Senior Social Worker - Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Specialist

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.

Responsibilities

• Independently conducts intake and needs assessment of homeless Veterans and their significant others.
• Provides all necessary assessment functions - e.g interviewing, psychosocial histories to aid in the development of treatment plans.
• Develops comprehensive treatment plans with the Veteran that address the factors that contributed to homelessness - including co-occurring factors within a recovery model framework.
• Works with the Veteran to realize the Veteran's treatment goals and reassesses and revises goals as indicated by the Veteran's engagement in treatment.
• Organizes and conducts individual and group substance abuse treatment - to include early interventions and supportive follow-up to ensure stability through home visits and facility-based contacts.
• Serves as a member of a multidisciplinary homeless program treatment team.
• Develops partnerships with community agencies - especially those serving homeless Veterans - with regular contact and communication.
• Provides liaison services with other programs referring homeless Veterans to HCHV to ensure continuity of care and promote successful transition of Veterans from one program to another.
• Will provide appropriate clinical documentation for all contacts with or about Veterans.
• Be responsible for the collection of statistical data and for reviewing the data to improve performance and delivery of services to homeless Veterans.
• Provides recovery-oriented treatment with the goal of establishing the Veteran independently in the community at the Veteran's highest level of functioning and quality of life.
• Major duties include but are not limited to:

Requirements

• 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, Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C.7403(f).
• Education: Have a master's degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
• Licensure: Persons 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.
• Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/Grade Determinations: In addition to meeting the basic requirements stated above - the following qualifications criteria must be met in determining the appropriate grade assignment of candidates.

Qualifications

• GS-12 Senior Social Worker candidates must have the following:
• Experience/Education: Must have at least two (2) years of experience POST advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which - one (1) 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.
• Advanced License must be submitted with application.
• While we no longer require essay-style responses to our Knowledge's Skills - Abilities - and Other Characteristics (KSAOs) - you must be able to demonstrate that you possess the (below) competencies which are necessary to perform the work of the position.

Skills

• 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.
• 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.
• Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
• 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.
• 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.

Benefits

• 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)
• 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)
• 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

Pay

• Competitive salary and regular salary increases
• 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)

Schedule

• Work Schedule: Monday through Friday - 8:00am to 4:30pm
• Telework: Not available
• Virtual: This is not a virtual position

Travel

• You may be expected to travel up to 75% of the time - Valid Driver's License required during onboarding