Senior Social Worker-Weekends-EDRP Approved

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) and eligibility period (one to five years) — is determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after review of the EDRP application. Former EDRP participants are ineligible to apply.

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: You must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f).
• Education: You must possess 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 in Social Work.
• License or Certification: You must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the master's degree level. You may qualify based on the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees in this occupation who meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations (GS-12):

• Experience Requirement: 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. Examples of specialized experience include:
  • Assessing and documenting identified behaviors or symptoms of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and/or intimate partner violence
  • Use of clinical social work skills
  • Maintaining patient privacy and confidentiality per policies, handbooks, or directives
  • Acting as an advocate with appropriate community service providers and agencies when it serves the best interest of the patient and family members/caregivers
  • Independently assessing the psychosocial functioning and needs of patients and their family members, identifying strengths, weaknesses, coping skills, and psychosocial acuity
  Applicable experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills and judgment.
• Licensure Requirement: You 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 you are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice). You must be able to provide supervision for licensure. All states except California use a series of licensure exams administered by the ASWB (https://www.aswb.org).
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs): In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following:
  • 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
  • Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice
  • 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 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

Preferred Experience:

• Case management/discharge planning experience
• Experience conducting psychosocial assessments
• Experience working with an interdisciplinary team
• Experience making referrals for community resources such as nursing facilities, group homes, assisted livings, substance abuse treatment, and hospice services
• Experience providing crisis intervention, goal-directed supportive counseling, and grief/bereavement counseling

Physical Requirements:

• The work is sedentary.
• Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work.
• Work may also require walking/standing in conjunction with