Senior Social Worker (Women's Trauma Therapist)

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Anchorage (AK); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

EDRP eligibility

Job summary

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Alaska is seeking a Senior Social Worker (GS-12) to provide advanced clinical psychosocial assessments and treatment planning for Veterans and their families.

The role emphasizes leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration, and program development within a major VA facility. The incumbent will oversee complex cases, mentor staff, and ensure adherence to standards of care while contributing to quality improvement and patient-centered outcomes.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in social work from CSWE-accredited program.
• Licensure by a state to practice social work at the master's level.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical psychosocial assessments and diagnoses.
• Develop and implement psychosocial treatment plans.
• Counsel individual, group, and family cases within an interdisciplinary team.
• Coordinate care with colleagues across clinical services.
• Document assessments, plans, progress, and referrals in medical records.
• Offer mentorship and supervision to junior social workers and students.

Skills

Clinical Social Work

Trauma-informed care

Education

Master's in Social Work (CSWE accredited)

Job description

Summary

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.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position - applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

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/
• 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)
• 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 - candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs: 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
• 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 area - 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
• 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
• Reference: For more information on this qualification standard - please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/
• The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-12
• Physical Requirements: There are no physical requirements for this occupation per OCHCO Communications email to VA Handbook 5019 - updated on 4/17/2026.

Duties

• Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Provides clinical psychosocial and Evidence Based Therapies to eligible Veterans and their family members
• Provides specialized treatment for Veterans who have experienced trauma which includes but is not limited to Military Sexual Trauma (MST)
• Work in close collaboration with the Women's Health Coordinator to develop and provide services that are especially helpful for Women Veterans and their health needs
• Serve as the women's health champion for Mental Health - will represent AK VA HCS for national women's health initiatives related to mental health - and be responsible for development - operation - reporting - and management of women's veteran mental health data collection - action plan development - and consultation to advance high quality gender-specific MH services
• Functions Interviews Clients and Conducts Psychosocial Assessments Interviews veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the veteran's situation
• Reviews all data - subjective and objective - and makes a clinical assessment identifying needs and strengths
• Serve Veterans who tend to have frequent and severe crises - lack family or an adequate community support network - be poor at self-monitoring - frequently fail to comply with instructions and treatment - or have significant deficits in coping skills and require continuing professional psychosocial support
• Makes Psychosocial Diagnoses Evaluates the client's situation
• Performs insightful assessment of serious and complicated cases involving psychiatric illness
• Finds a suitable means of treatment to help veterans and/or significant others copes with stressful situations
• Plans Effective Treatment Develops psychosocial treatment plans in coordination with interdisciplinary team members
• Independently concludes the appropriate action
• Makes adjustments to the psychosocial treatment plan and interventions
• Consults with other specialists in planning treatment for veterans and with co-morbidities
• Implements Treatment Provides clinical services to veterans and family members/significant others
• Regularly treats veterans with serious medical and psychiatric problems through counseling or referral
• Receives and completes requests for services from interdisciplinary team members and from other Social Workers
• Also provides consultation to Social Workers and interdisciplinary team members
• Evaluation - Education - Supervision - Coaching - and Mentoring Establishes a continuing relationship with the veteran - evaluating progress towards goals and adjusting the treatment plan as appropriate
• Documents independently in the medical records utilizing paper and/or electronic formats - including psychosocial assessments - diagnostics - treatment - progress notes - follow up - and referral
• Explains veteran's treatment and progress to third parties as appropriate
• Directs/coordinates clinical and psychosocial services and is accountable for the overall effectiveness of the services provided
• Provides orientation and on-going training to Social Workers and interdisciplinary team members
• Serves as a mentor to other Social Workers - particularly those at the entry level
• Offers patient and family/significant other educational services
• Work Schedule: Monday-Friday - 8am-4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: Available Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): May be authorized EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive
• Learn more Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases
• When setting pay - a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of 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 #: 000000 Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized