Clarification from the agency

* All US Citizens *NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this position.

Videos

VA Careers - Licensed Clinical Social Worker: https://youtube.com/embed/U_xC25QsN0w

Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

• Ensure efficient daily operation of the IPU, including professional management and complex administrative responsibilities.
• Ensure that treatment programming, staff development, and the environment of care consistently meet or exceed accreditation standards required by the Joint Commission, Office of Inspector General (OIG), and other internal or external governing/accrediting bodies.
• Develop, manage, implement, and evaluate IPU operations, maintaining accountability for program effectiveness and modifying service patterns as needed to best serve Veterans.
• Collaborate with the Mental Health Environment of Care (MHEOC) team and IPU nursing leadership to maintain a healthy environment of care; engage facility services (Bioengineering, Information Technology,
• Patient Safety, Environmental Services, etc.) to correct deficiencies impacting patient and staff safety.
• Ensure staff and Veterans are regularly trained and fully up-to-date on safety protocols and medical centerrequired trainings.
• Develop, maintain, and implement policies and procedures that support program goals, comply with VHA policy, and meet external accreditation requirements.
• Hold direct supervisory responsibility and professional accountability for an interdisciplinary team, including psychiatrists, physician assistants, psychologists, nurse practitioners, social workers, and other professional and non-professional healthcare staff.
• Delegate and coordinate assignments and program resources, providing programmatic direction to multiple disciplines within the IPU.
• Collaborate with Human Resources and facility leadership on clinical staff hiring, performance evaluation, and disciplinary actions.
• Provide biopsychosocial evaluation, assessment, and periodic reassessment of Veterans to determine psychological, social, and vocational needs and recommend appropriate treatment and services, as needed.
• Analyzes organizational and operational problems, develops and implements solutions that result in efficient operations, and use data effectively to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the service.
• Collaborate with various discipline leads to ensure that multi-disciplinary staff have appropriate supervision and practice oversight including Professional Practice Evaluations.
• Provides staff training and development.
• Delegates authority, manages priorities, coordinates work, and follows up on pending issues to complete duties in an accurate and timely fashion.
• Analyzes organizational and operational problems, develops and implements solutions that result in efficient operations, and use data effectively to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the service.
• Conducts psychosocial assessments and treatment interventions to Veterans from various socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, educational, and other diversified backgrounds.
• Incorporates complex multiple causation in differential diagnoses and treatment within approved clinical privileges. Develops treatment plan as appropriate.
• knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and service in the inpatient psychiatric unit, utilizes outcome evaluations to improve treatment services, and to design system changes.

Work Schedule: M-F 8:am-4:30pm.
Recruitment/Relocation Incentives (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized.
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 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: : Ad-Hoc- Maybe available based on services needs.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 615720.
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

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.
• English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and writtenEnglish 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 tohttp://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 seriesin VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work atthe master's degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going tohttp://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:
Supervisory Social Worker, GS-13

• Experience/Education: One year of experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills in a specialty area or in administration demonstrating progressively more professional competency and judgment. Candidate 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.
• Licensure/Certification: Individuals assigned as supervisory social workers must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level, and 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) Ability to independently organize work, set priorities, and meet multiple deadlines.
  (b )Skill in a range of supervisory duties which includes clinical supervision, consultation, negotiation with other departments and quality improvement.
  (c) Ability to ensure provision of clinical social work services by supervised social workers.
  (d) Ability to delegate authority, manage priorities, coordinate work, and follow up on pending issues to complete duties in an accurate and timely fashion.
  (e) Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems, develop and implement solutions that result in efficient operations, and use data effectively to manage workload, quality, performance, and productivity within the service.
  (f)Ability to provide staff training and development.

Preferred Experience: VA Mental Health care experience. Experience with a supervision and program management for inpatient psychiatric care.

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

Physical Requirements: Must be in overall good health, able to sit at a desk working at a computer, engage in light to moderate physical activity including sitting, walking, bending, and carrying supplies. Social Worker must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation, if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the social worker or others.
This position also requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading; and repetitive motions of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

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.

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.