Senior Social Worker

Summary

Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center is hiring PACT Senior Social Worker.

This position is located in Cheyenne Veterans and may be eligible for Telework Situational (ad hoc) within the local commuting area based upon supervisor and facility approval. The incumbent will be required to travel regularly within the CVAHCS catchment area, requiring operation of a government vehicle.

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Duties

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UU

preferred experience: Medical Social Work and PACT Social work Experience.

The incumbent in this position serves as the PACT Senior Social Worker independently providing clinical psychosocial and case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible Veterans and their family members to meet biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs. Veterans treated come primarily from the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Health Care System (CVAHCS) catchment area. Their health care and psychosocial problems and needs are complex and require a high degree of clinical oversight and creative problem solving. Services are provided in the outpatient setting which can include the outpatient primary care clinics within the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs health System to include the Rural and Mobile clinics.

The incumbent is responsible for the clinical and operational aspects of both rural PACT social work services and outpatient PACT teams, to include ensuring that services provided are consistent with the PACT Model of Care and National Social Work guidelines. The incumbent ensures that PACT social work is fully integrated into the interdisciplinary treatment team and works in collaboration with PACT providers, nurses, and other disciplines to ensure effective communications and teamwork, resulting in excellent Veteran care. Social work services provided by the incumbent include high-quality assessment, case management, case consultation, clinical treatment, advocacy, support, and care coordination, as well as resource referral and management as needed or appropriate to the Veteran's needs. The Patient Aligned Care Team is a comprehensive interdisciplinary team which delivers primary care to Veteran patients in a longitudinal rather than episodic fashion and which has as its focus: prevention; health promotion; coordination; and chronic disease management. The Senior Social Worker actively participates as a member of the interdisciplinary treatment team and works in collaboration with Veterans and family as well as treatment team members.

The incumbent is required to interact not only with the patient but also family, significant others, community agencies, and other staff. The incumbent duties will include managing the daily operation of the program, providing onsite consultation to provide onsite case consultation to other PACT Social Workers, mentor staff to ensure utilization of the PACT model by assessing the social determinants of health and staffing difficult cases with other staff and programs, in addition to assist in developing policies and procedures for program operation and prepare reports and statistics for facility use.

The incumbent ensures that PACT social work is fully integrated into the interdisciplinary treatment team and works in collaboration with PACT providers, nurses, and other disciplines to ensure effective communications and teamwork, resulting in excellent Veteran care. The incumbent promotes the care coordination and care management functions of social work in the PACT setting to improve population health and well-being for Veterans with health conditions that are of mild to moderate complexity, improving Veterans' Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and directly affecting health and cost outcomes. The incumbent assists with the integration of Whole Health into the practice of PACT social work and the PACT interdisciplinary team. Social work services provided by the incumbent include high-quality assessment, case management, clinical treatment, advocacy, support, and care coordination, as well as resource referral and resource management as needed or appropriate to the Veteran's and Veteran Caregiver's needs.

A Valid Driver's License Is Required For This Position.

Work Schedule: Full-time, Monday-Friday 8:00am-4:30pm

Compressed/Flexible: Compressed tour is negotiable

Telework: Telework Situational (ad hoc)

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 509320

Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

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Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• 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 probationary period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• 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).
• Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details.
  
  

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:

Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States ( Non- citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, Paragraph 3g his 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 accreditation standards for a masters of social work.

Licensure. Senior social workers 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. A social worker with advanced practice skills and personal qualifications that meet the standard for the senior social worker will have passed an advanced generalist or clinical Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) examination and be assigned to a position that requires use of the advanced practice skills in order to be considered for the senior social worker grade.

Exception: VHA may waive the licensure or certification requirement for persons who are otherwise qualified, pending completion of state prerequisites for licensure/certification examinations. This exception only applies at the GS-9 grade level. For the GS-11 grade level and above, the candidate must be licensed or certified. At the time of appointment, the supervisor, chief social work or social work executive will provide the unlicensed/uncertified social worker with the written requirements for licensure or certification, including the time by which the license or certification must be obtained and the consequences for not becoming licensed or certified by the deadline.

English Language Proficiency. Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C.

• 7403(f).
  
  

Grade Determination GS-12 Senior Social Worker

Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as Senior Social Workers must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level and must be able to provide supervision for licensure.

Education and Experience. 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.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate 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.
  
  

This position is being hired above the full performance level at GS-12.

References: VA Handbook 5005/120 September 10, 2019

Grandfathering Provision. The following is the standard grandfathering policy for all title 38 hybrid qualification standards. Please carefully review the qualification standard to determine the specific education and/or licensure/certification/registration requirements that apply to this occupation.

• All persons employed by in the VHA in this occupation on the effective date of this qualification standard are considered to have met all qualification requirements for the title, series and grade held, including positive education and licensure or certification that are part of the basic requirements in this standard, but who met the qualifications applicable to the position at the time they were appointed to it, the following provisions apply:
• Such employees in occupation that requires a licensure or certification, may be reassigned, promoted up to including the full performance (journey) level, or changed to lower grade within the occupation, but may be promoted beyond the journey level or placed in supervisory or managerial positions.
• Employees who are appointed on a temporary basis prior to the effective date of the qualification standard may not have their temporary appointment extended or be reappointed, on temporary or permanent basis, until they fully meet the basic requirements of the standard.
• Employees initially grandfathered into this occupation, who subsequently obtain additional education and/or licensure/certification/registration that meet all of the basic requirements of this qualification standard must maintain the required credentials as a condition of employment in the occupation.
• If an employee who was retained in an occupation listed in 38 U.S.C
• 7401(3) under the provision leaves that occupation, the employee losses protected status and must meet the full qualification standard requirements in effect at the time of reentry to the occupation.
  
  

NOTE: If social workers covered under the grandfathering provision of the 1991 Federal law regarding licensure or certification of VHA social workers leave the GS-0185 social worker series, they lose the grandfathering protection. If they choose to return at later date to the GS-0185 series, they must be licensed of certified to the qualify for employment as a social worker.



Physical Requirements: Typically, the employee sits comfortably indoors to do the work. This position requires potentially long periods of continued walking; standing; sitting, bending; carrying of light items such as papers, books, small parts; or driving an automobile; etc. Use of fingers, both hands required, ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously, near vision correctable at 13" to 16", hearing (aid permitted), clear distinctive speech. The incumbent must be able to drive an automobile.

Education


IMPORTANT: A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.



Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Additional information

Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status.

VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority.

Pursuant to VHA Directive 1193.01, VHA health care personnel (HCP) are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 subject to such accommodations as required by law (i.e., medical, religious or pregnancy). VHA HCPs do not include remote workers who only infrequently enter VHA locations. If selected, you will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination before your start date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request a legally required accommodation from this requirement using the reasonable accommodation process.

If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement.

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf for more information.

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