Peer Specialist

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05 / 29 / 2024.

Time-In-Grade Requirement : Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service.

An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement.

In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note : Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

Basic Requirements for Peer Specialist GS-0102-6 / 7 / 8 / 9 : a. Statutory Requirements. Section 405 of Public Law 110-387, as codified in 38 U.

• S.C. 7402(b)(13), established that to be eligible to receive appointment to a Peer Specialist position, a person must : (1) be a veteran who has recovered or is recovering from a mental health condition;
• and (2) be certified by -(a) a not-for-profit entity engaged in peer specialist training as having met such criteria as the Secretary shall establish for a peer specialist position;

OR, (b) a State as having satisfied relevant State requirements for a peer specialist position. b. Length of Experience as a Consumer of Mental Health Recovery Services.

Veterans eligible under 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(13) must have spent a minimum of 1 year in personal recovery from a mental health condition.

Grade Determination : Minimum Qualifications for GS-06 : Experience : At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-5 level in the Federal Service closely related to the work of this position that has given me the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Peer Specialist.

Specialized experience is progressively responsible, post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing support to others in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

Your work has been closely monitored including having work checked in progress and reviewing completed work for accuracy, adequacy, and adherence to instructions or procedures.

OR, Education : Successfully completed six (6) months of graduate education in a degree program directly related to the work of this position.

Transcripts (unofficial) are required at time of application. OR, Successfully completed one (1) year post-bachelors degree internship directly related to the work of this position.

Must be fully documented within your resume) Minimum Qualifications GS-07 : Experience : At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-6 level in the Federal Service closely related to the work of this position that has given me the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Peer Specialist.

Specialized experience is progressively responsible, post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing support to others in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

At this level, routine work has been completed with minimal supervisory oversight and review, however close supervision will have been provided for complex and unusual tasks.

OR, Education : Successfully completed one (1) year of graduate education in a degree program directly related to the work of this position.

Transcripts (unofficial) are required at time of application. Minimum Qualifications GS-08 : Experience : At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level in the Federal Service closely related to the work of this position that has given me the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Peer Specialist.

Specialized experience is progressively responsible, post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing support to others in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

At this level, you have the ability to work with general instructions for the performance of routine duties and detailed instructions and / or training in performance of the non-routine functions and special assignments.

Non-routine / novel work will have been reviewed by spot checking and after completion to evaluate the adequacy of methods, procedures, results, ability to solve new and changing problems, etc.

OR, Education : Successfully completed one and one half (1-1 / 2) years of graduate education in a degree program directly related to the work of this position.

Transcripts (unofficial) are required at time of application. Minimum Qualifications GS-09 : Experience : At least one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-8 level in the Federal Service closely related to the work of this position that has given me the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of a Peer Specialist.

Specialized experience is progressively responsible, post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing support to others in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

At this level, work will have been performed with considerable independence and you are responsible for making recommendations to the interdisciplinary treatment team that can be relied on for soundness of judgment and maturity of insight on problem situations.

OR, Education : Successfully completed two (2) years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree.

Graduate level education and / or degree program must be directly related to the work of this position. Transcripts (unofficial) are required at time of application.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY : In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English.

You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English in order to meet the requirements of this position. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position : Communication Interpersonal Skills Leadership Note : A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Physical Requirements : The work is primarily sedentary.

Typically, the employee sits to do the work. There may be some walking, standing, bending, carrying of light items (such as books, papers), and accessing transportation.

The work may require occasional use of Department of Veterans Affairs approved behavioral management techniques with Veterans who present a danger to self or others.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https : / / www.

opm.gov / policy-data-oversight / classification-qualifications / general-schedule-qualification-standards / .