Senior Social Worker

We're Looking for a skilled Senior Social Worker in the Veterans Health Administration based in Dallas, Texas. Read through the job description to see if it matches your current experience.

The Successful Applicant

Basic Requirements: United States Citizenship: Noncitizens 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 masters 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 masters 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 GS0185 series in VHA must be licensed or certified by a state to independently practice social work at the masters degree level. Current state requirements may be found by going to http://vaww.va.gov/OHRM/T38Hybrid/. Preferred Experience: Data collection management and presentation Case Management Mental Health Crisis Intervention Assessments and Evaluations Working in encampments shelters with housing placements Supportive psychotherapeutic therapies Grade Determinations: Senior Social Worker GS12 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 GS11 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 postmasters 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 higherlevel 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 PostTraumatic 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. References: VA Handbook 5005/120 Appendix G39 dated September 10 2019. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS12. Physical Requirements: Light Lifting (20 11 lbs. occasionally 10 lbs. or less frequently) Light Carrying (20 11 lbs. occasionally 10 lbs. or less frequently) Straight Pulling (up to 1 hour) Pushing (1 2 hours) Reaching above shoulder frequent keyboarding (47 hours per day) Sitting (47 Spinal Cord Injury Center hours per day) Walking (up to 3 hours) Standing (up to 3 hours) Repeated bending (up to 1 hour) Ability for rapid mental and muscular coordination simultaneously Correctable near sited and far sited Vision Hearing (aid permitted).

What’s on Offer

The role offers excellent opportunities for top performers to further develop their competencies as a social worker and improving the lives of people.