Senior Social Worker (Rehab Service)

About the role

The Senior Social Worker position within the VA Palo Alto Health Care System provides advanced-level clinical psychosocial and case management services to Veterans and their families. Working independently under Social Work leadership - the incumbent delivers specialized - high-level clinical practice to address complex biological - psychological - social - and environmental needs.

Responsibilities

• Provides ongoing comprehensive social work services to returning combat service members, Veterans, and their families over the course of time VHA health care services are being provided.
• Responsible for the coordination of services with the following agencies: VHA - Department of Defense (DoD) - Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) - Military Medical Support Office (MMSO) - Veteran Benefits Affairs (VBA) - Vet Centers - as well as wide-ranging community agencies (e.g. - child care agencies - housing facilities - financial institutions - employment agencies - etc.) to ensure the most appropriate comprehensive care.
• Independently assesses the psychosocial functioning and needs of patients and their family members.
• Formulates and implements 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 provides a full range of assessment and evaluation services appropriate to the care setting.
• Develops treatment plans to address the needs of patients.
• Demonstrates leadership in developing and expanding professional intervention strategies.
• Creates plans of action to ensuring assessment and crisis intervention services are maximized based on circumstances and availability of resources.
• Provides social work case management services as well as program coordination and development in the inpatient Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center (PRC) - Comprehensive Rehab Center (CRC) - residential Polytrauma Transitional Rehabilitation Program (PTRP) and Inpatient Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).

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.
• 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 of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the school of social work is fully accredited. A doctoral degree in Social Work may NOT be substituted for the master's degree in Social Work.
• Licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination - unless they are 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) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure.

Grade Determinations

• The candidate's qualifications must clearly demonstrate the level of competence required for the grade.
• Experience/Education - The candidate must have at least two years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be 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 that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment.
• Senior social workers 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 they are 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) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure.
• Demonstrated Knowledge - Skills - and Abilities - In addition to the experience above - candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
  • (a) 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.
  • (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 10 clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns.
• Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as