Social Worker (Intake)

The full-time position of the Behavioral Health Services (BHS) Intake Social Worker (SW) Coordinator requires both clinical and administrative functions. This includes administrative effectiveness and medication of service patterns. They are assigned to work with special patient populations and highly-complex health or mental health problems.

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.
• 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. 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. Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/.
• Physical Requirements. See VA Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Services.
• 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 DETERMINATIONS. In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met when determining the grade of candidates.

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. 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.

Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:

1. 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.
2. Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Part II Appendix G39, Dated September 10, 2019.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12.

Physical Requirements: The physical demands of this position involve primarily walking, sitting, talking, driving, use of the telephone, etc. Light lifting, under 15 pounds, Light carrying, under 15 pounds, Hearing (aid permitted).

Responsibilities:

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

The full-time position of the Behavioral Health Services (BHS) Intake Social Worker (SW) Coordinator requires both clinical and administrative functions.

This includes administrative effectiveness and medication of service patterns. They are assigned to work with special patient populations and highly-complex health or mental health problems requiring expert level psychosocial interventions, including coordination with inpatient mental health hospitals and the VA/DOD liaisons assigned to Military Treatment Facilities to provide a seamless transition to BHS treatment. This position increases mental health access and provides management and oversight of BHS consults submitted for mental health outpatient care and discharge planning for Veterans in inpatient mental health hospitals, including Veteran hospitals. The responsibilities of this position provide oversight of the productivity of the BHS intake team which includes the Patient Movement Nurse, the Intake Social Worker and the Emergency Department Social Worker.

Clinical work includes, but is not limited to, facilitating biopsychosocial assessments, providing solution focused and short term counseling with Veterans and/or their families, Intake SW Coordinator must complete thorough assessments in person and/or utilize telehealth services to determine the treatment needs and environmental issues to make recommendations for services. Case management is provided with members of the outpatient interdisciplinary team in order to meet the agreed upon goals regarding needed services for Veterans and/or their families. Case Management services include but are not limited to providing referrals for homelessness, hospice service, nursing home care, home health services, financial resources, VA benefits and transportation services. This includes coordination of care and discharge planning for Veterans who are inpatient at hospitals in the community and/or inpatient at other Veteran hospitals. Discharge planning services include, but are not limited to providing discharge clinic appointments, submitting consults in CPRS for referrals for transfers from the community to Veteran hospitals, and submitting consults in CPRS for referrals to residential rehabilitation programs. Mandatory participation in the weekly on-call rotation is required. The BHS intake SW Coordinator is responsible for administrative functions such as supporting VA missions/policies, serving on committees/work groups, and maintaining productivity standards.

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm
Telework: Maybe available at the discretion of the supervisor
Functional Statement #: Social Worker (Intake) -00000
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required