Senior Social Worker - Suicide Prevention Coordinator

Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP) Authorized: This position is eligible for EDRP, a student loan payment reimbursement program. You must meet specific individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit your EDRP application within four months of your start date. Approval, award amount (up to $200,000), and eligibility period (1 to 5 years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

Qualifications:

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/29/2024.

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 this part).
• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency: Candidates must be proficient in spoken and written English to be appointed as authorized by 38 U.S.C. § 7403(f).
• 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 Master of Social Work.
• Licensure/Certification: 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/.

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: In addition to the basic requirements for employment, the following criteria must be met:

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.

• LISW licensure is required in the state of Ohio.

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

(a) 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.

(b) Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.

(c) 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.

(d) 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.

(e) 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.

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

Physical Requirements: Work is mostly sedentary and primarily performed in an office setting. Typical office work involves active listening, reading, observing, and evaluating verbal and nonverbal behavior, writing reports and clinical notes. The position requires the use of office equipment such as computers, keyboards, telephones, fax machines, and photocopy machines. Visual acuity, keen hearing, clear distinctive speech, and manual dexterity are required. The incumbent may occasionally be exposed to patients who are combative secondary to delirium, dementia, or psychiatric disorders. The incumbent must be a mature, flexible, sensible individual capable of working effectively in stressful situations, able to shift priorities based on patient needs. If required as a condition of employment, the incumbent must complete annual Employee Health requirements, such as annual TB screening or testing, employee physicals, etc.

Responsibilities:

The Senior Social Worker duties and responsibilities relate to the case management of Veterans who are identified as "high risk" for suicide or suicide behaviors. The incumbent must be skillful in assessing and treating the complicated psychosocial problems of at-risk Veterans as they transition through care. The incumbent provides these services at an advanced practice level to eligible Veterans to meet biological, psychological, social, and environmental needs.

Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Ability to conduct psychosocial assessments to determine needs of veterans and family members.
• Incumbent evaluates the need for mental health services and makes appropriate referrals for individual, group marital and family treatment services.
• Incumbent will conduct crisis management intervention to suicidal patients including conducting suicide risk assessments, referral to the appropriate level of care for continued mental health treatment, means reduction and the development of crisis management safety plans with patient input.
• Incumbent will act as liaison between VA and community resources, to include marketing and public relation duties as needed.
• Incumbent will assist with coordinating the enhanced care which are required for a ninety-day period or longer for patients on the facility high risk for suicide flag.
• Incumbent will participate in discharge planning with other disciplines and will be responsible for ensuring that discharge plans include the appropriate follow for patients that are flagged high risk for suicide in a manner that is timely and appropriate.
• Incumbent will address advance directives, guardianships, organ donations, and applications for home care and extended care services in accordance with the standards of their work area.
• Keeps supervisor apprised of problems and recommended solutions to problems encountered in the incumbent's area of responsibility.
• Maintains a level of productivity and quality consistent with facility and Social Work standards and the complexity of the assignment.
• Participates in interdisciplinary team meetings, appropriate facility meetings, and Social Work meetings. Shares knowledge and experiences gained from own clinical practice and education relevant to the field of Social work.

Work schedule: Full time, Monday-Friday, 9:00 am- 5:30 pm, rotational as needed
Telework: Ad Hoc
Remote: This is not a virtual position
EDRP Eligible: Authorized Contact visn10hredrpslrp@va.gov, the EDRP coordinator, for questions/assistance. Learn more: Education support | VA Careers
Functional Statement Title: Senior Social Worker - Suicide Prevention Coordinator
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized