Clarification from the agency

Open to current permanent Department of Veteran Affairs employees, current permanent Federal employees of other agencies and all US Citizens.

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Duties of this position are, but not limited to:

• Independently conduct comprehensive psychosocial assessments, aiming to understand the needs of both veterans, their families, and their caregivers.
• Active engagement in the treatment planning process alongside other disciplines is crucial, ensuring the patient and family's psychosocial needs are carefully considered.
• Possesses a comprehensive understanding of diverse human backgrounds, adept counseling skills, and the ability to independently implement treatment plans.
• Independently provide a wide array of counseling services, including individual and family counseling, helping patients and their families cope with the experiences of disability, terminal illness, and death.
• Extend their support beyond direct counseling, offering consultation and education to veterans and families on community resources, advance directives, and VA benefits.
• Act as a consultant to their team members, providing valuable insights and guidance.
• Acts as a liaison between the VA and community resources, shouldering additional responsibilities such as marketing and public relation duties when needed.
• Their commitment to comprehensive care is evident as they provide case management services throughout the continuum of care, ensuring that veterans and their families receive the necessary support at every stage.
• Their holistic approach to care is further exemplified through their efforts in providing wellness and prevention education. Proficiency in utilizing computer software applications for documentation, data management, and tracking is essential, particularly within the framework of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
• Maintains data and statistical reports to comply with JCAHO, VA, and Medical Center policies and procedures. The incumbent meticulously documents social work interventionsand activities in patient clinical records, ensuring a smooth hand-off when transferring patient care.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills are vital for establishing and maintaining effective relationships with patients, families, and a spectrum of communityagencies, communicating fluently in diverse cultural and professional settings.
• In-depth knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, and treatment procedures is indispensable, encompassing acute, chronic, and traumatic conditions, as well as an understanding of common medications and their associated effects and side effects.
• Continuous professional growth and self-evaluation are encouraged, and active participation in professional peer reviews and case conferences is expected.
• May provide clinical supervision to social work students or social workers pursuing advance practice licensure, sharing their knowledge and expertise.
• Additionally, they will provide leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and/or continuing education programs for assigned social work staff.
• Serve on committees, work groups, and/or task forces at the facility, VISN and national level, or in the community as deemed appropriate by the Social Work Supervisor and/or Social Work Executive.
• Provide consultation and education to medical residents on social work practice and VA policy and procedure. Performs other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday thru Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm or 8:00am-4:30pm
EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact VHAVISN23EDRP@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases. When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of 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 #: 000000

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

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. 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.
• Loss of Licensure or Certification. Once licensed or certified, social workers must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted independent license or certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of licensure or certification will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment.
• English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f).

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:

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, the candidate 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 include 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 are, 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: Mental Health and substance use disorders counseling.

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.

Physical Requirements: You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination.

How you will be evaluated

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, resume, C.V., and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect consideration for employment.

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.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order

1. Current permanent VA employees of the facility.
2. All other permanent VA employees.
3. Current permanent Federal employees of other agencies.
4. All other applicants.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.