Clarification from the agency

Open to all US Citizens. Veterans' preference is not applicable. NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this occupational series. For more information, refer to Required Documents below.

Videos

Cheyenne VA Health Care System: Start, continue, or finish your career here | Cheyenne VA Health Care System (youtube.com)
VA Careers - Psychologist: https://youtube.com/embed/77qHlLw9Xck
Total Rewards of a VA Career: Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

• Primary Mental Health Services:

  • Provide mental health prevention, assessment, treatment, management, and consultation services.
  • May cover other geriatrics and extended care settings.

• Assessment and Treatment:

  • Screen, assess, diagnose, and treat depressive and anxiety-related disorders, and other Axis I conditions using evidence-based approaches.
  • Address subclinical symptoms of dysphoria, anxiety, adjustment difficulties, and misuse of alcohol/drugs.

• Prevention Services:

  • Offer psychological prevention services to high-risk patients.

• Family Services:

  • Support families of Veterans with dementia to improve overall care and enable the family to sustain the Veteran at home.
  • Train family members to manage behavioral problems without excessive use of psychoactive medication.

• Tele-Mental Health:

  • Provide clinical services via tele-mental health/tele-home technology.

• Screening and Evaluations:

  • Screen for cognitive deficits and determine the need for complete neuropsychological evaluations or dementia assessments.
  • Conduct capacity and competency assessments to evaluate a patient's decision-making abilities and independence.

• Advanced Directives and Consent:

  • Assist patients in understanding advanced directives and consent forms, ensuring they are presented appropriately.

• Interventions:

  • Offer individual and group interventions for grief, loss, and life transitions.
  • Provide psychoeducational and supportive interventions for spouses, family members, and caregivers.
  • Conduct couple and family interventions to relieve relationship difficulties, support dementia caregivers, and enhance Veteran care.

• Transition Support:

  • Aid in transitioning to new living situations and ensure seamless intervention services.

• Behavioral Medicine:

  • Manage pain, disability, sleep issues, weight loss, smoking cessation, and medical compliance through behavioral interventions.

• Communication Facilitation:

  • Enhance communication among medical team members, patients, and families to streamline medical treatment.

• Consultation and Collaboration:

  • Provide consultation to staff, nursing, primary care physicians, and mental health professionals to ensure coordinated and integrated care.
  • Assist in the design, development, and implementation of clinical programs.
  • Help monitor program effectiveness through ongoing evaluations and quality improvement projects.

• Compliance and Documentation:

  • Adhere to all mandatory training requirements.
  • Follow operational policies and procedures.
  • Comply with performance measures, clinical reminders, and CPRS documentation procedures, including entering diagnostic and procedure codes.

• Crisis Intervention:

  • Offer timely crisis intervention, evaluation, assessment, and triage of at-risk Veterans, implementing safety plans as needed.

• Administrative Duties:

  • Maintain a patient panel as a direct care provider.
  • Provide supportive counseling for community resource utilization.
  • Attend administrative and informational meetings regularly.

• Additional Responsibilities:

  • Attend regular Mental Health Staff meetings.
  • Perform other duties as assigned depending on grade level.

Work Schedule: Full-time, Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Compressed/Flexible:Negotiable and determined by program and service needs.
EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact Cheyenne HR Liaisons at VHACHYHRLiaisons@va.gov, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more
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: Situational (Ad-hoc) as determined by agency policy.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 53356-A, 53357-A, 53358-A

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• 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 dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• 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

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: Must have a doctoral degree in psychology from a graduate program in psychology accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS), or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) at the time the program was completed. The specialty area of the degree must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed; OR, have a doctoral degree in any area of psychology and, in addition, successfully completed a re-specialization program meeting both of the following conditions: a) the re-specialization program must be completed in an APA or a CPA accredited doctoral program; and b) the specialty in which you were retrained is consistent with the assignment you are applying for; OR, have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution, with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature.

AND

• Internship: Must have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program that was accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed and that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed; OR, New VHA psychology internship programs that are in the process of applying for APA accreditation are acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement, provided that such programs were sanctioned by the VHA Central Office Program Director for Psychology and the VHA Office of Academic Affiliations at the time that the individual was an intern; OR, VHA facilities that offered full-time, one-year pre-doctoral internships prior to PL 96-151 (pre-1979) are considered to be acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement; OR, Applicants who completed an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. (NOTE: Once board certified, the employee is required to maintain board certification; OR, Applicants who have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature may fulfill this internship requirement by having the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience in a site specifically acceptable to the candidate's doctoral program. If the internship experience is not noted on the applicant's official transcript, the applicant must provide a statement from the doctoral program verifying that the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience was completed in a site acceptable to the doctoral program.
• Licensure: Candidates must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a State, Territory or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia. Exception: Non-licensed applicants who otherwise meet the eligibility requirements may be given a temporary appointment as a "graduate psychologist" at the GS-11 or GS-12 grade under the authority of 38 U.S.C. 7405 (c)(2)(B) for a period not to exceed two years from the date of employment on the condition that such a psychologist provide care only under the supervision of a psychologist who is licensed. Failure to obtain licensure during that period is justification for termination of the temporary appointment.
• English Language Proficiency: Per VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Chapter 3, Section A, Paragraph 3j: No person will be appointed under authority of 38 U.S.C., chapter 73 or 74, to serve in a direct patient-care capacity in VHA who is not proficient in written and spoken English.

GRADE DETERMINATIONS. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

GS-11 Staff Psychologist (Entry Level): None beyond the basic requirements. Psychologists who are not licensed must practice under the close supervision of a licensed psychologist.

GS-12 Staff Psychologist (Developmental Level)

1. Experience. At least 1 year of experience as a professional psychologist equivalent to the next lower grade level (GS-11). Psychologists who are not licensed must practice under the supervision of a licensed psychologist but with less intense supervision than at the GS-11 grade level.
2. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
   • Knowledge of and ability to apply a wide range of professional psychological treatments or assessment methods to a variety of patient populations.
   • Ability to design and implement effective treatment strategies.
   • Ability to incorporate new clinical procedures.
   • Ability to conduct research activities, such as designing and implementing clinical research projects (staff psychologists with specified research job duties).
   • Ability to perform basic research tasks of scholarship and research execution within the context of an established research team, including research participant relations, research documentation, data acquisition, maintenance, and collaboration.

GS-13 Staff Psychologist (Full Performance Level)

1. Experience. At least 2 years of experience as a professional psychologist, with at least one year equivalent to the GS-12 level.
2. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
   • Knowledge of, and ability to apply, professional psychological treatments to the full range of patient populations.
   • Ability to provide professional advice and consultation in areas related to professional psychology and behavioral health.
   • Knowledge of clinical research literature.

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-13. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is in the range of GS-11 to GS-13.

Physical Requirements: Typically, the employee sits comfortably indoors to do the work. This position requires potentially long periods of continued walking; standing; sitting, bending; carrying of light items such as papers, books, small parts; or driving an automobile; etc. Use of fingers, both hands required, ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously, near vision correctable at 13" to 16", hearing (aid permitted), clear distinctive speech.

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.