Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor (Program Coordinator) - Suicide Prevention

About the role

Suicide Prevention Coordinators are clinically trained and dedicated fulltime to Suicide Prevention Program implementation at the VA medical facility and provide outreach and education to the surrounding communities. The position is responsible for facilitating the implementation of suicide prevention program (SPP) using public health approaches at a local level through education, outreach, monitoring, care and coordination of activities related to suicide prevention.

Responsibilities

• Provides clinical and administrative consultation to VA health care leadership, VA medical center-based committees, and all staff regarding suicide prevention.
• Using the established chain of command, reports any barriers to suicide prevention in the VA medical facility, including patterns of non-adherence to requirements or SOPs.
• Tracks and reports on Veterans who have attempted suicide or are at high risk for suicide.
• Responds to referrals from the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) and self-referrals from other sources.
• Ensures that all VA staff members have received discipline-appropriate suicide prevention training (VA S.A.V.E. training or equivalent).
• Collaborates with community organizations and partners to increase awareness of suicide prevention best practices and provides training to individuals who have contact with Veterans.
• Provides subject matter consultation to healthcare providers on available resources for suicidal individuals, as well as expertise and direction in the areas of system design to prevent deaths by suicide within their local VA medical centers.
• Works with health care providers to ensure that monitoring and treatment is intensified for high-risk patients while making sure that those who are at elevated risk receive education and support about approaches to reduce risks.
• Reports to Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP) on Veterans who attempted or died by suicide and sends OSP requested data, which is used to determine characteristics and risks associated with these groups of Veterans.
• Makes sure that providers follow up on missed appointments to ensure patient safety for high-risk patients and initiate problem-solving decisions about possible tensions or difficulties in patients' ongoing care.
• Ensures that medical centers have established a High-Risk for Suicide List (HRSL) of Veterans and a process for establishing Patient Record Flag Category 1 - High Risk for Suicide (HRS-PRFs), which includes:
• Exclusively controlling all HRS-PRFs and limiting their use to patients who meet the criteria for being placed on the facility HRSL.
• Collaborating with facility committees that manage PRFs to incorporate the use of HRS-PRFs into overall facility flag processes.
• Assessing the risk for suicide in individual patients in collaboration with their treating clinicians and ensuring that those patients receive appropriate follow-up care for any missed mental health appointments.
• Establishing a system of reviewing HRS-PRFs at least every 90 days.
• Documenting, when appropriate, the nature of the follow-up care and plans for continuing treatment in the electronic health record (EHR).
• Identifies training needs related to suicide prevention.
• Maintains communication with the facility-designated advisory groups to keep them aware of flag placements and review outcomes.
• Implements facility suicide prevention strategies in accordance with VHA policies and clinical practice guidelines.
• Uses available online tools, training materials, and resources to enhance the care provided to Veterans and raise awareness among community stakeholders.
• Obtains any relevant Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) clearances to allow transmittal of medical center data on suicide attempts and individuals at risk to the VA Midwest Health Care Network (VISN 23) for trending quality assurance purposes; and transmitting the data following cyber security requirements as applicable for this sensitive data.

Requirements

This job is open to current permanent Department of Veteran Affairs employees, current permanent Federal employees of other agencies and all US Citizens.

Area of Consideration - Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order: 1. Current permanent VA employees of the facility. 2. All other VA employees. 3. Current permanent Federal employees of other agencies. 4. All other Applicants All other applicant will be referred in Veterans' Preference Order

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: LPMHCs must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3.j. Education: Hold a master's or doctoral degree in: Clinical Mental Health Counseling; Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling; or a related field, from a program accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Examples of related mental health counseling fields include, but are not limited to Addiction Counseling; Community Counseling; Gerontology Counseling; Marital, Couple, and Family Counseling. CACREP defines the date when graduates are considered to have graduated from a CACREP accredited program. Additional information may be obtained from http://www.cacrep.org/directory/. NOTE: Traditional Rehabilitation counseling programs that are accredited by CACREP do not meet the LPMHC qualification standards as Traditional Rehabilitation counseling differs from Clinical Rehabilitation counseling. Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to LPMHC positions in the GS-0183 series in VHA must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to independently practice as a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, which includes diagnosis and treatment. NOTE: It is VHA policy that a LPMHC who does not yet have a license that allows independent practice must be supervised by a licensed independent practitioner of the same discipline who is a VA staff member and who has access to the electronic health record. 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).