Staff Psychologist - Trauma Recovery Program (TRP)

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) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Responsibilities

• Assessing, evaluating, and follow-up care of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and comorbid disorders using various evidenced based treatment modalities.
• Implementing Evidence Based Psychotherapy (EBP) as a primary intervention and using Measurement Based Care (MBC) to regularly assess treatment progress and outcomes.
• Performing clinical assessments, differential diagnosis, utilization of MBC, shared decision making for individualized treatment planning, as well as direct delivery of clinical services in individual, group, couples/family, and telehealth formats.
• Providing all services in accordance with relevant policies and VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines, with a strong emphasis on delivering EBPs for depression (ACT-D, CBT-D, IPT-D).
• Participating in the interdisciplinary team with regular collaboration.
• Consulting with peers and supervisors as appropriate.
• Assuming complete professional responsibility for clinical assessment findings, patient care decisions, and documentation.
• Facilitating interdisciplinary treatment plan development, reviews, community meetings, daily individual, group, family therapy/programming as assigned, for TRP patient care services.
• Following TRP related policies and procedures, standard operating procedures compliant with The Joint Commission (TJC), Behavioral Health Standards.
• Participating in TRP team meetings, annual safety committees, practices documentation compliance, and other activities as required.
• Applying advanced professional psychological diagnostic methods and evidence-based intervention strategies to a full range of patient problems in the work setting.
• Providing advice and consultation to professionals representing a variety of disciplines.
• Providing direct clinical services to Veterans and their family members through the outpatient Trauma Recovery Program.
• Performing suicide risk assessments, suicide prevention safety planning, presenting and participating in multidisciplinary treatment team.
• Providing comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments; treatment planning; completion of consults for the service; evidence based individual and/or group psychotherapy; psychoeducation; admission/preadmission screening; and discharge/aftercare planning.
• Providing advanced level trauma/PTSD assessment utilizing a broad range of psychologically based instruments and structured interviews and generating psychological reports based on assessments when indicated.
• Providing education to patients, family members, and significant others.
• Promoting communication/interactions between medical team members, patients, and their families to facilitate the psychological treatment process.

Requirements

The Staff Psychologist is assigned to the Mental Health Service Trauma Recovery Program (TRP) section in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. 7403(f).
• Education: Have a doctoral degree in psychology from a graduate program in psychology accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS), or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) at the time the program was completed. The specialty area of the degree must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. For the purpose of meeting this requirement, the term "specialty area" refers to the specific specialty areas recognized by the accrediting body and not to specific job duties that might require special skills. Currently, APA accredits doctoral programs in the specialty areas of clinical psychology, counseling psychology, school psychology, or combinations of two or more of those areas. PCSAS accredits doctoral programs in psychological clinical science. CPA accredits doctoral programs in clinical psychology, counseling psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and school psychology. There are no job assignments in VHA that require the skills of a school psychologist; therefore, an applicant with a degree in the specialty area of school psychology is not eligible for appointment. Strictly for the purpose of determining eligibility for appointment as a psychologist in VHA, there is no distinction between the specialty areas (with the exception of school psychology) OR Have a doctoral degree in any area of psychology and, in addition, successfully complete a re-specialization program (including documentation of an approved internship completed as part of the re-specialization program) meeting both of the following conditions:(a) The re-specialization program must be completed in an APA or a CPA accredited doctoral program; AND (b)The specialty in which the applicant is retrained must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. OR Have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 & 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution, with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature.
• Internship: Have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program that was accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed and that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed; OR New VHA psychology internship programs that are in the process of applying for APA accreditation are acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement, provided that such programs were sanctioned by the VHA Central Office Program Director for Psychology & the VHA Office of Academic Affiliations at the time that the individual was an intern; OR VHA facilities that offered full-time, one-year pre-doctoral internships prior to PL 96-151 (pre-1979) are considered to be acceptable in fulfillment of the internship requirement; OR Applicants who completed an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. (NOTE: Once board certified, the employee is required to maintain board certification.) OR Applicants who have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 & 1978 from a regionally-accredited institution with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature may fulfill this internship requirement by having the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience in a site specifically acceptable to the candidate's doctoral program. If the internship experience is not noted on the applicant's official transcript, the applicant must provide a statement from the doctoral program verifying that the equivalent of a one-year supervised internship experience was completed in a site acceptable to the doctoral program.
• Licensure. Hold a full, current, & unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States.