Senior Social Worker

Summary

This position provides clinical case management and intervention support to Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supported Housing (HUD-VASH) Program in a shared, team oriented, recovery-based program. The Social Worker independently provides clinical psychosocial treatment and ongoing-case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible Veterans and their family members.

Duties

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The Social Worker independently provides clinical psychosocial treatment and ongoing-case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible Veterans and their family members to meet biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs in obtaining and maintaining subsidized permanent housing. This position spends 80%-100% of the time providing direct-patient care.

Major duties include, but not limited to :

Intensive - Works with the Veteran to obtain clinical stability. At a minimum, weekly face-to-face home visits are required,

Stabilization - Supports the Veteran in managing their housing responsibilities and their physical, mental health, and substance use disorders.

Maintenance - Ensures that needed treatment, support, and mentoring assistance is provided to the Veteran and continues after placement in housing. Face-to-Face home visits need to occur at least once every month.

Preparation for Discharge - Provides case management services to the Veteran in their home, community, or at the medical center. During this phase, face-to-face contacts occur at least quarterly and the focus of case management address steps towards graduation from case management, and / or discharge planning.

Graduation / Discharge - Provides annual contact to the Veteran to ensure they are housed and no longer need to participate in case management.

• Work in a high-stress environment, austere conditions, or an emergency setting.
• Treat / provide direct patient care within the requirements of practice / privileges / licensure
• Participate in CDT training activities and demonstrate readiness to apply professional skills to a range of emergency situations
• Ensure qualifications and required certifications are maintained, including Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), or Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) certification.
• Maintain CDT physical readiness requirements, vaccinations, and safety precautions related to infection control.
• Use short-term solution focused counseling with individuals and families in crisis. Provide education and referral for resources and benefits, case management, and post-intervention follow-up.
• Provides psychosocial treatment and independently assess the psychosocial functioning / needs of patients and their family members.
• Formulate / implement a treatment plan, identifying the patient's problems, strengths, weaknesses, coping skills, and assistance needed, in collaboration with the patient, family, and interdisciplinary treatment team.
• Independently provide a full range of assessment and evaluation services appropriate to the care setting.
• Work with medical center staff on a wide variety of patient care issues, i.e. - patient's decision-making capacity regarding health care.
• Develop treatment plans and create plans of action, ensuring assessment and crisis intervention services are maximized based on circumstances and availability of resources.
• Conduct crisis intervention strategies, including assessment and diagnosis.
• Conduct outreach to vulnerable populations, including disadvantaged areas.
• Identify impacted Veterans, connecting them with VA and community resources.
• Assist with contacting hospitals or other relevant locations to locate medical records or emergency documentation.
• Conduct and participate in outreach activities including field interviews, assessments and referrals for homeless Veterans contacted in the community, shelters, and on the streets.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Work Schedule : Monday -Friday, 7 : 30am - 4 : 00pm May vary depending on deployment and / or assigned facility needs

Travel : Up to 50% may be required in the local community.

Virtual : This is not a virtual position

Functional Statemen t# : 01065F

Permanent Change of Station (PCS) : 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)

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

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 :

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 :

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-12In addition to the basic requirements stated above, the following qualification criteria must be met for each grade. The candidate's qualifications must clearly demonstrate the level of competence required for the grade.

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.

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.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

Assignments :

For all assignments above the full performance level, the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope, complexity (difficulty), and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time.

Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level.

Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to : Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site; a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center, or a national VHA referral center, such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center, or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity.

The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns. Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics.

The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans, ensures equity of access, service, and benefits to this population, ensures the care provided is of the highest quality.

The senior social worker provides leadership, direction, orientation, coaching, in-service training, staff development, and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff.They serve on committees, work groups, and task forces at the facility, VISN and national level, or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor, Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services.

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.

Reference : VA Handbook 5005 / Part II / Appendix G39The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12.

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.

Position requires walking throughout the clinic and / or Medical Center, standing for extended periods of time, and involves sitting at a computer and in counsel and consultation with Veterans and interdisciplinary teams.

Position may require regular travel into the community to meet with community agencies and partners who aid and support to the HUD-VASH Program and its Veterans. Must be able to lift 10 to 15 pounds, drive a GSA Vehicle, climb stairs, and regularly be out in the community in the local weather.

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.

Reference : For more information on this qualification standard, please visit

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 :

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 :

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave : Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

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.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration / Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA / OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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