To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement, 06 / 13 / 2024.

Time-In-Grade Requirement : Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

For a GS-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. For a GS-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6.

For a GS-8 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7. For a GS-9 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-8.

The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.

If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement.

In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note : Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

You may qualify based on your experience and / or education as described below : BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR PEER SPECIALISTS a.

• Statutory Requirements. Section 405 of Public Law 110-387, as codified in 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(13), established that to be eligible to receive appointment to a Peer Specialist position, a person must : (1) be a veteran who has recovered or is recovering from a mental health condition;
• and(2) be certified by -(a) a not-for-profit entity engaged in peer specialist training as having met such criteria as the Secretary shall establish for a peer specialist position;

or(b) a State as having satisfied relevant State requirements for a peer specialist position.Effective August 1, 2022 : Applicants not already onboard as peer specialists in VHA on August 1, 2022 must have peer specialist certification from one of the following sources to qualify : The peer specialist certification training provided to peer support staff members by one of the VHA OMHSP-contracted peer specialist certification training vendors.

State-issued peer specialist certification that is active and maintained based on the specific state requirements. Certificate from the Depression Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) Peer Support Specialist Course (74-hour course) offered to the general public that was completed prior to August 1, 2022.

Certificate from Recovery Innovations International (RI International or RI Consulting) Certified Peer Support Specialist Training also known as Peer Employment Training (approximately 72-hour course) offered to the general public that was completed prior to August 1, 2022.

Effective August 1, 2022, peer specialist certification training certificates showing a completion date after August 1, 2022 from DBSA's and RI International's peer specialist certification training courses offered to the general public will not be sufficient to meet the VHA peer specialist certification requirement.

Applicants with either of these training certificates will also need to complete the additional steps required to obtain a state-issued peer specialist certification to qualify for employment as a peer specialist in VHA.

b. Length of Experience as a Consumer of Mental Health Recovery Services. Veterans eligible under 38 U.S.C. 7402(b)(13) must have spent a minimum of 1 year in personal recovery from a mental health condition.

IMPORTANT NOTICE : Veteran is defined as a person who served in the active military, naval, air, or space service, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable.

• Restricted to VETERANS - See IMPORTANT NOTICE. Open to current, permanent employees of the VA (i.e. T38, T38 Hybrid, and VCS employees on excepted appts covered by an interchange agreement);
• Federal employees on a Career / Career-Conditional appt.; Former competitive civil service employees eligible for reinstatement;
• Veterans eligible under VEOA, VRA, and 30% DAV; Those eligible under the Employment Program for People with Disabilities;

and those eligible for CTAP / ICTAP. NOTE : You MUST provide copies of your DD-214 and Peer Specialist Certification, with your application package.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY : In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), No person shall serve in direct patient care positions unless they are proficient in basic written and spoken English.

You must be proficient in basic written and spoken English in order to meet the requirements of this position. MINIMUM GRADE LEVEL QUALIFICATIONS GS-6 : In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one (1) year of specialized experience at the next lower graded level, which involved post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing counseling to support peers in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, a psychiatric therapy aide, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

Your work has been closely monitored including having work checked in progress and reviewing completed work for accuracy, adequacy, and adherence to instructions or procedures.

GS-7 : In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one (1) year of specialized experience at the next lower graded level, which involved post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing counseling to support peers in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, a psychiatric therapy aide, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

At this level, routine work has been completed with minimal supervisory oversight and review, however close supervision will have been provided for complex and unusual tasks.

GS-8 : In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one (1) year of specialized experience at the next lower graded level, which involved post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing counseling to support peers in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, a psychiatric therapy aide, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

At this level you have the ability to work with general instructions for the performance of routine duties and detailed instructions and / or training in performance of the non-routine functions and special assignments.

Non-routine / novel work will have been reviewed by spot checking and after completion to evaluate the adequacy of methods, procedures, results, ability to solve new and changing problems, etc.

GS-9 : In addition to the basic requirements, candidates must have at least one (1) year of specialized experience at the next lower graded level, which involved post-personal mental health recovery experience as a mentor providing counseling to support peers in mental health and / or addiction recovery, a recovery advocate directly involved with consumers of mental health services, a psychiatric therapy aide, or equivalent work involving in-person communication to support others in mental health recovery.

At this level work will have been performed with considerable independence and you are responsible for making recommendations to the interdisciplinary treatment team that can be relied on for soundness of judgment and maturity of insight on problem situations. -OR-