Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor

Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor

The Senior Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor serves as an independent, advanced-practice clinician within the Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Rehabilitation Treatment Program (MH RRTP) at the VA Augusta Health Care System. The incumbent provides expert assessment, evidence-based psychotherapy, and recovery-focused rehabilitation services for Veterans with complex mental health and substance use conditions. Functioning as a key member of an interdisciplinary team, the counselor exercises a high level of autonomy and advanced clinical judgment in treatment planning, crisis management, and program development. The role includes responsibility for conducting suicide and violence risk assessments, developing safety plans, and delivering rapid crisis intervention and de-escalation within the residential environment, ensuring coordinated response and continuity of care following critical incidents. The clinician also provides consultation to team members, supports implementation of recovery-oriented practices, and contributes to integrated care, program improvement, and the overall clinical effectiveness of MH RRTP services.

Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Provide individualized care management for a specified caseload of Veterans, ensuring continuity of care and improved health outcomes
• Conduct comprehensive biopsychosocial assessments and diagnostic evaluations for Veterans with complex clinical presentations.
• Provide evidence-based individual and group psychotherapy, including CBT, MI, relapse prevention, and trauma-informed care.
• Develop, implement, and revise individualized treatment and rehabilitation plans for residential programming.
• Deliver structured and flexible therapeutic programming aligned with MH RRTP rehabilitation goals.
• Collaborate with psychiatry, nursing, peer support, and rehabilitation disciplines to ensure integrated clinical care.
• Participate in discharge planning, aftercare coordination, community integration support, and relapse-prevention strategies.
• Conduct and document suicide and violence risk assessments, develop safety plans, and provide crisis intervention in the residential setting.
• Contribute to program development, performance improvement activities, and accreditation-related processes.
• Complete timely and compliant documentation per VA policy and professional practice standards.
• Adherence to VA policies for documentation, ethics, and professional practice.
• Ability to provide developmentally and culturally appropriate care across Veteran age groups.
• Compliance with safety, infection control, privacy, and environmental standards.

Work Schedule: 8:00am-4:30pm, Monday-Friday (including some weekends)

Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized.

Permanent Change of Station (Relocation Assistance): Not Authorized.

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

Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases.

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)

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: Not Available.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 62665F

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.