Career Center

Provide Mental Health services to the veteran population enrolled at Hines VA Hospital. Services include provision of high quality case management, clinical treatment, advocacy, and coordination of linkages to other appropriate VA or community service providers / agencies as needed by the client. This is accomplished in collaboration with other members of the MHC Team or other interdisciplinary treatment teams as appropriate. Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met. 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/. 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 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: 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: (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. Preferred Experience: Familiarity with a full range of DSM-5 diagnoses, clinical presentations and the psychiatric continuum of care. Experience providing evidence-based treatments (individual and/or group modalities). Ability to work amongst an interdisciplinary team of providers. References: VHA Handbook 5005 Part II Appendix G39 ["The Senior Social Worker demonstrates the ability to expand clinical knowledge in the profession, provide consultation and guidance to colleagues, role model effective social work practice skills, teach or provide orientation and education seminars to mental health professionals, provide clinical supervision to Social Work Interns, and develop innovations in practice interventions. The incumbent demonstrates advanced knowledge of and mastery of theories and modalities used in the specialized treatment of complex mental illness, specializing in the delivery and training of evidence based therapies such as Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression (CBT-D), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Couples Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), among others. The Senior Social Worker will demonstrate knowledge and administration of specialty mental health services. The incumbent may work within specialties including, but not limited to women's health, mindfulness focused treatment, intimate partner violence, trauma focused care, intensive outpatient care, eating disorders, EAP and other various VA committees. The Senior Social Worker may act as team leader for their respective BHIP team and provide coverage as needed. The delivery of these mental health services may be implemented through telemental health modalities, such as Clinical Video Teleconferencing (CVT) and Telehealth to help increase access to mental health care The Senior Social Worker located at Hines outpatient Mental Health Clinic independently provides clinical psychosocial and case management services at an advanced practice level to eligible Veterans and their family members to meet biological, psychological, social and environmental needs. The Veterans' health care and psychosocial needs are complex and require a high degree of clinical oversight and creative problem solving. The BHIP Social Worker is responsible for providing outpatient based mental health treatment and psychosocial intervention to address a broad range of medical and mental health issues. The incumbent serves Veterans who tend to have serious, frequent and severe crises, lack family or adequate community support networks, frequently fails to comply with instructions and treatments; have significant deficits in coping skills and require continuing psychosocial support. The BHIP Social Worker provides a continuum of care encompassing individual, group, couple and family counseling, demonstrating possession of advanced practice skills and judgment. As a Senior Social Worker, the incumbent has experience that demonstrates possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, and at least two years of experience in an area of specialized social work practice, specifically mental health and substance use disorders. The incumbent possesses specialized knowledge of mental health, evidence based practices, and knowledge related to special populations (PTSD, women veterans, substance use disorders, etc.). The incumbent must be licensed at the advanced practice level. Work Schedule: M-F 0800-1630 Telework: May be suitable for some telework Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Financial Disclosure Report: Not required"]

Return to Search Results