Senior Social Worker (Veterans Justice Outreach/Healthcare for Re-entry Veterans)

Summary

The El Paso VA Healthcare System is an outpatient facility serving medical - surgical - and psychiatric clinics - in addition to community-based outpatient clinics (CBOC). The Justice Outreach Social Worker functions as an ongoing case manager for justice-involved Veterans who are being monitored by treatment courts (and as needed for Veterans released from correctional institutions) by performing duties to facilitate independent community living by coordinating mental health and community care.

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 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
• 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) May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria)
• Please see the Additional Information Section of this announcement for details
• Grade Determinations: 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 - the candidate 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
• Preferred Experience: Experience providing evidence-based therapies Experience with crisis intervention and risk management Clinical Proficiencies in Suicide Risk Assessment Experience working with Veteran and/or Military Population Experience working with Court system Reference can be found at the VA Qualification Repository - VA Qualifications Standards - Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) GS-0185 - Social Worker Qualification Standard - dated 9/10/2019
• The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12
• The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-12
• Physical Requirements: A pre-placement examination will be required to be able to determine if the incumbent is able to safely operate a government vehicle
• The following requirements must be met: distant vision 20/40 in one eye with or without correction - field of vision 70 degrees - ability to distinguish red - green and amber - whispered voice at five feet - or average hearing loss of not greater than 40 dbs
• at 500 - 1000 and 2 -000 Hz.

Duties

• Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional The Justice Outreach Social Worker is a Senior Social Worker whose primary responsibilities are to provide psychosocial assessments - case management services - continuous quality improvement activities - evaluation/consultation - placement services - and referral and linkage to various community agencies for Veterans who are within 6 months of release from correctional institutions and/or are being monitored by the courts - including treatment or problem solving courts
• The Justice Outreach Social Worker is administratively responsible for clinical programming and daily operation of the program - as well as the management of program data
• Justice outreach activity will focus upon justice-involved Veterans in one of three circumstances: 1) at the front end of the justice system (jails or courts) (VJO) - 2) upon prison reentry (HCRV) - or 3) a hybrid model encompassing jail - court and prison outreach (hybrid VJO/HCRV)
• The Senior Social Worker in this position requires an advanced level of knowledge and understanding of the services and benefits available from community - State and Federal agencies
• The Senior Social Worker must have skill in diplomacy - patient advocacy - and negotiation in spanning boundaries of multiple large institutions - including VA - the courts - and/or various departments of corrections
• The position requires knowledge of correctional cultures and their impact upon Veteran - institutional - and community perceptions and behavior - as well as skill in assisting Veterans to adopt behaviors adaptive to community living
• The Justice Outreach Social Worker works in conjunction with the Supervisor/Program Manager of VJO to coordinate administrative - patient - and personnel activities for this program and with VA and non-VA employment providers to assure access and ongoing employment services as needed
• This position requires travel to multiple locations within the El Paso VAHCS catchment area
• The incumbent must possess a current - valid - and unrestricted driver's license and be able to operate a GSA vehicle to conduct visits with Veterans at correctional facilities - attend court proceedings involving Veterans - and participate in outreach activities
• Work Schedule: Fulltime - Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m
• to 4:30 p.m
• Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
• When setting pay - a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of existing pay - higher or unique qualifications - or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade)
• Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave - 13 days of sick leave - 11 paid Federal holidays per year)
• Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual - based on prior work experience or military service experience
• Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment - up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth - adoption - or foster care placement of a child
• Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment - full time employees with a total family income below $144 -000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66
• Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Ad-hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position
• Functional Statement #: Senior Social Worker (Veterans Justice Outreach/Healthcare for Re-entry Veterans) Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized

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The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States, providing care at 1,321 health care facilities, including 172 VA Medical Centers and 1,138 outpatient sites of care of varying complexity (VHA outpatient clinics) to over 9 million Veterans enrolled in the VA health care program. VHA Medical Centers provide a wide range of services including traditional hospital-based services such as surgery, critical care, mental health, orthopedics, pharmacy, radiology and physical therapy. In addition, most of our medical centers offer additional medical and surgical specialty services including audiology & speech pathology, dermatology, dental, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, podiatry, prosthetics, urology, and vision care. Some medical centers also offer advanced services such as organ transplants and plastic surgery.

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