Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor (Emergency Department)

Job Title

Major duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Provides a full range of psychosocial assessment services and psychiatric diagnoses of mental disorders, particularly for complex or unusually difficult patients in a variety of treatment settings, including tele-mental health.
• Provide 24 Hours/7 Day on site mental health clinical services at all times in the VHA Emergency Departments that have higher utilization, higher risk patients, specialized intensive care units, and research, educational, and clinical missions
• Receive and respond to crisis calls and address all urgent mental health needs presented and interventions implemented
• Consult with Psychiatry regarding potential admissions and/or a request for ED consultation in developing and recommending a plan of care
• Complete Suicide Risk Assessments and Suicide Safety Plans for all veterans identified as needing mental health and urgent care services
• Provides comprehensive, evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions, including individual, family, and group psychotherapy.
• Provides consultation to professional staff within VA Medical Center at Memphis and to community providers, concerning clinical assessment findings and appropriate treatment plans for patients.
• Functions independently at the VA Medical Center at Memphis and assumes complete professional responsibility for his/her clinical assessment findings, patient care decisions, and documentation.
• Interviews veterans and their family members/significant others to establish facts about the veteran's situation, presenting problems and their causes, and the impact of such problems on the veteran's functioning and health as part of a comprehensive psychosocial assessment. Interprets and explains VA's treatment and benefit programs.
• Reviews all data, subjective and objective, and makes a clinical assessment, identifying needs and strengths. Effectively uses professional skill, objectivity, and insight. Uses advanced clinical training, insight, and experience to interpret data and to identify viable treatment options. Assess high risk factors, acuity and need for services.
• Ability to serve veterans who tend to have serious 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, have significant deficits in coping skills and require continuing professional psychological support.
• Can aid with the orientation and learning of less experienced social workers, mental health clinicians and related personnel, including serving as a field instructor for graduate level social work students.
• Can demonstrate knowledge and skill in the use of software applications for drafting documents and data management as well as other computer systems utilized by the VHA.
• Can maintain a level of productivity and quality consistent with the complexity of the assignment and consistent with MH Social Work standards, Joint Commission standards, and facility productivity requirements.
• Understand and accept modified tours of duty as a job requirement and that it meets the needs of the Veteran and the medical center.
• Facilitates liaisons with other medical center programs to effectively coordinate services.
• Complies with national and local performance measures, including timely health care screening and completion of clinical reminders for all patients.
• Provides clinical supervision and instruction for interns.

Work Schedule: 3pm-12am or 12am-8am which includes weekdays/weekends /holidays

Telework: Not Available

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 51104-F

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact View email address on click.appcast.io, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized