Social Worker (Program Coordinator) - Suicide Prevention

About the role

Suicide Prevention Coordinators are clinically trained and dedicated fulltime to Suicide Prevention Program implementation at the VA medical facility and provide outreach and education to the surrounding communities. The position is responsible for facilitating the implementation of suicide prevention program (SPP) using public health approaches at a local level through education, outreach, monitoring, care and coordination of activities related to suicide prevention.

Responsibilities

• Provides clinical and administrative consultation to VA health care leadership, VA medical center-based committees, and all staff regarding suicide prevention.
• Using the established chain of command, reports any barriers to suicide prevention in the VA medical facility, including patterns of non-adherence to requirements or SOPs.
• Tracks and reports on Veterans who have attempted suicide or are at high risk for suicide.
• Responds to referrals from the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) and self-referrals from other sources.
• Ensures that all VA staff members have received discipline-appropriate suicide prevention training (VA S.A.V.E. training or equivalent).
• Collaborates with community organizations and partners to increase awareness of suicide prevention best practices and provides training to individuals who have contact with Veterans.
• Provides subject matter consultation to healthcare providers on available resources for suicidal individuals, as well as expertise and direction in the areas of system design to prevent deaths by suicide within their local VA medical centers.
• Works with health care providers to ensure that monitoring and treatment is intensified for high-risk patients while making sure that those who are at elevated risk receive education and support about approaches to reduce risks.
• Reports to Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP) on Veterans who attempted or died by suicide and sends OSP requested data, which is used to determine characteristics and risks associated with these groups of Veterans.
• Makes sure that providers follow up on missed appointments to ensure patient safety for high-risk patients and initiate problem-solving decisions about possible tensions or difficulties in patients' ongoing care.
• Ensures that medical centers have established a High-Risk for Suicide List (HRSL) of Veterans and a process for establishing Patient Record Flag Category 1 - High Risk for Suicide (HRS-PRFs), which includes:
• Exclusively controlling all HRS-PRFs and limiting their use to patients who meet the criteria for being placed on the facility HRSL.
• Coordinating with facility committees that manage PRFs to incorporate the use of HRS-PRFs into overall facility flag processes.
• Affairs the risk for suicide in individual patients in collaboration with their treating clinicians and ensures that those patients receive appropriate follow-up care for any missed mental health appointments.
• Establishing a system of reviewing HRS-PRFs at least every 90 days.
• Documenting, when appropriate, the nature of the follow-up care and plans for continuing treatment in the electronic health record (EHR).
• Identifies training needs related to suicide prevention.
• Maintains communication with the facility-designated advisory groups to keep them aware of flag placements and review outcomes.
• Implements facility suicide prevention strategies in accordance with VHA policies and clinical practice guidelines.
• Uses available online tools, training materials, and resources to enhance the care provided to Veterans and raise awareness among community stakeholders.
• Obtains any relevant Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) clearances to allow transmittal of medical center data on suicide attempts and individuals at risk to the VA Midwest Health Care Network (VISN 23) for trending quality assurance purposes; and transmits the data following cyber security requirements as applicable for this sensitive data.

Requirements

This job is open to current permanent Department of Veteran Affairs employees, current permanent Federal employees of other agencies and all US Citizens.

Area of Consideration - Eligible applications will be reviewed and referred in the following order: 1. Current permanent VA employees of the facility. 2. All other VA employees. 3. All other applicants.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.) English Language Proficiency: Social workers must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005, Part II, chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3j, this part. 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). 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. Verification of the degree can be made by going to http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation to verify that the social work degree meets the 4 accreditation standards for a masters of social work. Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-185 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.