coordinates community-based services, including information and referral for additional services from other VA programs, other government programs, and community agencies.
-Possesses general knowledge of veterans benefits and services relating to special programs, service connected compensation and non-service connected pension.
-Independently collaborates in identifying and addressing ethical issues that impact patients and staff, including initiating and participating in ethical consultations.
-Complies with all Service Line documentation requirements, including standards for timely completion of CPRS patient contact notes, use of required documentation templates, clinical reminders, treatment plans, and risk assessment protocols.
-Adheres to all Facility and Service Line policies and practices for delivering clinical care, including but not limited to risk assessment and reduction practices for potentially dangerous behavior (suicide and
violence), timeliness of care and access standards, professional conduct requirements, and CPRS documentation conventions.
Work Schedule: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm to include evenings and Saturdays per patient care needs.
Functional Statement Title: Senior Social Worker
Physical Requirements:
Applicants must be physically and mentally able to efficiently perform the essential functions of the position without hazard to themselves or others. Standing, sitting, walking, active listening.
Basic Requirements
U.S. Citizenship: Non-citizens may 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 accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.
Licensure: This position requires you to provide independent clinical social work
assessments unsupervised. In order to work independently you must possess a
license at the independent level. (Required)
Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
GRADE DETERMINATIONS:
In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met to determine grade level of the position:
GS-12: In addition to meeting all basic requirements, at least 2 years of professional social work experience this experience must have been in a clinical setting and must have demonstrated the potential to perform advanced assignments independently. Their experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressively more professional competency. They may have certification or other post-master's degree training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship, or equivalent supervised professional experience. PROOF OF AND COPY OF ADVANCED PRACTICE LICENSE MUST BE PROVIDED.
In addition, the candidate must demonstrate the professional KSAs in below:
1. Advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex physical or 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 for services and provide specialized treatment services.
2. Advanced and expert 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 interventions used in the treatment of veterans with polytraumatic injuries, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, visual impairment, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.
3. Advanced knowledge and expert skill 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. Ability to coordinate the delivery of specialized psychosocial services and programs. Ability to design system changes based on empirical findings.
4. Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients treated in the specialty area, rendering professional opinions based on experience and expertise and role modeling effective social work practice skills. Ability to teach and mentor staff and students in the specialty area of practice and to provide supervision for licensure or for specialty certifications.
5. Ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, demonstrating innovation in the creation of new models of psychosocial assessment or intervention to identify and address specialized clinical needs. Ability to write policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines pertaining to the specialty population or specialty treatment program.
Preferred Characteristics/Experience: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and/or Prolonged
Exposure therapy; additional treatment interventions that address both complex
PTSD and other co-occurring disorders.
References: Applicants must meet the minimum qualifications as stated in VA Handbook 5005/50, Part II; Appendix G39 dated 2/29/2012, Qualification Standard Social Worker GS-185.
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.
It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.
This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.
This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.
Your application, résumé and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.
NOTE: The Professional Standards Board (a peer-review group) will recommend the grade and salary for new appointments.
Please use this checklist
to make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), documentation to support Veterans Preference claims, etc. You will not be contacted for additional information.
Faxing Applications or Supporting Documents: You are encouraged to apply online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application. If you are unable to apply online or unable to upload your supporting documents to your online application, follow the directions located at the following site: Fax Options. The Vacancy ID of the job opportunity announcement is 1917085.
NOTE: If you applied online and your application is complete, do not fax the paper application (1203-FX) as this will overwrite your prior online responses and may result in you being found ineligible.
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
All applicants are encouraged to apply online.
To apply for this position, you must complete the View Occupational Questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below.
The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (EST) on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 to receive consideration.
1. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USAJOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire.
2. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package.
NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date.
To verify your application is complete, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the more information link for this position. The Details page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and any correspondence the agency has sent related to this application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
To return to an incomplete application, log into your USAJOBS account and click Update Application in the vacancy announcement. You must re-select your resume and/or other documents from your USAJOBS account or your application will be incomplete.
After we receive application packages (including all required documents) and the vacancy announcement closes, we will review applications to ensure qualification and eligibility requirements are met. During our review, if your résumé and application package do not support your questionnaire answers, we will adjust your rating accordingly. After the review is complete, a referral certificate(s) is issued and applicants will be notified of their status by email (if provided); otherwise, applicants will receive a notification letter via the U.S. Postal Service. Referred applicants will be notified as such and may be contacted directly by the hiring office for an interview. All referred applicants receive a final notification once a selection decision has been made.
You
may check the status of your application at any time by logging into your USAJOBS
account and clicking on Application Status. For a more detailed update
of your status, click on more information. Information regarding applicant
notification points
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
This job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/job/464556800. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.
Learn more about
OUR MISSION: To fulfill President Lincoln's promise "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's Veterans. How would you like to become a part of a team providing compassionate care to Veterans?