Senior Social Worker - Geriatric Evaluation/Patient Aligned Care Team & Adult Day Health Care

Summary

The Senior Social Worker coordinates the Contracted Adult Day Health Care (CADHC) program and serves as the Social Worker for the Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) and Geriatric Patient Aligned Care Team (GeriPACT) clinics at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) - Long Beach Health Care System (LBHCS). NOTE: The 2-page Resume requirement does not apply to this occupational series. For more information - refer to Required Documents below.

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

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
• 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 the CSWE website to verify that the Social Work degree meets the accreditation standards for a Master's of Social Work
• 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
• License documentation must be submitted with application
• English Language Proficiency
• Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C.
• 7403(f)
• May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria)
• Grade Determinations: Senior Social Worker - GS-12 Experience/Education
• The candidate must have at least two years of experience post advanced practice clinical licensure and should be in a specialized area of social work practice of which - one 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
• 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
• Demonstrated Knowledge - Skills - and Abilities
• In addition to the experience above - candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: 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
• 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
• Assignments: For all assignments above the full performance level - the higher-level duties must consist of significant scope - complexity (difficulty) - and variety and be performed by the incumbent at least 25% of the time
• Senior social workers are licensed or certified to independently practice social work at an advanced level
• Senior social workers typically practice in a major program area such as but not limited to: Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center or Polytrauma Network Site
• a Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Center - or a national VHA referral center - such as a national Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or a national Transplant Center - or other program areas of equivalent scope and complexity
• The senior social worker may be assigned administrative responsibility for clinical program development and is accountable for clinical program effectiveness and modification of service patterns
• Assignments include clinical settings where they have limited access to onsite supervision such as CBOCs or satellite outpatient clinics
• The senior social worker collaborates with the other members of the treatment team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans - ensures equity of access - service - and benefits to this population - ensures the care provided is of the highest quality
• The senior social worker provides leadership - direction - orientation - coaching - in-service training - staff development - and continuing education programs for assigned social work staff
• They serve on committees - work groups - and task forces at the facility - VISN and national level - or in the community as deemed appropriate by the supervisor - Social Work Executive or Chief of Social Work Services
• This assignment is to be relatively few in number based on the size of the facility/service and applying sound position management
• This assignment must represent substantial additional responsibility over and above that required at the full performance grade level and cannot be used as the full performance level of this occupation
• Preferred Experience: Experience with Geriatric Patients - Caregivers - and Dementia
• Preferred for the applicant to have a CA LCSW license
• Reference: For more information on this qualification standard - please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/
• The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12
• Physical Requirements: Must be in overall good health - able to sit at a desk working at a computer - engage in light to moderate physical activity including sitting - walking - bending - and carrying supplies
• Applicants must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands - exercise patience - and control emotions - with - reasonable accommodation - if necessary - without endangering the health and safety of the applicant or others
• The position requires walking throughout the Medical Center and clinics - community - agencies/court rooms - standing for extended periods of time - and involves sitting at a computer and in counsel and consultation with Veterans and interdisciplinary teams
• This position also requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures
• transcribing
• viewing a computer terminal
• extensive reading
• and repetitive motions of the wrists - hands - and/or fingers
• Physical Requirements continued in Additional Information Section below:
  
  

Duties

• VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Job Duties include but are not limited to: Completes comprehensive psychosocial assessments and follow-up assessment of Veterans in CADHC - GEM - and GeriPACT with = collaboration from the Veteran - input from the IDT - and the Veterans family/significant others
• Develops a treatment plan with the Veteran and includes family in the assessment - if desired
• Responsible for overseeing the placement of Veterans into the CADHC program and monitoring the quality of care the Veterans receive
• Verifies the eligibility of Veterans enrolled in the CADHC programs and ensuring adherence to the program directives - policies - and standards
• Ensures that quarterly site visits and clinical review of the enrolled Veterans are completed as required by the program
• Facilitates community placements through collaboration with Veterans - Veteran's family/Caregivers - VA providers and community providers to ensure that appropriate community placements are completed in a timely manner
• Actively implement treatment modalities and interventions - provide educational classes - and/or support groups for Veterans and their families/Caregivers
• Provides consultation to other treatment team and staff members regarding the psychosocial needs of Veterans and/or their families and the impact of the identified psychosocial problems on the Veteran's health care planning and compliance with treatment
• Provides linkage with VHA and community agencies to foster the most suitable degree of independence in the community
• Continually screens and assesses Veterans for suicide by completing a Suicide Screen and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) as indicated
• They will provide interventions in reducing psychosocial stressors to lessen suicide risk and assist with safety planning in support of VHA mission and goal to reduce suicide
• Performs other duties as assigned
• Work Schedule: Monday-Friday
• 7:30am-4:00pm Compressed/Flexible: Not Available Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized 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) 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
• 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) Telework: Ad-hoc
• based on management approval Virtual: This is not a virtual position
• Functional Statement #: 000000 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized