Social Worker - Caregiver Support Program

The Caregiver Support Program (CSP) is one of the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) most rapidly growing service areas, as a result of infrastructure modernization, programming innovation, and expansion of population-served by the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) under the MISSION Act, CSP expansion puts VHA out front of the health care industry as a health care system pioneer-caring for the caregiver.

Qualifications:

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 the CSWE website to verify if that social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a master of social work.
• Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, candidates must demonstrate all of the following KSAs:
• Knowledge of community resources, how to make appropriate referrals to community and other governmental agencies for services, and ability to coordinate services.
• Skill in independently conducting psychosocial assessments and treatment interventions to a wide variety of individuals from various socio-economic, cultural, ethnic, educational and other diversified backgrounds.
• Knowledge of medical and mental health diagnoses, disabilities and treatment procedures (i.e. acute, chronic and traumatic illnesses/injuries, common medications and their effects/side effects, and medical terminology) to formulate a treatment plan.
• Skill in independently implementing different treatment modalities in working with individuals, families, and groups who are experiencing a variety of psychiatric, medical, and social problems to achieve treatment goals.
• Ability to provide consultation services to new social workers, social work graduate students, and other staff about the psychosocial needs of patients and the impact of psychosocial problems on health care and compliance with treatment.
• Licensure: Persons hired or reassigned to social worker positions in the GS-185 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 on the OHRM website

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:

In addition to the basic requirements above, at the GS-11 grade level the following is also required: Appointment to the GS-11 full performance grade level requires completion of a minimum of 1 year of post-MSW degree experience equivalent to the GS-9 grade level in the field of health care or other social work-related settings,(VA or non VA experience) and in the field of health care social work (VA or non-VA experience) and licensure or certification in a state at the independent practice level.

OR

In addition to meeting basic requirements, a doctoral degree in social work from a school of social work may be substituted for the required 1 year of professional social work experience in a clinical setting.

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-11.

Physical Requirements: The applicant must be able to perform primarily light and sedentary duties with occasionally moderate physical demands, exercise patience, and control emotions, with reasonable accommodation if necessary, without endangering the health and safety of the applicant or others.

Responsibilities:

VA Careers - Social Work: https://youtube.com/embed/enRhz_ua_UUTotal Rewards of a Allied Health Professional

Duties include but not limited to:

• Assists in the day-to-day operations of the Caregiver Support Program and ensures compliance and collaboration with local facility and VA Central Office Caregiver Support Program initiatives.
• Collaborates with the other members of the CSP team in the provision of comprehensive health care services to Veterans.
• Develops and facilitates caregiver support groups and educational programs and distributes educational materials provided by VA, local, state and national caregiver organization.
• Participates in direct caregiver and Veterans contacts to assess caregiver stress/burden and the development/application of directed clinical treatment interventions.
• Collaborates with interdisciplinary teams throughout the medical center on caregiver issues.
• Responsible for creating educational tools, developing programs, and implementing training focused on specific caregiver needs/issues and providing in-service training to VAMC employees, Veterans, families and their caregiver.
• Respond to inquires from the Centralized Eligibility and Appeals Team and will be responsible for tracking and processing Functional Assessment consults.
• Assist in coordinating events and programs for the annual National Family Caregivers Month in November.
• Has knowledge, skills, and abilities of practice related to a specific diagnoses or with special populations of Veterans, such as those in the Caregiver Support Program (CSP), who have medical and/or mental health conditions requiring psychosocial intervention.
• Assess Veterans need for personal care services, particularly Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), supervision, protection or instruction, working closely with the Caregiver Support Manager and/or designee(s), to complete Veteran functional assessments and re-assessments.
• Provide referrals or consults and in some cases facilitate direct admission of a Veteran to other VA programs including but not limited to the Community Residential Care Program, Respite Program, Community Health Care Coordination Program, Hospice, Home Based Primary Care, Telehealth, and the Community Nursing Home Program.
• Conducts caregiver and family clinical interventions to facilitate the identification of caregiver stress, psychiatric illness, emotional distress and social needs as treatment issues.
• Serves as a consultant for navigating the complex processes caregivers, Veterans, and families encounter when interacting with government and community agencies.
• Collaborate with the VA Patient Aligned Care Team (PACT), mental health, and geriatric primary care clinicians to provide Veteran and staff education on caregiver issues.

Work Schedule: Full-time- 08:00am-4:30pm-Monday-Friday. Subject to Change based on the Agency needs.
Compressed/Flexible:Not Available
Telework: Ad-Hoc
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Functional Statement #: 53807F
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Salary : $83,252