Senior Social Worker

About the role

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP) — a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of appointment. Program approval — award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) — is determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application. Former EDRP participants are ineligible to apply for this incentive. Contact v21ccoeedrp@va.gov (the EDRP Coordinator) for questions or assistance.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements

• Citizenship: Must be a citizen of the United States.
• English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f).
• Education: Requires 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 in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the school is fully accredited. A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree.
• Licensure: People hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. May qualify based on the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard (applicable only to current VHA employees in this occupation who meet the criteria).

Grandfathering Provision

All people employed in VHA in this occupation on the effective date of the qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series, and grade held — including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements. Employees who do not meet all basic requirements but met qualifications at the time of appointment may be reassigned, promoted up to and including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may not be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions. Employees appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed until they fully meet the basic requirements. Employees initially grandfathered who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration meeting all basic requirements must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment. If an employee retained under this provision leaves the occupation, they lose protected status and must meet the full VA qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry.

Senior Social Worker — GS-12 Experience/Education

• The candidate must have at least two years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure in a specialized area of social work practice, of which one year must be equivalent to the GS-11 grade level.
• Senior social workers have experience demonstrating possession of advanced practice skills and judgment and are experts in their specialized area of practice.
• Senior social workers may have certification or other post-masters training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship or equivalent supervised professional experience in a specialty.

Licensure/Certification

• Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level, which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination — unless grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice).
• They must be able to provide supervision for licensure.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

• (a) Skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations — including individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management.
• (b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
• (c) Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty area — utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes.
• (d) Ability to provide specialized consultation to colleagues and students on the psychosocial treatment of patients in the service delivery area, as well as role modeling effective social work practice skills.
• (e) 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.

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 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.

Preferred Experience

• SMI Experience
• Crisis Management
• Crisis Intervention
• Suicidality Management

Responsibilities

The Senior Social Worker functions as a coordinator of care for veterans at high-risk for suicide and/or self-harm and will serve to facilitate and implement suicide prevention strategies at the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System through education, public speaking engagements, community outreach, data monitoring, and facilitation of case management activities. Duties include but are not limited to:

• Assessing the risk of suicide in individual patients in conjunction with the treating clinician and managing the Category I Patient Record Flag for patients at risk for suicide.
• Tracking high-risk veterans and monitoring treatment to ensure that needed services are being received.
• Providing appropriate clinical referrals to Veterans affected by a suicide attempt or bereaved by suicide — including trauma treatment and care for complicated grief.
• Responding to consults from the Veteran Crisis Line within 24 business hours and coordinating follow-up care for those Veterans and families to assure timely access to care and follow-up for patients in crisis.
• Providing training to clinical and non-clinical staff at the VA Medical Center, Primary Care Clinics, Pahrump CBOC, and community agencies regarding suicide risk factors, warning signs, treatment options, medical center memorandum and standard operating procedures, and resources.
• Developing and promoting educational materials about the warning signs for Veteran suicide and how to connect individuals in crisis with assistance and care.
• Working to reduce stigma associated with suicidal behavior and mental health and