Senior Social Worker - Outpatient Substance Use Disorders Program

US-Department-of-Veterans-Affair; Waterloo (IA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Waterloo, IA is seeking a Senior Social Worker (GS-12) to provide advanced psychosocial assessment, treatment planning, and coordinated care for veterans and their families.

Candidates must hold an MSW from a CSWE-accredited program, be licensed at the advanced practice level, and demonstrate expertise in psychosocial interventions, differential diagnosis, and program evaluation. Eligible for EDRP funding and federal benefits.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in social work from a CSWE-accredited program.
• Licensed or certified to independently practice social work at the master's level.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.
• Possession of advanced practice licensure and ability to provide supervision for licensure.
• Experience with policy development and implementation within social work.

Responsibilities

• Provide advanced psychosocial assessments and treatment planning.
• Deliver individual, group, and family counseling as part of care for veterans and families.
• Offer specialized consultation to colleagues and students on psychosocial treatment and service delivery.
• Develop and implement methods to measure effectiveness of social work practice and outcomes.
• Contribute to policies, procedures, and practice guidelines within the service area.

Skills

Advanced practice

Differential diagnosis

Outcome evaluation

Consultation & mentoring

Policy development

Education

MSW CSWE-accredited

Licensure

Job description

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (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 appointment. Program Approval, award amount (up to $200,000) and eligibility period (one to five years) are determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after complete review of the EDRP application.

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.
• Loss of Licensure or Certification. Once licensed or certified, social workers must maintain a full, valid, and unrestricted independent license or certification to remain qualified for employment. Loss of licensure or certification will result in removal from the GS-0185 social worker series and may result in termination of employment.
• 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

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.

• Skill in a range of specialized interventions and treatment modalities used in specialty treatment programs or with special patient populations. This include individual, group, and/or family counseling or psychotherapy and advanced level psychosocial and/or case management.
• Ability to incorporate complex multiple causation in differential diagnosis and treatment within approved clinical privileges or scope of practice.
• Knowledge in developing and implementing methods for measuring effectiveness of social work practice and services in the specialty are, utilizing outcome evaluations to improve treatment services and to design system changes.
• 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.
• 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

Mental Health and substance use disorders counseling.

Reference:

https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/

The full performance level of this vacancy is 12.

Physical Requirements:

You will be asked to participate in a pre-employment examination or evaluation as part of the pre-employment process for this position. Questions about physical demands or environmental factors may be addressed at the time of evaluation or examination.