Rehabilitation Counselor

Rehabilitation Counselors in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) work with persons who experience functional impairments and disabilities associated with mental health, physical, and/or psychosocial challenges affecting employment, independent living, or personal adjustment. The incumbent will use professional counseling and clinical modalities to promote and support optimal functioning, independence, personal adjustment, adaptation to disability, community reintegration, and recovery.

Responsibilities include:

• Providing vocational and personal adjustment counseling, therapeutic rehabilitation interventions, and case coordination services.
• Consulting with an interdisciplinary treatment team or other clinical staff regarding the Veteran's vocational rehabilitation needs.
• Communicating with community health care professionals to provide useful input to other team members and employers concerning the Veteran.
• Ensuring fidelity to evidence-based and evidence-informed vocational and professional counseling practices.
• Evaluating Veteran's abilities and disabilities; monitoring and recording Veteran's progress to ensure goals and objectives are met.
• Conducting biopsychosocial assessments using medical records, pertinent disability documentation, and observation.
• Incorporating interviews into the assessment with the Veterans and their support systems to generate personal, vocational, and educational histories.
• Synthesizing the information to develop case conceptualization and make clinical recommendations to facilitate treatment planning and provision.
• Following all suicide risk/prevention protocol in accordance with national, regional and local policies.
• Selecting, administering, and interpreting psychometric assessments and vocational instruments to evaluate abilities, transferrable skills, aptitudes, interests, values, preferences, and overall work resilience.
• Customizing vocational exploration activities, including informational interviews and labor market research, to identify self-determined rehabilitation needs and goals.
• Developing patient-centered treatment plans, using Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, and Time-based (SMART) goals.
• Providing job development, job placement, job coaching, job accommodation, adaptation, retention, and education services.
• Conducting a job analysis to identify essential functions and develop reasonable accommodations.
• Promoting employment programs to community employers to establish relationships that will result in providing work opportunities for Veterans with significant behavioral, physical, emotional and/or cognitive impairments.
• Facilitating job placement for Veterans by teaching valuable job search skills, resume/application development, interview skills and basic computer skills.
• Coordinating job search clubs for Veterans to improve in self-directed job search activities.
• Providing professional recommendations and guidance regarding the career development processes and job analysis methodology.
• Utilizing knowledge of the military culture, military transition to civilian occupations, and specific factors and dynamics associated with Veterans, particularly combat Veterans, to advise those who are returning to the community, and community-based work.
• Adhering to the professional rehabilitation standards of the Joint Commission and CARF.
• Serving or chairing task groups or administrative committees on behalf of VHA Voc Rehab Service.
• Participating in professional peer review and individual case review and that of other professional disciplines as appropriate.

Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00 - 4:30 pm

Requirements:

• You must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• You may be required to serve a trial period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).

Qualifications:

Basic Requirements:

• Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States.
• English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English.
• Education. A master's degree in rehabilitation counseling or clinical rehabilitation counseling from a rehabilitation counseling program accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). If the applicant's degree was granted prior to July 1, 2017, the program must be accredited by the Council on Rehabilitation Education.
• OR, A master's degree in counseling or clinical rehabilitation counseling from a college or university accredited by a national or regional accrediting body accredited by Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
• OR, A master's or doctoral degree in a related field of study with course content that emphasized rehabilitation, counseling, disability, therapy, health, employment, wellness, or human development from a college or university accredited by a national or regional accrediting body accredited by CHEA.
• OR, Foreign graduates with a degree acceptable by the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC).
• Certification. Current, full and unrestricted certification as a certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC) from the CRCC to practice vocational rehabilitation counseling.
• Exceptions for Graduate RCs. RC graduates from an approved counseling or rehabilitation counseling program who otherwise meet the basic qualification requirements and the additional degree requirements for CRC certification by the CRCC, but do not possess the required certification, may be appointed, pending certification, as a graduate RC on a full-time temporary appointment not-to-exceed two years under the authority of 38 U.S.C. 7405(a)(1)(D). Graduate RCs may only be appointed at the entry grade level and may not be promoted/converted until certification is obtained. Temporary graduate RC appointments may not be extended beyond two years or converted to a new temporary appointment.

Grade Determinations:

Rehabilitation Counselor, GS-09 Experience - None beyond the basic requirements. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs). In addition to the basic requirements, the candidate must demonstrate the following knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Knowledge of human development and behavior, medical, psychosocial, and vocational aspects of disability and differential influences of environmental and cultural factors to assist persons with disabilities in determining suitable vocational goals.
• Knowledge of history, philosophy and disability rights legislation in the field of rehabilitation to apply in the practice of rehabilitation counseling.
• Ability to synthesize assessment and diagnosis information in conjunction with labor market trends and community/educational resources to develop an effective individual service delivery plan.
• Knowledge of caseload management strategies to maximize an individual's independent functioning from assessment through provision of post-employment services.
• Ability to employ person-centered job development strategies to facilitate successful job placement.
• Knowledge of assessment tools and methods, functional capacity evaluations and specific vocational preparation to evaluate transferrable skills, residual capacities and needs for accommodations and assistive technology.

Rehabilitation Counselor, GS-11 Experience. Completion of one year of professional experience equivalent to the next lower grade level directly related to the position being filled. OR Education. A doctoral degree in rehabilitation counselor education or related field(e.g. rehabilitation psychology) from a CACREP accredited institution or from an institution accredited by a national or regional accrediting body accredited by CHEA. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:

• Knowledge of physical and psychological disabilities, appropriate accommodations and assistive technology principles to mitigate and reduce or eliminate barriers to integrate into the community.
• Knowledge of counseling theory, medical and psychiatric terminology and signs and symptomology of suicidal and homicidal ideations, to communicate appropriately with community health care professionals to provide useful input to other team members and employers in relation to the Veteran and/or his/her family's psychosocial needs and to recommend and help implement suitable treatment plans.
• Ability to use evidence-based and evidence informed vocational and professional counseling practices to include individual placement and support (IPS), customized employment and supported employment models and motivational interviewing skills to promote self-awareness, adjustment to disability, enhanced job retention and successful integration to the community.
• Knowledge of career development processes and job analysis methodology to determine essential functions of jobs, worksite modifications and/or alternative vocational goals given the work history and residual functional capacities of individuals with disabilities.
• Ability to administer and interpret a wide variety of assessment methods including transferrable skills and labor market analyses to evaluate for individual interests, aptitudes and