Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor - HUDVASH

About the role

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP), a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific eligibility requirements per VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) & eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after review of the EDRP application. Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply.

Major Duties

• Provide VA case management services, designed to improve Veteran's health and mental health, enhancing their ability to remain stable, housed and community integrated.
• Responsible for direct linkages between the Veteran and the local housing authority and is responsible for direct referrals for Housing Choice Vouchers as it pertains to the HUD-VASH program.
• Works closely with the VA Medical Center's homeless programs, residential and community care programs and transitional living facilities to ensure that coordination between these entities is facilitated and Veteran's direct care, referral and follow-up is contiguous and based on a continuum of services.
• Independently provides clinical psychosocial and case management services at an advanced practice level for eligible Veterans and their family members in the program.
• Provide supportive treatment through a well-defined program which includes clinical assessment, supportive therapeutic supervision, clinical case management, medical consultation, bio-psychosocial treatment and rehabilitation, supportive group and or milieu therapy, psycho-education services, occasional vocational counseling and rehabilitation, substance abuse counseling, and socialization within an outreach treatment format.
• Makes routine visits, based upon acuity, to each Veteran in residence to assess their environment and provide on-going clinical services. It is a requirement that the HUD-VASH case manager be approved by the local VAMC to drive the government vehicles, following all VA guidelines required to transport Veterans.

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. In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), no person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English.
• Education: Master's or doctoral degree in one of the following: 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/.
• Licensure/Certification. Must hold a full, current, and unrestricted license to independently practice as a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, which includes diagnosis and treatment.

Additional Requirements:

• Experience that Demonstrates the following GS-11 Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Ability to make professional evaluations, decisions, and recommendation for treatment planning and implementation.
  • Advanced knowledge and mastery of the fundamentals of the counseling process which includes defining patient/family problems and maintaining an effective counseling relationship.
  • Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and trainees on the counseling process within various specialty areas, build on the foundation of competence through regular meetings and discussions to explain assignments, review progress of cases and confer about the counseling perspectives and orientation.
  • Ability to provide complex crisis intervention and stabilization to patients who are in psychological distress. Requires independent judgment and skill.
  • Ability to establish goals/treatment through a collaborative process with the patient utilizing advanced counseling skills, including evidenced- based practices, screening, and psychosocial assessment.
  • Ability to use a wide variety of individual, group, or family counseling interventions.
  • Ability to fully utilize the current DSM in making diagnoses and formulation of treatment goals and application of appropriate clinical intervention using professional counseling practices.
  • Ability to develop and facilitate psychotherapy and psycho- education groups that include life skills, family support, and community integration. This may include evidence-based psychotherapy.
• Advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex mental illness. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment of veteran patients, including making psychosocial and psychiatric diagnoses within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice. Ability to determine priority of services needed and provide specialized treatment.
• Advanced and expert skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities for Veterans with complex needs. This includes individual, group, and/or family counseling, or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial, and/or case management interventions used in the treatment of Veterans.
• Ability to coordinate the delivery of specialized psychosocial services and programs. Ability to design system changes based on data.
• Ability to provide subject matter consultation to colleagues and trainees on the psychosocial treatment of patients, rendering professional opinions based on experience, expertise and role modeling effective clinical skills.
• Ability to teach, mentor staff and trainees, and provide supervision for licensure or for specialty certifications.
• Ability to engage in written and oral communication with leadership/staff and community stakeholders regarding policies, procedures, practice guidelines, and issues pertaining to the practice of the profession.