Social Worker

Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA is looking to fill (1 vacancy) for a Senior Social Worker within their Community Engagement and Reintegration Service(CERS).

Senior Social Worker is responsible for providing Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) case management to Veterans and families in the HUD-VASH program.

Qualifications:

Basic Requirements

• Citizenship: Citizen of the United States.
• Licensure: Candidate 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.
• Education: Master's degree in social work (MSW) 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 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 master's degree in social work.

Grade Determinations: GS-12 Senior Social Worker Experience: In addition to the basic requirements, applicants 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.

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. 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.

References: VA Handbook 5005, Part II, Appendix G39 - Social Worker Qualification Standard.

Physical Requirements: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job functions.

Employee is required to: walk and climb stairs, handle, finger, grasp and feel objects and equipment; reach with hands and arms; communicate; receive and exchange ideas, information by means of the spoken and written work; be mobile by oneself from place to place quickly and easily; repeat various motions with the wrists, hands and fingers; be able to have visual acuity for (including, but not limited to) administrative and clerical tasks.

Responsibilities:

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

• Provides case management services to a special patient population that demonstrates highly complex psychosocial, health or mental health problems.
• Provides crisis intervention as needed.
• Knowledge and experience in the use of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities, and treatment procedures, including acute, chronic, and traumatic illnesses and injuries, common medications and their effects, side effects, and medical terminology.
• Independently provides consultation services to other VA staff regarding the psychosocial needs of homeless Veterans and the impact of psychosocial problems on health care and adherence to treatment plans.
• General knowledge of Veterans' benefits and services relating to special programs, service-connected compensation, and non-service-connected pension.
• Facilitates referrals based upon Veterans' needs and eligibility.
• Fulfill ethical responsibilities to Veterans, colleagues, and VA in accordance with relevant discipline Code of Ethics, VHA Code of Ethics, and local Ethics policies, which includes but is not limited to compliance with all laws and regulations related to confidentiality and release of information, and protecting Veterans' personal identifying information.
• Documents in the patient's medical record in accordance with medical center policies and the requirements of The Joint Commission (TJC) and other regulatory bodies.
• Comply with criminal conflict of interest laws and Executive Branch Standards of conduct to avoid conflicts of interest while serving as a Senior social worker for VA's Health Care for Homeless Veterans Programs.
• Participate as a team member of the CERS HUD-VASH Department and will adhere to all applicable CERS and HUD-VASH SOPs. The social worker may be required to travel to various areas of the GLA catchment area.
• Responsible for tracking census of veterans within the program and ensure that Veteran data is captured in HOMES.
• Responsible for reviewing, reconciling, and approving invoices and completing technical reports.
• Work as a field instructor with MSW student interns or clinical supervisor for unlicensed VA staff, when requested.
• Operate a Government furnished vehicle to conduct home visits and to provide transportation to Veterans as needed for purposes of obtaining and sustaining housing.

Work Schedule: Monday to Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Telework: May be authorized after the first 90 days of employment.
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 00000
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required